Aron Mendes Chumaceiro
Dutch rabbi
Aron Mendes Chumaceiro (28 January 1810 in Amsterdam – 18 September 1882 in Amsterdam) was chakam (rabbi) of Curaçao, Dutch West Indies. He received the various rabbinical degrees (that of "morenu" in 1846) at the celebrated bet ha-midrash Ets Haim. In 1848 he was awarded the royal gold medal for the best sermon in the Dutch language. When the Sephardic synagogue of Amsterdam proposed to elect him preacher in the vernacular, it met with strenuous opposition, Portuguese being the only language, except Hebrew, used in the synagogue. When in 1852 Chumaceiro was elected first ab bet din, he succeeded in overcoming the opposition to Dutch, and soon established a reputation as one of the foremost pulpit orators in the Netherlands. In 1852 he edited the first Dutch Jewish weekly, Het Israelietisch Weekblad. In the same year he was elected head of the bet ha-midrash Ets Haim.
Delegated by the parnasim (officials of the synagogue) of his congregation in 1854 to receive the future King Pedro V of Portugal, he conducted the royal visitor and his suite to the bet ha-midrash, where the king, noticing the names of the donors to that institution inscribed on the walls, made the significant remark: "parece-me que estou na minha própria terra de Portugal" (It seems as though I were in my own land of Portugal). When Pedro V ascended the throne in 1856, he removed the civil disabilities of the Jews.
On account of his liberal-conservative views Chumaceiro was strongly opposed by the ultra-Orthodox party, and he therefore accepted in 1855 from King William III the appointment of chief rabbi of the colony of Curaçao.
The public source identifies “Aron Mendes Chumaceiro” as dutch rabbi. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Aron, Mendes and Chumaceiro.
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