Netherlands. The leadership of the Jewish-Iberian congregation in Amsterdam pronounces the herem (social exclusion from the group—but different from Christian excommunication) expelling the philosopher Baruch Spinoza from the community. Born in Amsterdam in 1632 to Portuguese parents, he converted to Judaism in Hamburg and studied with freethinkers and Jesuits. The “horrible heresies” and “monstrous acts” he is accused of have never been made explicit, and thus remain an unsolved mystery.
