Page 365 - להפוך לבולגרים / קונפורטי

viii ‫ ׀‬Becoming Bulgarians

state, it maintained a democratic character, a liberal constitution
and extended equality to its resident minorities.

Chapter 1 presents the tapestry of Jewish life under Ottoman
rule, comprised of Romagnote Jews (descendants of the Byzantine
Empire), Bavarian and Hungarian Ashkenazis, and exiles from the
Iberian Peninsula. By the second half of the nineteenth century, Jews
made up approximately one percent of a diverse population of some
three million, half of which were Christian and the rest Muslim
Turkish-speakers, Pomaks (Bulgarian-speaking Christian converts
to Islam), and various minorities: Albanians, Tatars, Circassians
and Romani. Jewish exiles from the Iberian Peninsula initially
settled in Thessaloniki and Istanbul, and then made their way via
overland trade routes to cities in the heart of the Balkan. By the mid-
nineteenth century they made up thirty communities, numbering
some thirty thousand people. The main issues concerning the Jewish
community at the time were the penetration of western culture
and modern education. Despite religious objection, Notables with
familial and commercial ties to the Viennese community formed
islands of enlightenment and education in the central Balkan.
The meldar, the Sepharadi cheder, became a modern school, and
education was later transferred to the French-Jewish organization
Alliance Israélite Universelle. This was a significant factor in the
development and shaping of Jewish communities.

Chapter 2 begins with the War of 1877 between Russia and
the Ottoman Empire, an event which devastated the Jewish
communities living in the war zones. The Jews lost their Muslim
sponsors, were cut off from their economic and religious centers
in Istanbul and Thessaloniki, and experienced a crisis verging
on alienation: they did not know Bulgarian; market days were
changed to Saturdays; their livelihoods were damaged and their
communities undermined; they were compelled to serve in the
Bulgarian military, and modern antisemitism made an appearance
among their communities.