Benveniste

The Benveniste famiy is an old, noble, wealthy, and scholarly Jewish family of Narbonne, France and northern Spain established in the 11th century. The family was present in the 11th to the 15th centuries in Hachmei Provence, France, Barcelona, Aragon and Castile Spain.
Family members received honorary titles from the authorities and were members of the administration of the kingdom of Aragon and Castile. They were the Baillie ("Bayle") - the Tax Officer and Treasurer, Alfaquim - Senior Advisor to the King and Royal Physician in Barcelona and Aragon in the 12th and 13th centuries. They held the title of "Nasi" (prince in Hebrew), since they are considered by the Jewish tradition as descendants of King David and members of the House of David in the Jewish communities (mainly Barcelona) and were prominent religious and secular leaders in the 11th to the 14th centuries.
In the 14th to the 15th century they held the titles of "Benveniste de la Cavalleria"—"of the knights" (a name given by the Knights Templar to their treasurers and tax collectors) and Don—a noble person in Aragon and Castile. In the aftermath of the massacres of Jews which began in Spain on 6 June 1391 some such as the de Cartagena family converted to Christianity and became powerful conversos in Burgos. After the expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492 non-converts were dispersed mainly to Portugal, Greece - Salonica other parts of the Ottoman Empire and North African countries. In Portugal they were forced to convert to Christianity in 1497 and became some of the richest traders and bankers (the Mendes family) of Europe. Today the name is borne by families in Europe, the Americas, Asia and Israel. It was also used as a prænomen.
Origin of the name.
The origin of the name according to a family legend told to David Benvenisti, a prominent Israeli scholar, by his grandfather Benvenisti Shemuel Yosef, a prominent Jewish leader in Salonica, in the beginning of the 20th century is: "When our forbearers dwelt in Spain, one of the kings had a Jewish finance minister who also served as royal physician. He was also known as an expert in flora, particularly medicinal plants. Once, the king, accompanied by his Jewish minister, went for a stroll in the fields near the palace.
The minister told the king about every plant. The king was especially fascinated by the malva and its pink and violet blossoms. When the king asked what the flower was called and what it was used for, the Jewish minister replied that its petals were cooked and eaten, and it was called "bienva."
At this time one of the ministers, a sworn enemy of the Jewish minister, burst into laughter, and said to the king: "Your Majesty, that Jew-minister expert in our country's flora was making fun of you. He deliberately gave you a wrong name for that flower in order to embarrass you before your ministers and viziers. That is not a ‘bienva,’ but a ‘malva’." The king angrily asked the Jewish minister to explain, threatening him with dire punishment. The minister said: "Your Majesty, I am ready to accept your judgment. But first, I beg you, hear me out carefully. Your Majesty, when we were out in the field, you asked me to tell you the name of that plant. There you were, standing before me, Royal Highness, and I thought: By no means am I going to offend Your Majesty by telling you the plant's true name, ‘malva’ – ‘ill-going’! So I told you that the plant is called ‘bienva’ ‘well-going’!”. The king was mollified, and he said to the Jewish minister: “You have vanquished those of my ministers who wish you ill. I am pleased with your explanation. And to commemorate this occasion, I hereby; dub you bien veniste (‘Benveniste’) or 'your arrival was for good'”.
Yet, the above nice family legend does not take into account the fact that in both medieval Iberia and Languedoc, before being used as a surname, Benveniste (from the Spanish expression "bien viniste" meaning ‘(you) have arrived well’) was used by Jews as a given name. It was one of the votive names typical for medieval Jews in southwestern Europe: it expressed a wish for the child to be welcome in this world. As many other names based on father's given names (patronymics), it gradually became a hereditary family name. In Eastern Europe the family adapted the surnames Epstein and Horowitz.
People.
The beginning - Narbonne, Aragon and Barcelona.
The first appearance of the name Benveniste was in the 11th century in southern France (Septimania, Provence of our time).
Earlier, in the 8th century, the region was shaped by Charlemagne from the Frankish Kingdom of the Carolingian. The big Narbonne Jewish center was established, according to Jewish and Christian sources, by prominent Jews from Bagdad at the request of the Carolingian kings. The Babylonian names of Makhir, Hasdai, Sheshet and Shealtiel are the names of chief rabbis and leaders - Nasi (considered by the Jewish tradition as descendants of King David) of the Jewish center.
The Jewish families assisted the Christian administrations of the Kingdom of Aragon and the County of Barcelona as tax collectors and advisers. In 1150 Aragon and Barcelona were united by the marriage of their rulers. The Jewish families appear together with the name Benveniste in official and Jewish documents of Narbonne, Barcelona and Aragon from the 11th-13th century AD with the title Nasi added to their names. They appear in the travel books of Benjamin of Tudela from the 12th century. 