BARUCH SPINOZA DIES

The famous philosopher Baruch Spinoza (1632 – 1677) was born in Amsterdam on November 24th 1632 and died in Den Haag on February 21th1677. He was a great philosopher, mathematician, political thinker and lens-grinder of the early Enlightenment. Spinoza was a Sephardic Jew, but on July 27th 1656 he was expelled from the Portuguese Jewish community in Amsterdam. Around 1661 he moved from Amsterdam to Rijnsburg. He earned his living by grinding lenses. Later he settled in The Hague in ‘De Buurt’, the larger Jewish area. He rented a house on the Paviljoensgracht that still exists.