The EGO article “Sephardic Jews in the Early Modern Era” by Predrag Bukovec has been translated into English by Joe P. Kroll and is now available on European History Online (EGO).
Since the 16th century, when the first Jews expelled from the Iberian Peninsula arrived at the Sultan’s invitation, the Ottoman Empire stood beside the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth as the second great centre of Jewish life in the modern age. A comparatively tolerant policy encouraged important developments in culture and politics which were felt far beyond the frontiers of the Ottoman Empire. These included not only the modern Kabbala and Sabbatianism, a messianic movement, but also the emergence of Salonica, Safed and Istanbul as centres of scholarship whose influence continues to be felt in the Jewish faith. This article discusses the history of the Sephardim between their expulsion from Spain and Portugal and subsequent arrival in the Ottoman Empire and the end of the 18th century. It will also look at non-Ottoman Jews in south-eastern Europe and in the Protestant cities of Amsterdam, Hamburg and London, with the political status of these Sephardic populations varying considerably.
