Communities, Culture

Sephardi Jews In The Ottoman Empire: Aspects Of Material Culture

Esther Juhasz, The Israel Museum, 1990

‘Sephardic Jews in the Ottoman Empire: Aspects of Material Culture’ is an exhibition based book birthed from Israel Museum; a project from Julie and Leo Forchheimer Department of Jewish Ethnography. This book is concerned with primarily Spanish Jews who settled in the Ottoman Empire. A study of these material culture of the Sephardi communities during the Ottoman Empire reveals three principle components: Spanish heritage, Ottoman culture and modern European culture. This articles deals with various aspects of their material culture from the end of the nineteenth century to the early twentieth century and this cultural unit extends from Rumania, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Green to Turkey and Israel – all areas which were under the Ottoman rule and influenced by Ottoman culture. A study of these material culture of the Sephardi communities during the Ottoman Empire reveals three principle components: Spanish heritage, Ottoman culture and modern European culture. These rich preservations of uncovering materials and techniques, various clothings and embroidery work to furnishing, reveal customs of Sephardi Ottoman communities.

The Ottoman Catalogue is a curated section of our Bookstore featuring English-language classics and new scholarship on Ottoman history and culture. It explores the impact of nationalism on the Ottoman Empire, the consequences of its decline and dissolution for Europe, and the histories of peoples, lands, religions, and their books before the concept of “the Middle East” emerged as a political and geographical term.

Following two decades of research, programming, and publishing on the history of nationalism, Fascism, Nazism, and Communism, Centro Primo Levi moved its attention to the period before 1922, exploring the stories, ideas, exchanges, and transformations that occurred over six centuries of Ottoman rule.

The era that ushered in the rise of the workers movement, totalitarianiasm, the Spanish Civil War, the fall of three empires, the shaping of modern nation-states, and the establishment of an economy based on industrial and scientific growth, banking, and warfare, also brought to an end cultures, concepts of time, language, and rituals that today’s observers often struggle to appreciate.

Much of this history has attracted modest attention from American and English-language scholarship. However, over the past few years, there has been an increase in original and translated research and publications, showcasing this period from various angles and perspectives. As the “Middle East” storms into our societies, challenging the vocabulary of public life, as well as its ethical and epistemological paradigms, we feel that attempting to move our gaze back into this past may help us refine our sensibility and interpretational tools.