PALACHE, SAMUEL

(d. 1616)

Community leader. He was the first person to settle in Amsterdam as a declared Jew, and he obtained authorization for other Jews to settle there. In 1596 he gathered the first minyan in Amsterdam at his home for prayers on the Day of Atonement. He also built the first synagogue in the Netherlands. In 1608 he was appointed ambassador to The Hague by the Moroccan sultan Mulay Zidan, and in 1610 he negotiated an alliance between Morocco and the Netherlands - the first treaty of alliance between Christian and Muslim states. Later he assumed command of a small Moroccan fleet which seized some ships belonging to the King of Spain; he was charged with piracy, but was acquitted.