Note 68 — INTRODUCTION

Jacob Sasportas, who had acted as a “corrector” in Menasseh’s printing-office in Amsterdam, and was afterwards elected Chief Rabbi in London, was a member of the mission (Graetz, vol. x. notes, p. xix). Raguenet states (Histoire d’Oliver Cromwell, p. 290) that two other Rabbis accompanied it, “Rabbi Jacob ben Azahel” and “David ben Eliezer of Prague.” I have not been able to identify these persons, but tentatively I am disposed to think that “Azahel” is a corruption of “Heschel,” and that the person referred to is Rabbi Josua ben Jacob Heschel of Lublin. Menasseh’s elder son lived for some time in Lublin, and it is quite possible that Heschel came to London to lay the case of the persecuted Polish Jews before Cromwell.