Quotes from Richard H. Popkin

So, Spinoza went off, not as a victim or a pariah but as an independent Portuguese person living in Amsterdam. In so doing, he became one of the first people to live outside of any religious affiliation.

One person was excommunicated for buying a kosher chicken from an Ashkenazi butcher rather than a Sephardic one.

Spinoza was introduced to the Quaker leader in the Netherlands, William Ames, and was described by Peter Serrarius as a "Jew who by the Jews hath been cast out.