LOPEZ ROSA

LOPEZ ROSA, Marrano family, members of which suffered at the hands of the Inquisition; possibly to be identified with the family of the same name who had a printing establishment in Lisbon in the middle of the 17th century. The following are noteworthy: MOSES (DUARTE) LOPEZ ROSA (second half of 17th century), a native of Beja, Portugal, Marrano physician and poet. In maturity he immigrated, first to Rome and then to Amsterdam, where he openly embraced Judaism. He became "arbiter" of the Academia de los Floridos, founded by the baron de belmonte in 1685. A facile poet, he composed complimentary verses in honor of the English and Portuguese sovereigns and other prominent personalities. He is not to be confused with another DUARTE LOPEZ ROSA of Beja, likewise a physician, reconciled by the Inquisition in 1723. SIMON LOPEZ ROSA (alias Abraham Farrar, "the elder," first half of the 17th century), a Marrano physician, was an early warden of the Beth Jacob community in Amsterdam. In common with some of his contemporaries, he was critical of the authority of the rabbis; and it was in consequence of a dispute in the congregation, occasioned by an episode in which he figured, that the Beth Israel synagogue was established. Appeal was made to R. joel sirkes of Brest Litovsk, who recommended that he should be excommunicated; a similar case, in which his cousin Dr. David Farrar was implicated, led to an appeal to the rabbinate of Salonika and to leone modena in Venice. Lopez Rosa was among the Marranos judaizing in Amsterdam who were denounced to the Lisbon Inquisition in 1617. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: M. Kayserling, Geschichte der Juden in Portugal (1867), 319; Kayserling, Bibl, 44, 95; idem, in: REJ, 44 (1901), 275f.; M.B. Amzalak, Abraham Pharar: notícia biobibliográfica (1927); C. Roth, Life of Menasseh Ben Israel (1933), ch. 7; idem, in: HUCA, 18 (1943/44), 221–4; Brugmans-Frank, 1 (1940), 678. (Cecil Roth)