The reading for Friday, September 13 is on the Jews of the city of Salonika (now called Thessalonica) in Greece. The reading is available on Sakai - "The Arrival of the Sephardim" by Mark Mazower.
Pick two of these questions to answer:
1. Why, according to Mazower, was the Ottoman Empire so hospitable to the Sephardic Jews fleeing Spain? What role did these Jews play in the struggle between the Ottomans and the Hapsburg Empire (also known as the Holy Roman Empire)?
2. How did Salonica grow into a majority Jewish city?
3. What kind of Jewish culture did the Sephardim create there?
4. What role did the Jews of Salonica play in the Ottoman economy? What kind of occupations and trades did they enter?
5. What social and religious conflicts arose between the Sephardic newcomers and members of the older Jewish communities – the Romaniotes and the Ashkenazim?
6. How did the Jewish community in Salonica organize itself? (or was it organized?)
7. What role was played by the rabbis in the Salonica Jewish community?
4. Q: What role did the Jews of Salonica play in the ottoman economy? What kind of occupations and trades did they enter?
ReplyDeleteA: Their role was to make uniforms for the janissary infantry corps as well as being responsible for being a key producer and exporter of cloth in eastern Mediterranean. The wealthy Jews bring up the local supply of imported dyes, and wool. The poorer Jews with equipment and wages for, making up the finished material, dyeing, weaving, and brushing. They are also metallurgists, miners and bankroll operators.
5. Q: What social and religious conflicts arose between the Sephardic newcomers and the members of the older Jewish communities- the Romaniotes and the Ashkenzim?
A: Both groups behaved as i the its identity was at stake due to differences in linguistic, and cultural, and liturgical.
2.
ReplyDeleteSalonica grew into a majority Jewish city because the Jews were exiled pretty much everywhere else. First in England, then Spain, and then Italy. The Muslim Ottoman government welcomed the Jews as it struggled for power against Christian dominated Western Europe that turned its back on the Jews. Jews turned to Salonica because it was less populated than other major metropolitan areas in the Ottoman Empire, though it is unclear whether that was by choice or because authorities sent them there. Soon enough, Salonica became a majority Jewish city with Muslims being the administrators in the economy and Jews making up much of the labor force.
7.
The Jews of Salonica went to the rabbis with the majority of their problems, as they were discouraged interestingly enough by their rabbis from being a part of the Ottoman legal system unless absolutely necessary. The reading says that rabbis were put into the role of religiously trained lawyers in the Jewish community. They dealt with mainly family issues. It was also the job of the rabbi to keep up with the rest of European culture. This allowed them to apply the teachings of Aristotle and the advancements in Arab science to Talmudic studies.