We don’t know for sure where Doña Gracia died. Cecil Roth, the distinguished historian, always maintained she died in Tiberias, and that a special mansion had been built for here there. However, we could not find any evidence of this.

We did, however, find a letter to the authorities in Dubrovnik, signed by her nephew and partner Don Joseph Nasi, informing them of her recent passing. Its language suggests she was still active in Istanbul right up until her death. I have always believed she died in the comfort of her family home there, rather than take the dangerous journey onwards to Tiberias.

The confusion might have occurred because it’s possible Doña Gracia left instructions for her body to be taken to holy ground in Tiberias after her death. That’s one of the holiest burial places in Israel, second only to the Mt. of Olives in Jerusalem, where she had sent the bones of her late husband, who had died in Lisbon many years before.