Dr Hilary Pomeroy
Jewish Life in the Realms of the Sultans
Summary
Despite the vicissitudes of their expulsion from Spain and their dangerous journey to the East, numerous Sephardi communities were established in the Ottoman Empire. This session examines various aspects of life in these new communities including community structure, trades and professions, the family, culinary and material culture, education, as well as Ladino language and literature.
Dr Hilary Pomeroy
Dr Pomeroy holds a PhD from the department of Hispanic Studies, Queen Mary University of London and is teaching fellow emerita in the Department of Hebrew and Jewish Studies, University College London. She has been an invited speaker at universities and institutions throughout Europe and has published numerous articles on Sephardi culture.
First of all, yeshiva is not a term that one would use in the Ottoman Empire. The children, the boys went to school in what would be the equivalent of a hader very often in very large classrooms. But yes, the Ottoman Empire produced many well-known rabbis and scholars, particularly people like, well the Shulchan Aruch, Joseph Karan wrote his book there and was written there. There were more advanced schools of Jewish education or Jewish education.
I don’t think they were in Istanbul. I think you find them in North Africa as decoration above the doorways and painted on the walls. And the significance is to keep away evil and evil spirits, but you don’t get much in the way of the hamsa in the Ottoman Empire. Not all the customs of North Africa will be found in the Ottoman Empire, for example, the use of henna, which you find so much in Algeria or Morocco, it’s not very much used at all.
No, they certainly wouldn’t be reading or writing.