Syrian Jewry in Transition, 1840-1880

This pioneering study offers a comprehensive account ofSyria's key Jewish communities at an important juncture in their historythat also throws light on the broader effects of modernization in theOttoman empire.The Ottomanreforms of the mid-nineteenth century accelerated the process of openingup Syria up to European travellers and traders, and gave Syria'sJews access to European Jewish communities. The resulting influxof Western ideas led to a decline in the traditional economy,with serious consequences for the Jewish occupational structure. Italso allowed for the introduction of Western education, throughschools run by the Alliance Israelite Universelle, influenced thestructure and the administration of Jewish society in Syria, and changedthe balance of the relationship between Muslims, Christians, andJews. Initially Syria's Jewish communities flourished economicallyand politically in these new circumstances, but there wasa developing recognition that their future lay overseas. After theopening of the Suez Canal in 1869, the bankruptcy of the Ottomanempire in 1875, and the suspension of the Ottoman constitution in 1878, thisfeeling intensified. A process of decline set inthat ultimately culminated in large-scale Jewishemigration, first to Egypt and then to the West. From that point on, thefuture for Syrian Jews lay in the West, not the East.Detailed andcompelling, this book covers Jewish community life, the legal statusof Jews in Syria, their relationship with their Muslim and Christianneighbours, and their links with the West. It draws on a wide rangeof archival material in six languages, including Jewish, ChristianArab, and Muslim Arab sources, Ottoman and European documents, consularreports, travel accounts, and reports from the contemporary press and byemissaries to Syria of the Alliance Israelite Universelle.Rabbinic sources, including the archive of the chief rabbinatein Istanbul, are particularly important in opening a windowonto Syrian Jewish life and concerns. Together these sources bring tolight an enormous amount of material and provide a broad, multifacetedperspective on the Syrian Jewish community.The Hebrewedition of the book was the winner of the Ben Zvi Award for Research inOriental Jewry in 2004.'For the firsttime in the historiography of the Jews of Muslim countries we are presentedwith a rich picture, well written and riveting, of the history of importantJewish communities in the period of the Tanzimat.' Fromthe award citation