common era?

Question: Who were some Jewish celebriries of the 17th century A!.D!./common era!?
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By the modern definition there were none however among the better known were those in Poland and in Holland will do cut & paste because I prefer to cite a source rather then claiming omnipetent knowledge!.!.!.!.

http://members!.core!.com/~mikerose/histor!.!.!.
"""In the 16th and the first half of the 17th century Jews played an outstanding role in Poland's foreign trade!. They contributed to the expansion of contacts with both the east and the west and were instrumental in importing foreign commercial experience to Poland!. Particularly animated trade contacts were maintained by Jewish merchants with England and the Netherlands through Gdansk, and Hungary and Turkey through Lvov and Krakow!. Jews exported not only Polish agricultural produce and cattle but also ready-made products, particularly furs and clothing!. In return they brought in goods from east and west which were much sought after in Poland!. Jewish wholesalers appeared at large fairs in Venice, Florence, Leipzig, Hamburg, Frankfurt on Main, Wroclaw and Gdansk!. In order to expand their trade contacts they entered into partnerships!. For example in the mid-16th century Jewish merchants from Brest Litovsk, Tykocin, Grodno and Sledzew founded a company for trade with Gdansk, while in 1616 a similar company was established by merchants from Lvov, Lublin, Krakow and Poznan!. At the turn of the 16th and 17th centuries, in many towns Jewish and Christian merchants set up joint ad hoc companies in order to conclude profitable financial operations!. In European and overseas trade only a relatively small number of Jews were engaged!. The most numerous group among Jewish merchants were owners of shops as well as stall keepers and vendors whose whole property was what they put on show on the stall in front of their houses or on a cart, or what they carried in a sack on their backs!.

The expansion of Jewish trade troubled the burghers for whom Jewish competition was all the more painful since they now had yet another rival in the developing gentry trade!. The struggle of part of the burghers against Jewish merchants manifested itself among other things in attempts at curtailing Jewish trade!. The monarchs, though generally favorably disposed towards the Jews, under the pressure from the burghers and the clergy passed a number of decrees which restricted Jewish wholesale trade to some commodities or else to certain quotas of purchases they were allowed to make!. More severe restrictions were contained in agreements concluded between municipal authorities and Jewish communities, though these were seldom observed in practice!. In private towns, Jewish trade, which yielded considerable profit to the owners, could develop without any obstacles!.

The Jews' trading activity also encompassed credit operations!. The richest Jewish merchants were often at the same time financiers!. The most famous Jewish bankers were the Fiszels in Krakow and the Nachmanowiczs in Lvov as well as Mendel Izakowicz and Izak Brodawka in Lithuania!. Those and a number of other Jews pioneered centralized credit operations in Poland!. Though banking institutions created by them mainly financed large Jewish tenancies and wholesale trade, as a sideline they also lent money to the gentry on pledge of incoming crops and to Jewish entrepreneurs!. A positive role was also played by much smaller loans granted by Jews to many small craft and trade shops!. In many cases these loans were instrumental in opening a business!. However, the other side of the matter must not be overlooked!. The lending of money at high interest led to the impoverishment of both Jewish and Christian debtors!. Some of them were put in prison as a result and their families were left with no means of subsistence!. This money lending activity aggravated prejudice against Jews among the burghers, something which had always been there anyway due to their religious and traditional separateness!.
--------------------------------During the wars of the middle of the 17th century Jewish wholesale trade, both long distance and foreign, came nearly to a standstill!. Only in some cities, for example Brody and Leszno, Jewish merchants, thanks to considerable support on the part of the magnates, succeeded in renewing contacts with Gdansk, Wroclaw, Krolewiec, Frankfurt on Oder and to a lesser degree with England!. Thanks to the magnates' assistance local, Jewish trade also began to expand!. Most shops in the reconstructed town halls were leased to Jews (for example in Staszow, Siemiatycze, Kock, Siedlce and Bialystok)!. Peddling was also spreading as a result of which trade exchange between town and country, interrupted during the wars, was revived!. """

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You have Shabbtai Zvi

http://www!.encyclopedia!.com/doc/1E1-X-Sh!.!.!.

I can't think of anyone elseWww@QuestionHome@Com