Sephardi Lives: A Documentary History, 1700-1950
480
Sephardi Lives: A Documentary History, 1700-1950
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Overview
This ground-breaking documentary history contains over 150 primary sources originally written in 15 languages by or about Sephardi Jews—descendants of Jews who fled medieval Spain and Portugal settling in the western portions of the Ottoman Empire, including the Balkans, Anatolia, and Palestine. Reflecting Sephardi history in all its diversity, from the courtyard to the courthouse, spheres intimate, political, commercial, familial, and religious, these documents show life within these distinctive Jewish communities as well as between Jews, Muslims, and Christians.
Sephardi Lives offer readers an intimate view of how Sephardim experienced the major regional and world events of the modern era—natural disasters, violence and wars, the transition from empire to nation-states, and the Holocaust. This collection also provides a vivid exploration of the day-to-day lives of Sephardi women, men, boys, and girls in the Judeo-Spanish heartland of the Ottoman Balkans and Middle East, as well as the émigré centers Sephardim settled throughout the twentieth century, including North and South America, Africa, Asia, and Europe. The selections are of a vast range, including private letters from family collections, rabbinical writings, documents of state, memoirs and diaries, court records, selections from the popular press, and scholarship.
In a single volume, Sephardi Lives preserves the cultural richness and historical complexity of a Sephardi world that is no more.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780804791915 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Stanford University Press |
| Publication date: | 05/25/2023 |
| Series: | Stanford Studies in Jewish History and Culture |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 480 |
| Sales rank: | 481,022 |
| File size: | 2 MB |
About the Author
Read an Excerpt
Sephardi Lives
A Documentary History, 1700â"1950
By Julia Phillips Cohen, Sarah Abrevaya Stein
STANFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
Copyright © 2014 Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior UniversityAll rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-8047-9191-5
CHAPTER 1
A CALAMITOUS EARTHQUAKE HITS IZMIR {1688}
Although less common than fires, epidemics, or harsh weather, earthquakes regularly unleashed tremendous devastation in Ottoman lands. To many, the fate people experienced during natural disasters was a clear sign of God's wrath or favor. Among those who held this view was Rabbi Elijah HaCohen (ca. 1659–1729), who lived through a massive earthquake that hit Izmir in 1688. His account told of the great—but unequal—suffering wrought by the earthquake, which killed thousands and left all of the mosques and churches of the city in ruins. Although some 400 Jews died and two synagogues were damaged, HaCohen believed that divine providence had spared the Jews. Writing many months after the earthquake, having witnessed six months of ongoing destruction (including fires, an epidemic, aftershocks, and lawlessness), HaCohen chose to write of the miracles he witnessed at the time of the quake, demonstrating his unshaken belief that God had shown mercy to his Jewish believers.
And I shall tell you of the miracles that occurred to the Jews during this earthquake. The first is that it happened on Shabbat, and they were at home, and not scattered about in the markets and the streets ... as the devastation occurred mainly in the quarters of the non-Jews ... and all the nations [i.e. non-Jews] attested to this miracle. And another is that it occurred during the midday meal while they were all at home and not outdoors visiting relatives and friends. Another is that it happened in the summer and not during the winter. Another is that the dead were [found and] buried. Another is that the fire did not reach the Jewish neighborhood, so they all managed to salvage things from their houses. Another is that God drove those who were destined to be saved from the houses that collapsed to other places where they were not harmed. And a great and unparalleled miracle happened to me, the author: the place where I found myself during the earthquake was a narrow place surrounded by four high walls that fell on top of me, and it became dark from the dust caused by the collapse. I did not now what to do. There was no spirit left in me and I was trembling and confused. I rose to my feet and said "God is the King, God has ruled, God will rule forever ..." about ten times, as was customary on such occasions, and yet the tremors did not cease, so I recited "Hear, O Israel" ... and other verses. And when [the earthquake] did not subside I almost died and was silent. As soon as the moment of anger ceased and the darkness cleared I found myself in a pit of stones consisting of the four walls [that had collapsed] ... and I was not hurt at all. Blessed be He that does good to those who are undeserving! And you should also know that during this period a plague broke out in the city, and many died, non-Jews and Jews alike, more than the number of those who died during the earthquake. And as I write there are still people dying....
CHAPTER 2A WILL FROM RASHID, EGYPT [1695]
Wills and testaments illuminate various aspects of past lives for which no other written trace may remain, offering insights into material culture, family relations and, above all, the values of those who drafted them. Here we find a will left by Abraham ben Natan, a wealthy Salonican Jewish merchant living in Rashid, a port city in Ottoman Egypt that attracted merchants from across the Mediterranean. Although the will allocated a limited portion of ben Natan's fortune to relatives, it was primarily filled with elaborate instructions for the establishment of a yeshiva in his name. The will also bears testimony to the centrality of Jerusalem and the Land of Israel more generally to the religious universe of its author. In accordance with Jewish practice, ben Natan's will clarified that he wished to be buried in Jerusalem or another of the Four Holy Cities of Jewish tradition. Although it presents the Land of Israel as a pivot of the author's religious devotion, the will also highlights ben Natan's international ties: the funds to support his project would come from Livorno, Venice, and Amsterdam—centers that housed thriving Sephardi communities during the period—thus pointing to ben Natan's participation in a network that was at once economic, familial, and cultural.
[I], Abraham, son of Hayim Natan, ... give all of my property to said persons for the endowment I am establishing in order to provide for a house of study for hakhamim, as is written and explained in a separate writ.... [I hereby state] that if I have any living descendants they will be given 5,000 arayot each and no more; moreover, if God allows me to ascend to Jerusalem and be buried there, or in Hebron or Safed, or anywhere in the Land of Israel where I may die, the local holy community shall be given 200 kurus and any other necessities for my burial and a tombstone that befits my honor. If the hesger is already established, the hakhamim who are chosen shall study Torah each Thursday night for a whole year following my death, as is the custom, and they shall receive a special bonus of ten silver coins each per night. And if the hesger is not yet established, ten hakhamim shall be chosen to study Torah from among the best in the town. They will receive a bonus of ten silver coins for each of the seven days of my mourning, and they shall perform the veilada every Thursday night, and they shall also study on the night of the seventh day of Pesah [Passover] and on the night of Shavu'ot [Pentacost] and on the night of Rosh Hashanah and on the night of Yom Kippur and on the night of Hoshana Raba and on the night of my yahrzeit. They will be accorded the aforementioned sum each night; and they will also be given all expenses required for their nightly study, such as oil and candles, etc. I also request that every year 1,000 silver coins shall be given from my estate so that these hakhamim can perform a nightly study vigil at the tomb of Rachel or the Prophet Samuel. A yearly sum of one hundred arayot [should be put aside] for my mother's expenses as long as she lives, and after her death, one hundred arayot will be given for her burial expenses, including a tombstone and all that might be needed as befits her honor. And my wife shall be given one hundred arayot a year as long as she remains unmarried to honor my memory. All other inheritors shall share a total of 500 arayot.
CHAPTER 3MANUMISSION OF A JEWISH SLAVE IN SALONICA [1700]
Documents generated by the courts of eighteenth-century Ottoman Salonica provide a window into the lives of ordinary people who lived and labored in or traveled through the city. The following document records a legal compromise brokered in Salonica's Islamic law court by a Muslim slave owner and his fugitive Jewish slave. Having traveled great distances after fleeing servitude, the slave, identified only as Abraham, successfully rebuffed his former master's claims of ownership by buying his independence. Although his ingenuity and tenaciousness may have been unusual, Abraham's path from the Crimean Peninsula to Salonica, and from slavery to freedom, demonstrates the extraordinary personal transformations that were sometimes available even to the most marginal figures in Ottoman society.
The individual named Mürtaza Bese ibn-i Hasan was originally an inhabitant of the protected city of Akmescit in the Crimean Peninsula, which is situated in the Tatar region. He is currently staying in the secured city of Salonica as a traveler. Of his own will he confirmed and gave a declaration in the seriat court in the presence of a tall and black-eyed Jew by origin, who is the subject of this legal document; a young man whose beard had not yet grown named Abraham: "I purchased the abovementioned Abraham a year and a half prior to the registration of this document from someone called Kasab, who lives in the city of Kilis, in return for 125 esedi kurus. Afterwards, about a year ago, the abovementioned Abraham ran away from me. Now I found him in the abovementioned secured city. When I submitted a claim of servitude [against him], he rejected [my claim]. Consequently many disputes erupted between us. At the present time, the abovementioned Abraham paid and gave me 60 esedi kurus. I likewise took and received the mentioned sum of money. In return I manumitted him." Following his declaration that from this day onwards the abovementioned Abraham is a free man like other people who were born free, these events were registered ... on 25 Sevval of the year 1111 [April 15, 1700].
CHAPTER 4A RABBI IN ISTANBUL INTERPRETS THE BIBLE FOR LADINO READERS (1730)
A popular biblical commentary in Ladino consisting of eighteen volumes produced by a dozen authors between the years 1730 and 1899, the Me'am Lo'ez was designed to be broadly accessible to all Ottoman Sephardim. Its title, literally "from a foreign people," indicates that it was written in a language other than Hebrew. Although the volumes of the Me'am Lo'ez differed from each other in scope, style, and worldview, they shared a single pedagogical agenda shaped by Rabbi Jacob Huli (1689–1732) of Istanbul, who authored the first two volumes of the series. Driven by the belief that most Ottoman Sephardim knew little about Judaism and barely understood Hebrew, Huli sought to create an educational tool that could teach his coreligionists the rabbinic tradition, offer interpretations of the Bible, and replace the complex ethical works of earlier centuries with straightforward guidance. He also aimed to provide his readers with suitable secular knowledge and entertainment so as to shield them from the influence of books written by non-Jews. In the introduction to the work, Huli stated that his goal was to explain the Torah to the "foolish and ignorant masses," including "men and women and the youth of Israel." Judging by the number of their reprints, Huli's volumes enjoyed great popularity, becoming classics of Ladino literature.
Now, because of our sins, the world has changed and declined and degenerated to such a degree that very few people are able to read a biblical verse correctly. And such hunger overcame [the people] that all the preparations made by the men we mentioned above and the tables they laid are not enough to sate it and to enable people to read two words of the Law, because they do not understand the holy tongue, and even those who know the words do not understand what they are saying. And every day [the scriptures] are studied less and less, and the Law of the people [of Israel] and the precepts of Judaism are forgotten. And when on the Sabbath the cantor reads the weekly Torah portion, many people have no idea of its content or what it means. And at the time of judgment—the great and terrible day of judgment—one will be asked, "What have you learned during all these years in that world? Tell us what you have learned and understood from the weekly Torah portion and haftarah"—because one is obliged to read and understand them. And, of course, [the ignorant] will be very embarassed not to know what to answer, and will have to say, "Oh, what shame. Oh, what ignominy!" And they will be greatly distressed.
As for the precepts of Judaism, nobody is able to read a ruling from the Shulhan Arukh because people do not know Hebrew, and thus nobody knows the rulings one is obliged to follow. Praise God, blessed be He, that Jews, being children of a good father, are great friends of the Law and are eager to learn new things from it, because the sanctity of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is upon them. But when one returns from his shop, he has nothing to read, because if he takes a midrash, or 'En Ya'akov, or Shulhan Arukh, or other books, even if it is agadah, they are very difficult and [too] profound for him. And since he does not understand anything, he falls asleep. And on winter nights, he gets up early but does not find anything to study before dawn, and thus, not knowing what to do, he spends this time of clarity in mundane conversations.
Long ago there was a sage who translated the Shulhan Arukh into Ladino and even printed it in square letters with vowel points, so that everybody could understand it. And the same was done with the book called Hovot ha-Levavot. But for many reasons this did not help much either, due to the fact that he [the translator] wrote it in his idiom, in Spanish words that are very difficult and incomprehensible for people in these parts of Turkey, Anatolia, and Arabistan, and therefore most people have nothing to study. And [this is] particularly [true of] the book written by our master and teacher Moses Almosnino of blessed memory, called Regimiento de la vida, which is a very lucid book, but its idiom is incomprehensible. And the manner of writing used in those books is also different, and though of course it is correct and genuine, because the people in these parts do not understand it they cannot benefit from it. And besides, to understand what [Almosnino] wanted to say one has to know how to study, as he intended to be brief in order to convey much knowledge in few words. This is not useful for the common people because they cannot spend a whole day trying to understand one thing, and on every passage they try to read, sometimes having to stop because they do not comprehend the words to which they are not accustomed, sometimes because of the manner of writing and sometimes in order to understand the meaning of the sentences which, being very short, require much study. Also, [Almosnino's] book is small and will be finished quickly, and then one will have nothing else to do. And [this is] particularly [true for] old or sick people who are locked in their homes and do not have anything from which to learn. And some people have many books inherited from their fathers, but they do not touch them because they do not understand their idiom, so these books are lying around [neglected] in their shops. And thus everything people hear from a rabbi, even if it is a simple biblical verse, is new to them because they do not read the Bible or the Shulhan Arukh and they know nothing, neither the positive commandments, which the Law requires us to perform, nor the negative commandments, which are the things one should avoid; and they do not know about what happened to our ancestors or about the miracles God performed for them; and this leads one to forget the Law of Israel, God forbid.
CHAPTER 5ARE THE DÖNME JEWISH? A RABBINICAL REFLECTION (1755)
Born in the Ottoman port city of Izmir, Shabbetay Sevi (1626–1676) was a Jewish ascetic and mystic who gained fame across the Jewish world after declaring himself the Messiah. Sevi's open challenges to Jewish and Ottoman authorities drew the ire of individuals within the rabbinical establishment and also of Sultan Mehmed IV (r. 1648–1687), who presented Sevi with the choice of conversion to Islam or death. Sevi's conversion sent shockwaves across the Jewish world. Most Jews who had supported his messianic claims publicly renounced their position. A small portion of Sevi's disciples followed him into Islam. The descendants of these converts, referred to in Turkish as Dönme ("those who turned"), maintained a distinct ethno-religious identity for centuries, even as they became part of the elite in Salonica, where the majority of the community had settled. The Dönme functioned as a separate community and maintained their own mosques, cemeteries, and schools. The following query sent to a Salonican rabbi nearly a century after Sevi's followers began to form a breakaway religion, suggests that Dönme and Jews remained in contact after their schism. Yet as this rabbi's response suggests, the Dönme's uncertain status threatened the rabbinical elite, including this writer, who argued without equivocation that the Dönme were not Jews.
They came to ask whether it is permissible to write an amulet for those apostates living among us, the ones who abandoned the words of God [Torah] a long time ago and today still cling to their impurity. They publicly transgress the Sabbath and eat carcasses and torn animals.19 [Yet] they do have the opportunity to flee for their lives [back to Judaism]. Many of them have done so and hold fast to the laws of Moses and Israel to this day.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from Sephardi Lives by Julia Phillips Cohen, Sarah Abrevaya Stein. Copyright © 2014 Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University. Excerpted by permission of STANFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS.
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Table of Contents
Sephardi Lives: A Documentary History, 1700–1950Author(s): Julia Phillips Cohen and Sarah Abrevaya Stein book abstractSephardi Lives fills a significant gap in the existing literature on modern Jewish and Ottoman history by presenting a diverse array of primary sources generated by or about Sephardi Jews in the heartland of modern Judeo-Spanish culture (Southeastern Europe and the Levant under Ottoman and post-Ottoman rule) and in its diaspora (the United States, the Caribbean, South America, Europe, and Africa). The approximately 150 sources in this edition—originally composed in fifteen languages, including Ladino, Hebrew, Ottoman Turkish and modern Turkish, French, Greek, Serbian, Croatian, Bulgarian, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, German, Yiddish, and English—are of scholarly value to students, researchers, and general readers alike. Individuals engaged in Jewish Studies and Middle Eastern Studies, as well as those researching life in the nation-states that emerged after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, will find in this collection perspectives and selections otherwise inaccessible to them, as will scholars of Europe, the United States, and Latin America. The texts included in the book as well as the individuals who drafted them remain largely unknown in any field; those written in Ladino—the native language of Sephardim in the Judeo-Spanish heartland of the Balkans and Eastern Mediterranean and today a dying language—were condemned to remain obscure indefinitely before they were translated and prepared for a larger scholarly, student, and popular public.
1Everyday Life: On the Street and in the Synagogue, from Court to Courtyard chapter abstractThis chapter contains a wide range of sources that explore daily life and culture in the Ottoman Jewish heartland of Southeastern Europe, the Levant, and beyond. Among the topics covered in this chapter are gender roles and relations; experiences of childhood; familial bonds; natural disasters; the pursuit of education and justice; relations among Jews, Muslims, and Christians; commercial relations and relationships to neighborhood, city, region, and empire.
2Violence, War, and Regional Transformation chapter abstractThis chapter offers a selection of primary documents that explore the dramatic regional transformations that affected different cities and regions across the Ottoman Empire and its successor states in Southeastern Europe and the Middle East throughout the modern period. Topics explored include imperialism, anti-minority violence, state reforms, the Young Turk Revolution, the Balkan Wars, the First World War, minority rights, and the retraction of the borders of the Ottoman Empire.
3Political Movements and Ideologies chapter abstractThrough primary documents, this chapter explores the politicization of Sephardi Jewry in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, as different individuals debated and sided with the various novel political movements, including feminism, Zionism, socialism, Ottomanism, and communism.
4The Second World War and Its Aftermath chapter abstractThis chapter explores, through original source material, Sephardi experiences of the Holocaust and the Second World War. The chapter offers stories of deportation, ghettoization, hidden children, partisans, and death camp survivors, tracking the spread of the Third Reich across Southeastern Europe, as well as the rise of antisemitic legislation and sentiment in Turkey. It documents the decimation of the Judeo-Spanish heartland, and traces attempts to contend with this loss in the wake of the war.
5Diasporic and Émigré Circles chapter abstractThrough an array of primary sources, this chapter explores the shaping of a Sephardi diaspora from the Judeo-Spanish heartland of Southeastern Europe and the Levant that took shape beginning in the late nineteenth century. The chapter includes coverage of Sephardi migration to France, Britain, the United States, Cuba, Mexico, Argentina, South Africa, the Belgian Congo, British Mandate Palestine, and North Africa and beyond, paying heed to the establishment of new Sephardi communities in these locals, the challenges and opportunities they faced in these new lands, and the many ties that sutured émigré Jews to their erstwhile homes.
6The Emergence of Sephardi Studies chapter abstractThrough primary documents, this chapter explores the development of the scholarly field of Sephardi Studies, beginning with an eighteenth-century rabbi's interest in studying his family's history and moving to some of the first calls for the systematic study of Sephardi culture and history that emerged in the nineteenth century. It also presents samples of correspondence and collaboration between Ashkenazi and Sephardi intellectuals, as well as between Jews and non-Jews, across political and linguistic boundaries, and traces the attempt by Levantine Jewish professional and lay scholars to document the history, language, culture, and folkways of their own communities in the face of a series of dramatic ruptures that threatened to obliterate the Judeo-Spanish world they knew so intimately.