Jews In The Realm Of The Sultans

Jewish society in the Ottoman Empire has not been the subject of systematic research. The seventeenth century is the main object of this study, since it was a formative era. For Ottoman Jews, the 'Ottoman century' constituted an era of gradual acculturation to changing reality, parallel to the changing character of the Ottoman state. Continuous changes and developments shaped anew the character of this Jewry, the core of what would later become known as 'Sephardi Jewry'.Yaron Ben-Naeh draws from primary and secondary Hebrew, Ottoman, and European sources, the image of Jewish society in the Ottoman Empire. In the chapters he leads the reader from the overall urban framework to individual aspects. Beginning with the physical environment, he moves on to discuss their relationships with the majority society, followed by a description and analysis of the congregation, its organization and structure, and from there to the character of Ottoman Jewish society and its nuclear cell - the family. Special emphasis is placed throughout the work on the interaction with Muslim society and the resulting acculturation that affected all aspects and all levels of Jewish life in the Empire. In this, the author challenges the widespread view that sees this community as being stagnant and self-segregated, as well as the accepted concept of a traditional Jewish society under Islam.

Cover -- Title -- Copyright -- Dedication -- Contents -- Preface -- Introduction -- PART I From Ottoman rule to modern times -- 1 Jews between Ottoman rule and the Turkish Republic: the Ottoman law and the Jews -- Tolerance and violence -- Jews and sultans -- Social status -- Greeks and Christians -- Communal administration and taxes -- Modern times -- The War of Liberation and onwards: the formative years -- Who is a Turk? The first years of the Republic -- Policy of the unified Turkish society -- 2 From the 1920s to the 1990s -- 1923-1933 -- 1933-1943 -- Varlık Vergisi -- Post-war to the late 1960s -- Late 1960s-1970s -- 1980s-1990s -- PART II Antisemitism under AK Party rule -- 3 The rise of the AK Party -- International politics: relations with Israel and Zionism -- Criticism of Israel -- Political approaches: Islamists -- Leftists -- Nationalists and ultranationalists -- The Kurdish issue -- 4 Israeli military operations and their impact on antisemitism -- Second Lebanon War 2006 -- Operation Cast Lead 2008-2009 -- Mavi Marmara 2010 and the aftermath -- Operation Protective Edge 2014 -- Hate speeches and their impact: Jews and other minorities -- 5 Antisemitism in the Turkish media -- Newspapers -- Books -- Entertainment -- Education -- Daily life -- The discourse of Erdoğan as reflected in the Turkish media -- Jews' responses -- Reflections of awareness -- Conclusions -- Bibliography -- Index

This book examines the Jewish community of Morocco in the late 18th and early 19th centuries through the life of a merchant who was the chief intermediary between the Moroccan sultans and Europe .

What compels Jews in the Ottoman Empire, Turkey, and abroad to promote a positive image of Ottomans and Turks while they deny the Armenian genocide and the existence of antisemitism in Turkey? Based on historical narrative, the Jews expelled from Spain in 1492 were embraced by the Ottoman Empire and then, later, protected from the Nazis during WWII. If we believe that Turks and Jews have lived in harmony for so long, then how can we believe that the Turks could have committed genocide against the Armenians? Marc David Baer confronts these convictions and circumstances to reflect on what moral responsibility the descendants of the victims of one genocide have to the descendants of victims of another. Baer delves into the history of Muslim-Jewish relations in the Ottoman Empire and Turkey to find the origin of these many tangled truths. He aims to bring about reconciliation between Jews, Muslims, and Christians, not only to face inconvenient historical facts but to confront it and come to terms. By looking at the complexities of interreligious relations, Holocaust denial, genocide and ethnic cleansing, and confronting some long-standing historical stereotypes, Baer sets out to tell a new history that goes against Turkish antisemitism and admits to the Armenian genocide.

Raises questions about the nature of diasporas, of elites, and of Jewish responses to modernity.

Honorable Mention for the 2014 Jordan Schnitzer book award in Medieval and Early Modern Jewish History presented by the Association for Jewish Studies On August 3, 1492, the same day that Columbus set sail from Spain, the long and glorious history of that nation’s Jewish community officially came to a close. The expulsion of Europe’s last major Jewish community ended more than a thousand years of unparalleled prosperity, cultural vitality and intellectual productivity. Yet, the crisis of 1492 also gave rise to a dynamic and resilient diaspora society spanning East and West. After Expulsion traces the various paths of migration and resettlement of Sephardic Jews and Conversos over the course of the tumultuous sixteenth century. Pivotally, the volume argues that the exiles did not become “Sephardic Jews” overnight. Only in the second and third generation did these disparate groups coalesce and adopt a “Sephardic Jewish” identity. After Expulsion presents a new and fascinating portrait of Jewish society in transition from the medieval to the early modern period, a portrait that challenges many longstanding assumptions about the differences between Europe and the Middle East.

Vol. 4 covers the late Roman period to the rise of Islam. Focuses especially on the growth and development of rabbinic Judaism and of the major classical rabbinic sources such as the Mishnah, Jerusalem Talmud, Babylonian Talmud and various Midrashic collections.