The Enigma of David Reuveni: Visionary or Deceiver?

The Year: 1524. The Place: The Jewish Ghetto, Venice. Plausibility: Naivety and excessive innocence.

Even from a distance of 500 years, forming a definitive opinion about David Reuveni is challenging. He was the man who once stirred the Jewish world with his bold and visionary political plan. Some perceived him as an opportunistic adventurer who saw a moment to mislead a desperate Jewish community yearning for salvation. Others viewed him as a type of false messiah, a dangerous impostor, or an eccentric.

Reuveni burst onto the scene one winter day in the Jewish ghetto of Venice, bringing with him a thrilling tale of adventures in exotic lands, a lost Jewish kingdom, and a grand political scheme. He claimed to be an emissary of the tribe of Dan, descendants of the lost Ten Tribes. In a letter sent to the King of Portugal, he wrote, "I was sent to the desert of Khaibar by the command of my brother King Joseph and sixty elders, his advisors, and judges... To my lord the king, there are nearly three hundred thousand good warriors, and he engages in matters of justice and righteousness every Monday and Thursday."

Surprisingly, many doors opened for Reuveni: he met with the Pope and received letters of recommendation to important rulers in Europe. Within months, he was engaging in strategic discussions with the King of Portugal—proposing to enlist a combined Christian-Jewish army to expel the Turks from the Land of Israel.

Reuveni's arrival sparked a frenzy wherever he went. In Italy, he met Rabbi Obadiah Sforno. In Portugal, his visit left such a strong impression that Diogo Pires, the secretary of the royal court of appeals who was a converso, circumcised himself and changed his name to Solomon Molcho.

Reuveni did not stand out as a Torah scholar. One close to him testified, "This man has no dealings with the Talmud, and his manner in his deeds and the form of his prayer and blessing, in the rite and nourishment as per his custom." Even his Hebrew sounded awkward and strange. On the other hand, he displayed a simple fear of Heaven. Before critical meetings, he would fast and pray extensively. He encouraged those around him to adhere to Torah and mitzvot. To the conversos he met, he said: 'Trust in Hashem and do good—for the great and terrible day of Hashem is near'.

Some Jews developed messianic expectations around Reuveni, but he adamantly rejected this notion. When told that Jews in North Africa saw him as a messiah, he denied it: "God forbid. I am neither a scholar nor a Kabbalist, nor a prophet nor the son of a prophet; I am merely a military officer and a son of King Solomon, of the seed of David, son of Jesse."

After raising enormous hopes within the Jewish world, Reuveni's mission ended in bitter disappointment. The King of Portugal reneged on his promises, the King of Germany threw him into prison, and his final days were apparently spent in an Inquisition cell. His personality remains shrouded in mystery – but perhaps the solution to this enigma is within reach.

During Reuveni's time, there was a thriving and independent Jewish community in the city of Cochin in India, which had connections with tribes claiming lineage from the Ten Tribes in the mountains of Afghanistan. The leader of the Cochin community was known as "king," from the Rabbani family. At that time, Portuguese sailors reached Cochin for the first time for the spice trade. It doesn't take much imagination to surmise how the story unfolded: David Reuveni (Rabbani) hears of the suffering of European Jews, about whom he knew nothing, and decides to organize a diplomatic mission on his own to save them.

So who was Reuveni? Not a criminal or a charlatan, certainly not a messiah. Just a Jewish visionary, a bit naive, with a grand plan that might have seemed practical to someone unfamiliar with the precarious status of Jews in Europe and the immense hostility of the Christian rulers towards them. And the Ten Tribes? They still sit somewhere, waiting.