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, and had emerged as a major center of Jewish life. 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, most notably those of poverty and social class. Through the voices of both beggars on the street and mercantile elites, shoe-shiners and newspaper editors, rabbis and housewives, this book argues that it was new attitudes to poverty and class, not Judaism, that most significantly framed this Sephardi community's encounter with the modern age.
You can read this ebook online in a web browser, without downloading anything or installing software.
This ebook is available in file types:
This ebook is available in:
After you've bought this ebook, you can choose to download either the PDF version or the ePub, or both.
The publisher has supplied this book in DRM Free form with digital watermarking.
You can read this eBook on any device that supports DRM-free EPUB or DRM-free PDF format.
The publisher has supplied this book in encrypted form, which means that you need to install free software in order to unlock and read it.
To read this ebook on a mobile device (phone or tablet) you'll need to install one of these free apps:
To download and read this eBook on a PC or Mac:
The publisher has set limits on how much of this ebook you may print or copy. See details.