By Fire Possessed: Dona Gracia Nasi

By Fire Possessed: Doña Gracia Nasi is the story of an intelligent, wealthy and passionate Jewish woman who moved through royal courts and the elegant lives of the rich during the Renaissance. She was one of the influential women of her day and arguably the most important Jewish woman of the last 500 years. In one of the extraordinary episodes of history, Doña Gracia saved thousands of Sephardic families from the Inquisition and persecution. They were re-settled in the Ottoman Empire where they found acceptance as Jews and tolerance of their way of life. The communities populated by the people rescued by Doña Gracia extended from Salonika and Rhodes in Greece to Istanbul in Turkey and Tiberias in present day Israel.