Benedict de Spinoza, Hebrew forename Baruch, Latin forename Benedictus, Portuguese Bento de Espinosa, (born November 24, 1632, Amsterdam—died February 21, 1677, The Hague), Dutch Jewish philosopher, one of the foremost exponents of 17th-century Rationalism and one of the early and seminal figures of the Enlightenment. His masterwork is the treatise Ethics (1677).

Early life and career
Spinoza’s Portuguese parents were among many Jews who were forcibly converted to Christianity but continued to practice Judaism in secret (see Marranos). After being arrested, tortured, and condemned by the inquisition in Portugal, they escaped to Amsterdam, where Spinoza’s father, Michael, became an important merchant and eventually served as one of the directors of the city’s synagogue. Spinoza’s mother, Hannah, died in 1638, shortly before his sixth birthday.

The Jewish community in Amsterdam was unique in its time. It originally comprised people who had been raised in Spain, Portugal, France, or Italy as Christians and who had fled to Amsterdam to escape persecution and to practice their ancestral religion freely. The community was granted toleration by the Dutch authorities on the condition that it not cause scandal or allow any of its members to become public charges.

The community developed many social and educational institutions, including an all-male Talmud-Torah school founded in 1638. The students there were taught by adult males, many of whom had been trained at Roman Catholic schools before their arrival in Amsterdam. They taught the younger men more or less what they themselves had learned but also added instruction in various Jewish subjects, though it is not clear how much traditional Judaism was included in the curriculum. As a student in this school, the young Baruch Spinoza probably learned Hebrew and studied some Jewish philosophy, including that of Moses Maimonides.