Name and Subject Matter

Hi! My name is Kestrel Curro. I am a clarinet performance major. I have a great love for reading well written literature and listening to good music. I especially love klezmer and other middle-eastern styles of music. I am taking this class because, as a non-Jew, I know very little about Jewish history and culture. My intent, somewhere down the line, is to write an opera based on Jewish themes and music. This is another reason I am taking this class: I am looking for an excellent Jewish-based story and history has so many to choose from.

The Jews that took up residence in the Ottoman Empire after being expelled from the Iberian Peninsula prospered. The Sultan Mehmet II welcomed the exiled Jews into Constantinople with open arms, showing that his new “world city” would include as much of the world as he could attain. Once settled, the Jews set up shops, synagogues and homes in the cities of Constantinople, Izmir, Safed, Thessaloniki. They also claimed a foothold in the Balkan provinces of Bosnia, Macedonia, Bulgaria, Romania and Greece. The sultans of the Empire place no restrictions on freedom of trade and few limits on the construction of synagogues. Jews could hold almost any job including blacksmith, mapmaker, perfumer and others. Thessaloniki flourished in the textile industry, making it a national market. Some Jews held the position of the court physician, and were held in high regard by the sultans for their work. They were protected from Christian attacks by the Empire. Jewish art and literature grew and expanded. This situation lasted throughout the 16^th and 17^th centuries until the fall of the Ottoman Empire. During the fall, many Jews from the Balkan provinces traveled to Israel due to lack of nationalism. More than half of the Thessaloniki trading houses, including banks, owned by Jews, were subject to shrinkage during the Balkan wars and the conquering of the Balkans by Greece. Many of the Balkan Jews were then subjected to Hellenization by the early 20^th century.

Overall, The Jews had a free and prosperous life during the Ottoman Empire’s rule. They had great amounts of religious and trading freedom. They built up large industries that only made the Empire wealthier, and were treated with kindness by the sultans because of it.