Was Machiavelli Jewish?

I edited a 1602 book against Machiavelli that is attributed to Innocent Gentillet, a suggestive name. Machiavelli speaks the prologue of The Jew of Malta, so yes, they knew Machiavelli was Jewish in Shakespeare’s time. More recently, I read this article by Michael Ledeen, a Jewish neoconservative professor (you may have heard his name in connection with PNAC and that gang). He wrote a book about Machiavelli’s iron laws for leadership, something like that, he really loves Machiavelli. Remember that Leo Strauss, godfather of the neocons, wrote a book about Machiavelli, in which he said “If it is true that only a teacher of evil will stoop to teach maxims of public and private gangsterism, we are forced to admit that Machiavelli was a teacher of evil.”

WAS MACHIAVELLI Jewish? Well, it all depends on what the word "Jewish" means. Certainly, he was not openly Jewish. But then, there was every reason to conceal one's Jewishness, or even sympathy for the Jews, in Renaissance Florence, especially during the years when the Medicis were driven into exile by the Florentine state for which Machiavelli worked as Secretary of the Republic.

In those years, the Jews of Florence were living under an expulsion order, which was, however, suspended thanks to a massive loan from the Jewish community. Perennially strapped for cash, the Republic was slow in repaying the money, and by the time they had paid it off the Medicis -- who welcomed Jewish partnership in their banking activities -- were at the gates, soon to resume their control over the city.

So we might not know the whole story about Machiavelli's religious convictions.

You will search in vain throughout Machiavelli's writings for a kind word about Jesus, Mary or the Apostles. Instead you will find praise for ancient Roman and Spartan kings, generals and Caesars. Occasionally there are bows in the direction of contemporary figures, most famously Cesare Borgia, hardly a model of Christian virtue.

But above all, you will find praise for the greatest of all Jewish leaders, Machiavelli's greatest hero, Moses.