Isaac Abendana (ca. 1640–1699) was a Spanish-born Jewish scholar, translator, and religious leader who became a pioneering figure in Hebrew studies at English universities during the Restoration period. Born into a Marrano family that had been forced to convert from Judaism to Christianity during the Spanish Inquisition, he was the younger brother of Jacob Abendana and the grandson of David Abendana, one of the founders of Amsterdam's first synagogue. Abendana arrived in England in 1662 before his brother, making him one of the first practicing Jews to teach at English universities since the medieval expulsion of 1290. From 1663, Isaac taught Hebrew at both Cambridge and Oxford universities, receiving an annual retaining fee of £6 from Trinity College, Cambridge during 1664-66. His most significant scholarly achievement was producing the first complete Latin translation of the Mishnah in 1671, a six-volume manuscript work commissioned by Cambridge University that remained unpublished but was later used by Christian scholar Guilielmus Surenhusius for his own Latin edition. While he was at Cambridge, Abendana sold Hebrew books to the Bodleian Library of Oxford. After relocating to Oxford in 1689, Abendana taught Hebrew at Magdalen College. At Oxford, Isaac compiled annual Jewish calendars (almanacs) for Christian readers from 1692 to 1699, which he later republished as Discourses on the Ecclesiastical and Civil Polity of the Jews (1706)—one of the first comprehensive explanations of Judaism written in English. He maintained extensive correspondence with leading Christian scholars, including with the philosopher Ralph Cudworth, master of Christ's College, Cambridge. Abendana contributed significantly to Jewish-Christian intellectual dialogue during a formative period in Anglo-Jewish history. Following his brother Jacob's death in 1695, Isaac served as hakham (chief rabbi) of London's Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue until his own death on July 17, 1699.