Isaac Abravanel: Between Ethnic Memory and National Memory

The article presents a discussion about a portrait of Spanish Jewish literary figure and hero Isaac Abravanel based from an Eastern and Jewish point of view. It tells of Abravanel as a member of the Spanish court during the late 15th century, Abravanel's totemic role, Abravanel myths, and the Jew of the exile. It mentions that nothing better accounts for Abravanel's truly totemic role than the ways his name has been etymologically managed. Abravanel consolidates and justifies aristocratic Sephardic pretensions as a father, master, and as a quasi-divine forebear.