The Jews of Turkey and the Balkans and Ladino Culture

About the Project 

The goal of this project is to initiate and implement research and other academic activities that contribute to research on the Jewish communities of the Balkans and Ladino culture.

During the 2017–2018 academic year Prof. Rozen has continued her writing of two books on which she has been working for the past several years: 1) A History of the Jews of Salonika under Greek Rule (1912–1943), and 2) the second volume of her trilogy on the Jews of Istanbul during the Ottoman Period (1566–1808).

Online Database: Jewish Cemeteries in Turkey

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The Center is building an online database of Jewish cemeteries in Turkey based on data collected by Prof. Rozen over the course of many years of research. Her collection includes over 100,000 photos of 60,000 gravestones from all over Turkey, dating from the sixteenth through twentieth centuries. This data will provide a unique portrait of the Jewish community living in Turkey during the sixteenth to twentieth centuries. Over the past year, the rescanning of the images at high resolution was completed and they have almost all been uploaded to the website. In addition, introductory texts on each of the different cemeteries and their histories were added to the website, as well as documentation of various sacred objects, and a user’s manual which will aid the user in searching the website. The website’s launch is anticipated in the coming months.

Publications

Minna Rozen, "Jamila Ḥarabun and Her Two Husbands:On Betrothal and Marriage among Ottoman Jews in Sixteenth-Century Salonika," Journal of Family History, July 2018, 30 pp.

Minna Rozen, " On Nationalizing Minorities: The Education of Salonikan Jewry, 1912–1941," in Αρχείων Ανάλεκτα: Περιοδική έκδοση μελέτης και έρευνας αρχείων (δεύτερη περίοδος), 3(Θεσσαλονίκη 2018), 80 pp.

Forthcoming Publications

Minna Rozen, Between the Spiritual and the Terrestrial: The Perception of Death in the Jewish Mediterranean Culture of the Early Modern Period, Brepols Publishers.

מינה רוזן, גשר צר מאד: קהילת יהודי שאלוניקי תחת שלטון יוון ,1912–1943.

The Attitude towards Old Age in Ottoman Jewish Society

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Senior Researcher: Dr. Ruth Lamdan

Dr. Lamdan is conducting a comprehensive research project on the attitude towards old age in Ottoman Jewish society during the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries.  Her research particularly examines the status of widows and elderly women in Jewish society.  Her work is based on a broad range of sources: Responsa literature, Halachic sources, eulogies and gravestones, sermons, contemporary correspondence, and documents from the Sharia court of law.  Over the past year Dr. Lamdan completed the recording, sorting and evaluation of the vast array of findings that were collected and she is now in the process of analyzing and summarizing the relevant data.  She will make use of the Jewish Cemeteries in Turkey website when it will be available. She has begun writing the book based on her research, and she is currently devoting significant time to the preparation of a comprehensive introduction.

In addition, Dr. Lamdan has begun serving as the main editor of the Jubilee Volume in honor of Prof. Minna Rozen, which will be published as part of the Center’s series Michael.

Conferences

June 10-14, 2018

Dr. Lamdan represented the Center at an international conference held in honor of Prof. Minna Rozen on the occasion of her retirement, which was organized jointly by the University of Haifa and the Center. Dr. Lamdan delivered a lecture entitled “A Rashomon Family Story from the Cairo Geniza”.

September 13, 2018

Dr. Lamdan represented the Center at a symposium entitled “Under the Sultan’s Patronage: Sephardi Jews in Ottoman Eretz Yisrael during the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries”, organized by the J.R. Elyachar Center for Studies in Sephardi Heritage and held at Yad Ben Zvi.  Dr. Lamdan delivered a lecture entitled “On Old Age and Old Women in Eretz Yisrael during the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries”.