Book Description

“Opens new windows onto the changing socioeconomic realities and values of Jews in a major port city of the late Ottoman Empire. . . . [A] fascinating study.” —Julia Phillips Cohen, Vanderbilt University By the turn of the twentieth century, the eastern Mediterranean port city of Izmir had been home to a vibrant and substantial Sephardi Jewish community for over four hundred years. The Jews of Ottoman Izmir tells the story of this long overlooked Jewish community, drawing on previously untapped Ladino archival material. Across Europe, Jews were often confronted with the notion that their religious and cultural distinctiveness was somehow incompatible with the modern age. Yet the view from Ottoman Izmir invites a different approach: what happens when Jewish difference is totally unremarkable? Dina Danon argues that while Jewish religious and cultural distinctiveness might have remained unquestioned in this late Ottoman port city, other elements of Jewish identity emerged as profound sites of tension. Through voices as varied as beggars and mercantile elites, journalists, rabbis and housewives, Danon demonstrates that it was new attitudes to poverty and class, not Judaism, that most significantly framed this Sephardi community’s encounter with the modern age. “This monograph will be regarded as the central work on the Jews of Izmir in the last Ottoman century.” —Tamir Karkason, Middle East Journal “A major contribution to the study of a Jewish community in general, and an Ottoman one in particular.” —Rachel Simon, Association of Jewish Libraries Reviews “Eloquently written and expertly researched.” —Eyal Ginio, The American Historical Review “An important landmark.” —Jacob Barnai, Association for Jewish Studies Review “This work should be treasured. . . . a well-wrought and at times elegant addition to the Judaic Studies.” —Jeffrey Kahrs, Tikkun