Photographing Modernization in Jewish Salonica during the Late-Ottoman Period

Abstract

The studies of Jewish communities constitute an important part of Jewish history and the world history. Throughout the period of the Diaspora, Jewish communities have maintained their uniqueness while actively or passively interacting with the outside world. In recent years, the focus of academia on the study of Jewish communities has increased, but it still remains on the dominant Ashkenazi Jews from Eastern Europe. The Jewish community of Salonica during the Ottoman Empire was a community of the descendants of Sephardic Jews from medieval Spain. Research on this group will enrich the materials and provide new perspectives in the field of Jewish studies. This article presents the living conditions of the Jews in Salonica at that time through visual materials, their image in the eyes of the West, the impact of European colonialism, industrialization, and urbanization on them, and how Jews transitioned from tradition and religiosity to modernity and secularism. Under the influence of different external environments and social networks, Sephardic Jews embarked on a unique path of modernization different from that of Ashkenazi Jews.