DORMIDO, DAVID ABRAVANEL

(fl. 17th cent)

   One of the founders of the modern English Jewish community. Born in Spain, he was arrested by the Inquisition in 1627 and eventually escaped to Bordeaux. In 1640 he reached Amsterdam. He accompanied Samuel Soeiro, the son of Manasseh ben Israel, to London in 1654, where he petitioned Oliver Cromwell to readmit the Jews to England. When the Jewish community was organized in 1663, he served as its presiding warden.