Portuguese Synagogue board apologizes to Yitzhak Melamed, saying rabbi acted without authority to declare him persona non grata due to his studies of excommunicated philosopher
The Spinoza scholar who was banned from Amsterdam synagogue is now invited to visit it jta.org - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from jta.org Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Spinoza was the famed Jewish philosopher who laid the intellectual foundations of the Enlightenment. He was excommunicated by Amsterdam’s Jews in 1656 for heresy.
Scholar Yitzhak Melamed's request to visit a synagogue was rejected because he 'devoted [his] life to the study of Spinoza’s banned works and the development of his ideas'