Jews in the Ottoman Empire

An updated, contextual picture of the Salonikan Jewish working world from the Balkan Wars (1912/3) until the onset of the dictatorship of Ioannis Metaxas (1936) is proposed in this paper. Based on the Ladino and Greek press, the list of applicants for certificates to immigrate to Mandatory Palestine between 1930 and 1935, and statistics compiled by Member of Parliament Mentesh Ibn Shanji in 1936 concerning Jewish professionals in the city, it is argued that the decline of Salonikan Jewry and its chronology must be understood against the backdrop of the ebb of the city at large and changes in Greek tobacco politics during the interbellum period, rather than solely interethnic tension and efforts to hellenize the city. This portrait of the interwar working world in Salonika also refutes the commonly accepted view of the success of Zionism in that city.

https://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/QBWV9PBFR2X5KFECIWFI/full?target=10.1080/13530194.2021.1969894

The policies of the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP) towards
Zionism and Jewish immigration and settlement in Palestine have
already been considered in the scholarly literature. The other side of
the issue, however, namely how the Yishuv itself regarded the CUP
and its policies in general, has not been the subject of a systematic
examination. The present study attempts to explore this question
by a reading of five different Hebrew newspapers published in
Palestine during the period 1909–1914. The findings indicate that
the newspapers of the Second Aliyah immigrants and the Orthodox
Ashkenazim were more supportive of the CUP than those of the
Sephardim and especially the First Aliyah immigrants, depending
on the different priorities of each sector within the Yishuv.
Regardless of these differences, however, and in spite of the
Yishuv’s growing disillusionment with the Unionists already
observed by the existing literature, all the newspapers considered
here ultimately gave preference to the CUP over the opposition.
Among their reasons for this preference were its lack of overt
hostility to the Jews and the Yishuv, its identity as the mainstay of
the constitutional regime, and its relative superiority in terms of
qualified staff, coherence, and socio-economic programmes.

Les archives dites « Yougoslavie » de l’AIU, jusque-là non-numérisés, constituent les sources primordiales concernant la présence juive en Macédoine du Nord.  Quatre liasses complètes des archives « Yougoslavie » de l’Alliance israélite universelle couvrent vingt-sept ans de l’histoire de son activité scolaire à Monastir sous les régimes ottoman et serbe. Ces manuscrits centenaires des employés et des adhérents de l’AIU témoignent des changements sociaux et politiques que traversent toutes les communautés de la ville, connue comme laboratoire des nationalismes balkaniques. Certainement, ceux-ci mettent en lumière plus particulièrement les mutations sociales et les intégrations politiques que connait la communauté juive de Monastir tant avec l’arrivée de l’Alliance en 1895 qu’avec la mise en place du régime serbe en 1912.

This paper describes and discusses a complicated Halachic case. It begins with a quarrel between a husband and wife, who were members of the Jewish community in Damascus during the 16th century. Their marital row led to a serious argument between two rabbis in the city, namely Rabbi Yosef Ibn Sayaḥ and Rabbi Moshe Baruch. The ensuing Halachic dispute that erupted involved rabbis from the neighboring city, Safed. The paper reconstructs the series of events, and presents the complete version of one of the responsa, which was written at the time of the dispute, along with excerpts from additional responsa.
The case offers readers a vivid glimpse into the life of 16th century Jewry in Damascus. It sheds light not only on marital affairs, such as the age of marriage and the couple's relationship, but on other important aspects regarding the function of the rabbinic court within the Ottoman Empire, and the relationships and interactions between sages from different centers. Analyzing this case helps to better understand the rabbis' written correspondence, the nature of superiors-subordinate relationships, and the alliances and conflicts that existed among sages in the Ottoman Empire. Furthermore, these responsa reveal an additional piece of the Halachic work produced by Rabbi Yoseph Ibn Sayaḥ, a highly respected Musta'rib posek (adjudicator), whose writings have yet to receive their rightful place among the history pages of Halachic literature

The life story of David Arusi, the first Jewish
photographer in Yemen, is without a doubt
unusual and colorful, and the unexpected and
surprising course of his life enables us to follow
the Jewish San`ani community in its city of origin
and its offshoots in Jerusalem and Egypt, and
to learn about the life of a Yemenite Jew who
lived on the margins of the traditional Jewish
norm. The article examines his being shunned by
Jewish society in Sana’a and Jerusalem, referring
to three circles: his personal life, the political
context and the failure of the Ottoman option in
Yemen; the article also examines attitudes toward
photographs and photographers in Yemen.

גרשם שלום -- תולדות התנועה השבתאית // 
History of the Sabbatian Movement was the first attempt by one of the giants of scholarship on Jewish mysticism, Gershom Scholem (1897-1982), to present a comprehensive picture of Sabbatianism as a single narrative. The book is based on the series of lectures given at the Hebrew University during 1939-1940, which are of special importance in that they laid the foundation for all of Scholem’s research in the years to come, including his extensive monograph Sabbatai Sevi: the mystical Messiah, 1626-1676, first published in 1957. What follows is a sketch of the massive History of the Sabbatian Movement, over which Gershom Scholem toiled his whole life but never completed. The lectures are presented here for the first time based on the original manuscripts, alongside the text of an additional series of lectures that Scholem gave as part of the “Month of Study” organized by Berl Katznelson in 1941. These long-hidden texts reveal new facets of the Sabbatian movement and its history, as well as of Gershom Scholem as a historian, and serve as prologue to any further study of this most stormy and complicated episode in Jewish history. The new edition includes a comprehensive introduction by the editors on all of Gershom Scholem’s studies on Sabbatianism. //---//

Table of Contents:
“The Open Book” - Jonatan Meir and Shinichi Yamamoto /
Introduction /
Chapter One: The Faces of the Generation /
Chapter Two: The Messianic Movement from its Beginnings to its Height /
Chapter Three: The Twists and Turns of the Sabbatian Movement /
Chapter Four: The Historical Development of Sabbatianism /
Appendix A: Messianism from the Spanish Expulsion to the Eve of Emancipation (Month of Study, 1941) /
Appendix B: The Sabbatian Movement: Its Roots, Its Development, and its Aftermath (Introduction, 1942-45 /
Appendix C: Bibliography of Works by Gershom Scholem on Sabbatianism /
Index /
Notes on the Cover Image (from the collection of Paweł Maciejko)

//--// Order The BOOK
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In the period of Ottoman rule Orthodox Christians in the Balkans followed economic trends and behaved according to existing laws. The elders from Hilandar monastery, as well as all Athonite monks acted accordingly. If the monks had some religious prejudices towards Jews, just like towards Muslims, it never refers to business relations. Ottoman documents from Hilandar monastery archive bear evidence to highly developed trade dealings, credit transactions, as well as the presence of Jewish merchants on Mount Athos itself. The monastic fraternity of Hilandar took out loans from Jewish creditors, usually those from Thessaloniki and Siderokavsia, especially in the case of large sums that were difficult to obtain from other sources. It seems that they pledged their estates (metochia) until the payment of their debts, if Jewish creditors who for a time governed the large Hilandar metochion in Üç Ev (Neochorion, Kalamaria) are to be believed. The largest loans were taken out during the period of the so-called “confiscation affair” (1568/69), when the monastic community of Hilandar (as all other monasteries in the Empire) was forced to purchase its own estates from the state. Jewish creditors sometimes took unlawful interest rates, as evidenced by disputes held at kadı courts. There are examples testifying that the hegoumens of Hilandar voluntarily took Jews for their legal representatives (vekils) in real estate transactions, which needed to be registered at the kadi court. They clearly trusted the Jews as financial experts. Their commercial expertise and ability to raise large funds in a short period of time made the Jews useful business partners of the Hilandar Monastery.

A 13th-14th century marble relief icon is exhibited in the Museum of Byzantine Culture depicting Saint David ((fig 1-3). The icon was found in January 1944 in the Jewish cemetery, which was located outside the eastern city walls and destroyed by the German Nazi. It had been reused overturned as a tombstone for a Jewish grave. There is no evidence to prove its original location. The icon was conserved in 2001. No traces of written text were found at its back side (fig. 4-6). An unpublished, signed letter sent by Chrysoula Vlachou to Eftihia Kourkoutidou-Nikolaidou, the first director of the Museum of Byzantine Culture, which is kept in the archives of the Museum of Byzantine Culture, gives information about the historical background of its finding (fig. 7-8). The accidental tracking of the icon by the writer and group of peers playing in the ruins of the Jewish cemetery during the German Occupation is clearly described in this particular letter. The icon was loaded on a hand-held  carriage with the assistance of Constantine Platis, the archimandrite in the metropolis of Thessaloniki and headed to Evangelistria, the cemetery of the Greek Orthodox community, which was at a short distance. Later, the sender saw the icon in Rotonda (fig. 9) and in an exhibition in Athens. The Jewish cemetery covered an area of about 350 acres and contained 300,000-500,000 tombs. The oldest ones date back to the late 15th - early 16th century. Its complete destruction by the Nazi Germans, its transformation into public land, granted to the university and the extermination of the Jewish community, resulted in uprooting the members of the formerly thriving community from their historical roots. Furthermore, its destruction is related to the antiquities which came to light and what happened to them. Two archaeologists' reports, on 4th January 1943 and 15th July 1944 to the General Administration of Macedonia provide information on the damaged cemetery. Two more published sculptures of the MBC collection (BE 242/1 and AC 274), holding Jewish burial inscriptions of 1508 and 1615 AD originate from the same cemetery. The letter of the MBC collection adds on to the testimonies of the citizens of Thessaloniki, who had a vivid image the damaged cemetery and it sheds light on a dark period of the city.

The Jews of Ottoman Izmir: A Modern History, Dina Danon sets out to tell the story of how the Ottoman Jewish community of Izmir underwent a transitional period in the late nineteenth century, during which new understandings of community emerged. Unlike recent literature on Ottoman non-Muslims that focuses on the relationship between Istanbul's Jewish community and the city's Muslim political elites, Danon's work looks inward to explore the dynamics within Izmir's vibrant Jewish society. What emerges is a comprehensive social history of a community that to a great extent maintained a character unique from those of other Sephardic Ladino-speaking communities, such as in Istanbul and Salonica. Through her detailed descriptions of issues of poverty, class, and social mobility, Danon exposes a narrative that stands in stark contrast to those of Ashkenazi European Jews, whether in the Russian Empire, where Jews suffered persecution or, in western Europe, such as France and Germany.

Review
"This excellent study is [...] recommended for academic libraries."
Daniel Scheide, Florida Atlantic University, Association of Jewish Libraries Reviews, Volume VII, No. 2
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Abstract
It is difficult to ignore the diversity of the kabbalah or both its modest and coarse manifestations over the course of the twentieth-century – phenomena that have latterly garnered considerable attention in both the lay and research literature alike. That said, it appears that the historical background for these current developments, namely the world of the kabbalists in the late 1800s and early 1900s, has yet to merit an in-depth study. The dozens of hagiographies that are now being written by the progeny and admirers of the said kabbalists paint a romantic picture of a “glorious past.” In these books, the early twentieth century is described as a kabbalistic renaissance that is on equal footing with the days of Isaac Luria in Safad. Surprising as it may be, the Hebrew and Yiddish belles-lettres and, following in their footsteps, the research literature from Gershom Scholem onwards has left the impression that kabbalah deteriorated in the beginning of the twentieth century to the point of nearly vanishing of the world stage. According to this same narrative, only the efforts of a few surviving kabbalists—a sort of dying elite—kept the flame from expiring. On those rare occasions in which scholars bring up these practitioners, they are referred to as “the remnants of the kabbalists” or similar epithets. This characterization was painted in even louder colors upon describing the era’s Jerusalem-based kabbalists. At one and the same time, then, there are descriptions of both a great awakening and steep decline. The author’s attempt to make sense of this contradiction is one of the catalysts behind the present study. Its origins aside, the book focuses on the kabbalah seminaries (Yeshivot or academies) in Jerusalem from 1896 to 1948 as well as the various manifestations of kabbalah within traditional Jewish society.
Kabbalistic Circles in Jerusalem breaks new ground on the robust activities of Jerusalem’s kabbalistic yeshivot, foremost among them Beit el, Rehovot haNahar, and Sha'ar haShamayim. By virtue of these institutions’ publications and the unearthing of tens of documents and manuscripts that were deposited in sundry archives, the book surveys the daily schedule and methodology of these yeshivot; their methods for disseminating kabbalah books; the dynamics between revelation and concealment that undergirded all the kabbalists’ endeavors; the arrangement of the RaShaSh Siddur’s first print run; the messianic outlooks that were espoused in this community regarding the attempts to discover the Sambatyon River and the lost tribes; and the content and assorted roles of the Tikkunim literature. What is more, the author explores the disagreements between competing groups—most notably, the feud over the extent to which occult wisdom should be exposed to the general public—and the various gradients of Jewish mysticism within these seminaries.
Against this backdrop, shedding light on Jerusalem’s kabbalist circles between the years 1896 and 1948 opens a door to the wider world of the myriad kabbalistic streams in East Europe and Arab lands, the Maghreb included. The foundations that were laid by these yeshivas in the early twentieth century also paved the way for the contemporary blossoming of kabbalah in many and manifold circles. In this sense, retracing the pertinent developments in the Land of Israel at the outset of the twentieth century is imperative not only for repairing the distorted picture of the past, but for understanding the ongoing surge in kabbalah study
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This book endeavors to fill a lacuna in the literature on early twentieth-century kabbalah, namely the lack of a comprehensive account of the traditional kabbalah seminaries (Yeshivot) in Jerusalem from 1896 to 1948 as well as the various manifestations of kabbalah within traditional Jewish society. The foundations that were laid in the early twentieth century also paved the way for the contemporary blossoming of kabbalah in many and manifold circles. In this sense, retracing the pertinent developments in Palestine at the outset of the twentieth century is imperative not only for repairing the distorted picture of the past, but for understanding the ongoing surge in kabbalah study.

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Yahudilerin tarihi, her araştırmacı açısından, ilgi çekici olmuştur. Bunun altında, birçok ülkeye dağılmaları, çeşitli baskılar görmeleri ve gittikleri yerlerde daima önemli bir konuma gelmeleri gibi çeşitli nedenler yatmaktadır. Biz de bu çalışmamızda Bulgaristan’daki Yahudilerin tarihini ele alacağız. Ne yazık ki ülkemizde bu konuda birkaç çalışmadan başka yapılan araştırma bulunmamaktadır. Çalışmamızın boyutu dolayısı ile gerekli yerlerde örnekler verilerek çok fazla detaya girilmeyecektir.
  İlk bölümde, Yahudilerin, Bulgaristan topraklarına ilk yerleşiminden başlanarak, Osmanlı’nın bölgeyi fethettiği zamana kadar olan dönem ele alınacaktır. İkinci bölümde, Osmanlı egemenliği altında, Bulgaristan’daki Yahudilerin durumu ve yaşanan tarihi süreç aktarılacaktır. Sonraki bölümde, ikisi de birer dönüm noktası olan, 93 Harbi’nden, 2. Dünya Savaşı yıllarına kadar Yahudilerin, Bulgaristan topraklarındaki yaşamı ile ilgili bilgiler verilecektir. Son bölümde ise 2.Dünya Savaşı yıllarında Yahudilerin durumlarına dair bir tasvir çizilecektir. Her bölüm okuyucu tarafından dikkatle ele alındığında, zihninde Bulgaristan’daki Yahudilerin, tarihi ve yaşadıkları süreçler hakkında genel bir çerçeve oluşacaktır.

In 1869, Hayyim Habshush, a Yemeni Jew, accompanied the European orientalist Joseph Halévy on his archaeological tour of Yemen. Twenty years later, Habshush wrote A Vision of Yemen, a memoir of their travels, that provides a vivid account of daily life, religion, and politics. More than a simple travelogue, it is a work of trickster-tales, thick anthropological descriptions, and reflections on Jewish–Muslim relations. At its heart lies the fractious and intimate relationship between the Yemeni coppersmith and the "enlightened" European scholar and the collision between the cultures each represents. The book thus offers a powerful indigenous response to European Orientalism.

This edition is the first English translation of Habshush's writings from the original Judeo-Arabic and Hebrew and includes an accessible historical introduction to the work. The translation maintains Habshush's gripping style and rich portrayal of the diverse communities and cultures of Yemen, offering a potent mixture of artful storytelling and cultural criticism, suffused with humor and empathy. Habshush writes about the daily lives of men and women, rich and poor, Jewish and Muslim, during a turbulent period of war and both Ottoman and European imperialist encroachment. With this translation, Alan Verskin recovers the lost voice of a man passionately committed to his land and people.

The rise of the idea of Shabbetai Sevi as the messiah led not only to an
exceptional theological outburst in the annals of the Jewish people, but also to the rise of new spiritual leaders. The two most famous persons were, of course, Shabbetai Sevi himself and his prophet, Nathan of Gaza. This paper will discuss two additional important figures—Samuel Primo and Abraham Cardoso, and will examine their personal and theological relationship with Nathan. I will seek to argue that by examining the figure of Nathan, we can redraw the figures of Cardoso and Primo. Outlining these relationships will not only enable us to understand the motivations and teachings of these three men through the similarities and differences between them, but will also enhance our understanding of the development of the Sabbatian idea (or to be more precise—the Sabbatian ideas) among the first generation of Sabbatianism. Research into Sabbatian history and theology has focused on Cardoso’s work, and less on that of Primo, but I would like to re-examine some of the assumptions about the two figures and their status in the Sabbatian movement and the motivations that led them to act as they did. Their attitude toward Nathan and his teachings is a test case for the reassessment of these personalities.

Joseph b. Isaac Sambari (1640–1703 CE), in his description of various synagogues in Cairo and Fusṭāṭ, based himself in part on account authored by Taqī al-Dīn Aḥmad b. ʿAlī al-Maqrīzī (1364–1442 CE) more than two centuries earlier. How strong, however, was his fealty to this source? Comparison of the two texts in regard to the same set of synagogues reveals near-identity in some cases, omissions in others, and expansions in yet others. By implication, while Sambari is indebted to al-Maqrīzī, his account is very much his own and he is less indebted to al-Maqrīzī than previous scholars suggest.

Jacob Katz defined Rabbi Yehuda Alkalai and Rabbi Zvi Hirsch Kalischer as "Harbingers of Zionism". The revelation of a letter sent by Rabbi Eliyahu Bechor Hazan to the heads of the Alliance Israélite Universelle in Paris, towards the end of the summer of 1878, allows us to re-examine this definition. In this article, I propose that the conclusion emerging from this renewed perspective is that in the case of these faithful of the Jewish tradition, as well as in the case of Rabbi Eliyahu Hazan it is appropriate to stop using this definition. These rabbis set up a different national-religious vision whose feet are rooted in the changing reality, but it foresees a messianic yearning for the rebuilding of the Temple, the renewal of the kingdom of David, and life according to Jewish law in the Land of Israel. This national religious vision is very different from the secular Zionist vision.

Review on:
1. S. Glick with D. Arad and Z. Stampfer et al., Seride Teshuvot, A Descriptive Catalogue of Responsa Fragments from the Jacques Mosseri Collection, Cambridge University Library, Leiden 2012
2. ש' גליק, בשיתוף ד' ארד וי' שוורץ, שרידי תשובות מחכמי האימפריה העות'מאנית, א-ג, ירושלים תשע"ג-תשע"ד

This article explores the growing involvement of non-Muslim merchant-banking families from Damascus in the Ottoman provincial administration following the imperial bankruptcy in 1875. Drawing on the records of civil servants (sicill-i ahvâl defterleri), located in the Ottoman State Archives in Istanbul, I examine the “administrative biographies” of several members of the Jewish Farhi family, who had been in the service of local governors for generations, from the late eighteenth century. I argue that through life-time careers in the empire’s fiscal administration, local merchant families managed to maintain their power, if only partially, despite the crises of that period. For these families, this process entailed a host of new social and political roles, which tied them even closer to the state than before. Finally, I discuss the biography of Abdu Farhi, who worked as a local wakil for the Jewish Colonization Association in southern Syria after his retirement from the fiscal bureaucracy of the province. I use Abdu’s case to rethink the place of local Jews in the changing socio-political landscape of fin-de-siècle Syria/Palestine from an imperial perspective and away from common Zionist narratives.

The case of the tiny Jewish colony of Har-Tuv, which was founded by Ottoman Jews who immigrated to Palestine in 1895 from Bulgaria, sheds light on Ottoman policies vis-à-vis settlement activity by Sephardic Jews in Palestine at a time when there were concerted efforts to limit the Jewish national activity there. The latter was mainly carried out by non-Ottoman Ashkenazi Jews who immigrated to Palestine from eastern Europe. As the only colony established during
the First Aliyah by Sephardic Jews, and also due to its geographical isolation, Har-Tuv was detached from the processes taking place within the other Jewish colonies and the New Yishuv. At the same time, Har-Tuv’s founders had a long tradition of living under Ottoman rule and were on good terms with the local Ottoman authorities in Palestine. This was often useful when the colony had problems with its Arab neighbors, and on several occasions Har-Tuv even served as an intermediary between the Arab rural population and the government.

L'éveil de la conscience nationale et le rôle de la religion en Grèce au XVIe Le témoignage de Belon, Thevet et Nicolay. En 1580, Montaigne commente la situation des Grecs de son temps : Mahomet II, écrit-il, « subjugua Constantinople et apporta la finale extermination du nom Grec ». En effet, en 1453, l'Empire byzantin disparaît. Rappelons toutefois qu'il n'avait jamais été un État national, et qu'aucun État national grec n'existera officiellement avant 1830 2. Dès lors, s'agissant des Grecs du XV e siècle et du XVI e , il ne saurait être question d'unité d'un quelconque État grec. Les Grecs s'en trouvent-t-ils pour autant définitivement exterminés ? Ou peut-on, au contraire, parler à leur propos de conscience nationale ? A priori, on serait tenté de répondre à cette seconde question par la négative: la notion de millet n'apparaît pas avant le XIXe siècle, où les Ottomans l'utilisent pour distinguer les diverses ethnies de leur Empire et l'appliquent, entre autres, aux Grecs. Quant à ces derniers, lorsqu'ils veulent se désigner dans leur ensemble, c'est au mot Hellenismos qu'ils recourent. Ce terme a un sens à la fois concret et abstrait : hormis les hommes, il embrasse tout un réseau de notions attestées depuis l'Antiquité, notamment celle rendue par le mot moderne « diaspora », tout à fait pertinent pour les XVe et XVIe siècles où les lettrés byzantins viennent chercher refuge et moyens de subsistance auprès des cours d'Europe occidentale. Du point de vue spatial par exemple, l'Hellenismos n'est donc en aucun cas réductible ou strictement superposable à l'une des composantes de la conscience nationale au sens actuel, celle de territoire national. En revanche, le mot « nation », courant en français au XVIe siècle, est attesté à cette époque pour parler spécifiquement des Grecs. Dans les années 1547-1553, ce terme revient sous la plume de Pierre Belon, missionné dans l'Empire ottoman ainsi que deux autres voyageurs, André Thevet et Nicolas de Nicolay, futurs cosmographes du roi.

Sugya ḥamura (severe or difficult passage) is the term used to describe a passage in the Talmud and its commentaries that scholars have had difficulty understanding and have debated extensively. These passages occupied a meaningful place in the scholarly stratum of medieval and early-modern Sephardic Jews. Many an exposition has been written about these passages, amounting to a sub-genre of Talmudic exegesis. Due to their targeted subject matter and narrow scope, many such expositions have been lost. Some of the extant expositions are in manuscripts, and some were printed in other volumes of Talmudic and Halakhic literature. This study examines a rare instance of a sugya ḥamura that was printed as an independent booklet, written by R. Judah Ibn Bolat and published under the name Darush be-Hilkhot ha-Pesacḥ [A Solution in the Laws of Passover] (Constantinople, 1524), of which only a single copy survives. The booklet endeavors to establish the correct text of the commentary of R. Nissim Gerondi on a passage in tractate Pesacḥ. This study investigates the characteristics of this booklet, and its uniqueness. In addition, the article draws inferences from the work about the importance of argumentation between scholars of that era over difficult Talmudic passages, about meetings of scholars that were
set up to clarify them, and about the effect that demonstrating successful analysis of the difficult passage had on the status of a scholar.

In 1876 the Bavarian Jewish orientalist, Jacob Obermeyer, that stayed those days in Baghdad, published a series of articles in Hamagid newspaper, in which he sharply criticized R. Yosef Hayyim of Baghdad ('Ben Ish Hay'), whom he depicted as one that endangers the traditional existence of the Jewish community of Baghdad, and whose writings and practices had similar characteristics to those of both Hasidim and reformers—two groups Obermeyer thought to be outcast. In this article I will examine the discourse that was crystallized by Obermeyer in these articles, that demonstrates the reproducing of the discourse of the Hasidim's opponents as was constructed n Europe, and its implementation in the discussion of the character of RYH, that did not fit the categorical distinctions of this discourse—a character within which 'the characteristics of Geiger' and those of 'the Polish Rabbis' were integrated. However, Obermeyer's illustration of the affinity between Hayyim and Hasidim will also serve as a basis for a comparison between the two, that alongside with deep typological affinities will reveal important dofferences as well. This comparison will focus on two central aspects—the question of hermeneutics and the question of the relation between the religious/spiritual leader and his community. Based on this comparison I claim that the character of the RYH reflects the crystallization of a model of traditional Ottoman Jewish modernity which is different from the one that was shaped in the Hasidic context—a model that did not directly continue existing Baghdadi traditions and at the same time did not lead the shifts and changes he promoted according to fix frameworks that are considered as a necessary manifestation of modernity.