On a typical day in the 1610s, both sides of the Houtgracht, the canal separating the square island in Vlooienburg from the neighborhood surrounding the Breestraat, would be teeming with activity. Besides the wood trade operating out of warehouses in the district, which sent barges loaded with lumber up the canal and out to the Amstel, as well as the art dealers marketing their paintings, there was the hustle and bustle of the Jews going about their ordinary daily affairs. All three of the community's synagogues fronted the canal. A member of the Portuguese gemeente, whether he lived in the interior of the island or in the more upscale Breestraat quarter, would find himself on the Houtgracht several times in a day. He might be on his way to or from synagogue, attending to congregational or communal business, striking a deal with another merchant, or taking his children to the community's school.

Among the Sephardim who could be found working or worshiping along the canal was one Abraham Jesurum de Spinoza, alias Emanuel Rodriguez de Spinoza. He often went by the name Abraham de Spinoza de Nantes, to distinguish himself from another member of the community, Abraham Israel de Spinosa de Villa Lobos (alias Gabriel Gomes Spinosa). The name “de Spinoza” (or “Despinosa,” or “d'Espinoza,” among other variants) derives from the Portuguese espinhosa and means “from a thorny place.” The family may originally have been Spanish, escaping, like so many others, to Portugal in the fifteenth century.