Jacob Rodrigues Pereira

Jacob Rodrigues Pereira was born in Berlanga (Badajoz), Spain, a descendant of a Portuguese Crypto-Jewish family from Chacim, Trás-os-Montes.

Pereira formulated signs for numbers and punctuation and adapted Juan Pablo Bonet's manual alphabet by adding 30 handshapes, each corresponding to a sound instead of to a letter.

The manual alphabet has roots dating back to medieval Catholic monasteries, though Pereira did adapt the Spanish manual alphabet published (though plagiarized) by Juan Pablo Bonet to better fit the French language.

He is sometimes miscredited with being the first person to teach a non-verbal deaf person to speak, when in fact, Pedro Ponce de León is more reliably credited as the first back in the sixteenth century.

In 1777, his efforts led to Jews from Portugal receiving the right to settle in France.