מקור השם אבואב

Isaac Aboab da Fonseca (also known as São João de Luz) (1605-1693), rabbi, as rabbi of Recife in Brazil, he is the first rabbi known to have served a Jewish community in the Americas, born in Castro Daire (Castro d'Ayre), Portugal, into a crypto-Jewish family. Following the increasing pressure of the Inquisition, Aboab was brought to Amsterdam as a child, when his family like many other crypto-Jewish families left Portugal. In Amsterdam, even as a young teenager, he gained recognition as an exceptional rabbi, gifted orator, respected teacher, and skilled translator of Kabalistic texts from Hebrew and Spanish. Already at  the age of 21, he was appointed as the leader of one of Amsterdam's three congregations. In 1642, Aboab moved to Brazil to oversee the burgeoning Jewish community that was established in Recife, at the time part of the Dutch possessions in South America, thus becoming the first Jewish religious leader in all of America. During this time, he also authored a number of texts, apparently the first works written in Hebrew in America. From 1642 to 1654, he served as the rabbi of the Jewish community in Recife, actively participating in the defense of the city, which had long been under siege by the Portuguese. When Recife was recaptured, the Dutch stipulated in the terms of surrender that the lives of the Jews be spared. Some of them went on to establish the community of New Amsterdam (later known as New York), while others, including Isaac Aboab, returned to the Netherlands.

Upon his return to Amsterdam, Aboab assumed leadership of a yeshiva and became a member of the rabbinical tribunal. He played a significant role in representing the kabbalist tradition of Isaac Luria in Amsterdam. He translated from Hebrew into Spanish the works of the philosopher and kabbalist Abraham Cohen de Herrera (c.1570-c.1635).

Aboab served as the head of the Sephardic community during the inauguration of the Portuguese Synagogue in Amsterdam in 1672. Additionally, he was one of the signatories of the edict of the herem (ban) against Baruch Spinoza in 1656.