HaCKeRz KrOnIcKLeZ 3/HaCKeRz_KrOnIcKLeZ.iso/anarchy/essays/schoolsucks/sphash11.txt

Text File | 1996-04-27 | 15KB | 217 lines

subject = Sophomore
title = Difference Between Sephardic And Ashkenazi Jews in Modern times
papers =  "Difference between Sephardi and Ashkenazi Jews in Modern
    Jewish history"

      For the most part, modern Jewish history deals with the political,
social and economic advancements achieved by the Ashkenazi communities
in Europe, America, and later -- Palestine. Because of it's relatively
small size and involvement in the affairs of "civilized" countries of
Europe and America, the Sephardi branch of Judaism is rerely dealt with in
the context of modern Jewish history. Their developement is however, though
not as influential upon the flow of the "mainstream" history as that of the
Ashkenazi jewry, is nevertheless an area of interest to anyone undertaking
a serious study of Jewish history.
      The theological difference between the two movements, the Sefardi and
the  Ashekenazi,  lies  in  the traditional laws more than in written ones.
Both  take  an Orthodoxal approach to the written law of the Torah, and the
differences  in  its  interpretation  are  subtle  enough  to be dismissed.
However  the  traditions  aquired, and at times given the power of laws, in
the  course  of the long centuries of diaspora differ considerably from one
branch  of  Judaism  to  another.  Just  as  the  worldwide language of the
Ashekenazim,  Yiddish,  is  a  mixture  of  Hebrew  with German, the common
language  used  by  the Sephardim Ladino, still in use in some parts of the
world,  is a dialect formed by combining Hebrew with Spanish. The Sephardim
who  have  historically  been  more  involved into the lives of the gentile
societies  where  they settled don't have as strict a set of observances as
do  the  Ashkenazis  who have been contained in closed ghettos up until two
centuries  ago. The official doctrine of the Sephardis does not for example
prohibit  polygomy,  whereas  it  hasn't  been allowed in the Ashkenazi law
since Middle Ages.
      Although the Ashkenazi traditions are somewhat stricter than those
of the Sephardim, a greater percentage of Ashkenazi Jews have over the past
century and a half stopped observing these traditions, becoming either
"secular Jews", atheists, like the American Freethinkers, or simply
converting. An even greater part have chosen to follow only a part of the
traditional, or "oral", laws, forming widely popular Reform and
Conservative movements. This phenomenon, if present within the Sephardic
community exists on such a small scale that it can be discounted. The
reason for this difference in the adherence of the tradition is the way in
which the tradition itself was first put into effect. In the case of the
Ashkenazi Jews the traditions have been instated by the long centuries of
enforced separation, and when the barriers were let down, the communities
that were held together by pressure from the outside started to degenerate.
With the walls of the ghetto gone, but full emancipation not yet granted,
many believed that if they had integrated themselves into the gentile
societies, they would gain acceptance. Secular education replaced religion,
rather than complementing it. This however was not the case with
Sephardim, whose less strict traditions were developed in the environment
of toleration. While the Ashkenazi Jews were restricted to the ghettos of
Europe, held at bay by the Catholic church, the Sephardim of Middle East,
North Africa and Ottoman Empire were living as "dhimmies", or "people of
the pact", and though not fully equal with their Muslim hosts, were to some
extent intregrated into their societies. For this reason, the traditional
laws of the Sephardim are less demanding, but more enduring.
      Unlike  the  Ashkenazi  population  that  has  over  a century  of
immigration  spread  itself  all  over the world, The Sephardic communities
tend  to concentrate mostly around a few areas. Today most of the Sephardic
Jews  reside  within  Israel, amost other Middle-Eastern communities having
been reduced to virtual nonexistance by the migration of Jews out of Arabic
countries  after  the  creation of Israel. A substantial community is still
maintained in Turkey, where historically Jews have received good treatment.
Of  the  Western  countries, the only one where the population of Sephardic
Jews   is  comparable  to  that  of  the  Ashekenazis  is  France,  where a
considerable number of Jews have resided since the Middle Ages. While
Sephardi Jews were the first people of Jewish faith to arrive in the US,
and their number in this country is still quite large, they are but a drop
in the bucket when compared to the overall number of Jews currently
residing in America today.
      The Spehardic Jews have historically lived in the areas more or
less tolerant of Judaism. They therefore had more of an opportunity to
integrate themselves into the host societies than did their Ashkenazi
counterparts living in the countries where Jewish communities were
forcebly segregated from the rest. Thus they never really formed separate
self-governed units, and the impact made upon the countries of their
residence can be traced only through the outstanding Jewish personalities
that had effect on the history of those states, and not actions taken by
the community as a whole. Whereas in the history of American Jews one may
encounter occurrences of political decisions being influenced by the
pressure of Jews as a communal force, the history of Middle-Eastern
countries is only able to offer examples of brilliant Jewish individuals,
but rarely actions taken by the whole communities.
      The  Sephardis  (the  word itself comes from a Hebrew word for Spain)
first  came to Europe in the early middle ages across the Straight of
Gibraltar   to   the  Iberian  peninsula,  following  the  wave  of  muslim
conquerors,  into  whose  society  they  were  at the time well integrated.
With the slow reconquest of the peninsula by the Christians a number of the
Jews stayed on the land, at times serving as middlemen in the ongoing trade
between  the  two  sides  of  the  conflict. Prospering from such lucrative
practices,  the  Sephardic  community  of  the newly created Spain grew and
gained economic power. With the final expulsion of the external "heretics",
the Spanish, devoted Catholics have turned within in their quest for the
expulsion of the unfaithful, and around 1492 a decree had forced the Jews
of Spain to convert or leave country.
     While some Jews of Spain have chosen to convert rather than face
relocation and possibly relinquish their economic position, (though some of
those continued practicing Judaism in secrecy) many of them have migrated
to the Ottoman empire, where the Sultan Bayazid II offered them safe haven.
In later years as the Ottoman rulers continued the policy of toleration,
the Sephardic community of Turkey grew to considerable numbers.
     Other members of the Spanish Jewry migrated to nearby Portugal from
where they were promptly expelled in 1496. From here, some people migrated
North to France, where they were tolerated in the southern provinces, and
Netherlands. Others went eastward to the Ottoman Empire and Middle East.
The Sephardic community of France had maintained a realtively constant
population, a fact that allowed it to exist in obscurity, and thus continue
to be tolerated. The people who settled in the Netherlands, by this time a
country of religious tolerance, had enjoyed for a period of time the equality
unparalleled at this point anywhere in the Western world.
     The main flux of Sephardi immigrants took almost a century incoming to
the  Netherlands,  finally  reaching  that country around 1590. When half a
century  later  Netherlands began active trade with the South America, Jews
were greatly involved because they could speak Dutch and were literate
enough to keep records of the trade. They gained a great deal economically
through this lucrartive practice, and it was by the way of this trade that
first Sephardic Jews have arrived in the Americas.
     The Ottoman empire, which in its golden age spanned from North Africa
to the Balcans, had attracted Jewish immigration from as early as the
1300's. The Sultans' sympathy to the Jews went so far that in 1556, Sultan
Suleiman the Magnificent had requested from the Pope Paul IV the release of
the Ancona Marranos which he declared Ottoman citizens. Over the years,
Jews exiled from Hungary, France, Sicily and Bohemia came to the Ottoman
empire in search of home, and they found it. A letter sent by Rabbi Yitzhak
Sarfati (from Edirne) to Jewish communities in Europe "invited his
coreligionists to leave the torments they were enduring in Christiandom and
to seek safety and prosperity in Turkey." (1) Three centuries after the
expulsion of Jews from Spain, the Ottoman cities of Istanbul, Izmud, Safed
and Salonica became centers of Sephardic prosperity that was compairable to
the period of muslim domination of Spain.
      While there aren't many records of Jews as a community taking
historically important actions in the course of their stay in the Ottoman
Empire, many individuals worthy of notice are encountered in history.
The first printing press in the Empire was established in 1493 by David and
Samuel ibn Nahmias, only a year after their exile from Spain. A number of
Jews had been diplomats for the Sultan (one of them, Salamon ben Nathan
Eskenazi had established first contact with the British Empire), court
physicians and otherwise influential people.
      The Zionist movement was met with drastically different reactions
by the two movements. Among the by now "enlightened" Ashkenazim, where
many have come to consider their states objects of primary alligiance, the
idea of a return to Palestine was met with suspicions. Some of the people
were genuinely afraid that if they acted in support of a Jewish homeland,
their loyalties to the countries of their residence would be questioned,
and the progress made toward emancipation that had taken long centuries
to achieve would be destroyed in a single blow. Among the Sephardim, the
ideas of Zionism were met with much greater enthusiasm. (3) The Jews of Middle
East, whose religious convictions were at that time much better preserved,
had embraced the idea of return to the land of their forefathers. The
traditions ran strong among them, and the young generations did not feel
resentfull for being forced to obey laws that they felt were outdated.
      Modernization  for  European Jews meant catching up with the secular
education  studies  of  their  hosts,  this  word  hoever,  took  a totally
different meaning when applied to the Jews of Middle-East and Asia, areas to
which modernization came later, and which at that point were far behind the
technological  progress made in the countries of the West. Therefore, while
the  Jews  of  Europe  had  to  battle  for their equality in a society the
education  level  of which was arguably supperior to that of their own, the
Jews  of Middle-East had to modernize together with their host nations, and
sometimes  even  ahead of them. The speed of the progress of Middle-Eastern
Jews  was  enhanced by their Western-European counterparts who have by this
time  established  for  themselves  not  only  political equality, but also
economic prosperity in their adopted homelands. These well-to-do Jews who
have for the most part abandoned some or all of their traditions, and have
justly considered themselves to be enlightened, wished to bring this
enlightenment in the way of Europeanisation to the Jews living outside of
the "civilized" world. (2)
     The educational institutions created by the Alliance Israelite
Universelle have had such great impact on the education of the Jews of the
then-decaying Ottoman Empire, that even today, a considerable part of older
generation Turkish Jews think of French as their primary means of
communication. In Israel the farming communities founded in the late 1800's
with the funding of rich European Jewish families as a part of the project
to re-settle Palestine, have now grown to become well established
businesses.
     Currently the Israeli Jews represent the only substantial Jewish
community left in the Middle East. The surrounding countries, where up
until the 1940's many Jews coexisted with Muslim majorities, have over the
course of the past half-century lost most of their Jewish population to
immigration due to racial and ethnic tensions brought about by the
Arab-Israeli conflicts. In fact, the governments of states such as Syria
have after the creation of Israel considered the Jews living on their
territories to be hostages in this confrontation, and have treated them
accordingly. The immigrants from the Arab states being predominantly
Sephardic, Israel, a once Ashekenazi dominated country, now has an about
even division between the two movements. With their increasing number, the
Sephardi influence is also growing in the Israeli legislature, and in the
last few years a Sephardi party Sha'as has gained substantial power within
the Knesset, Israel's governing body.
     The state of Israel is unique in that it is the first country in over
two thousand years where Jews have been given the right of self-rule. This
raises problems that the Jews in other times, and even the Jews outside of
Israel today do not have to deal with. Throughout Israel's brief history, a
debate as to the extent to which the secular laws should follow the
religious doctrine of Judaism had been an ongoing one. Such debates are
naturally meaningless in the rest of the world, where the Jews are to
follow the laws of the land.
     The different historical background of the two movements of Judaism has
created a noticable gap in their culture, their traditional laws and their
adherence of those laws. It has shaped the manner of their developement and
the final result of it. The history itself was shaped by the environment in
which the exiled Jews found themselves, and the attitude of the people who
surrounded them. This attitude was in turn based around their religious
doctrine.

(1) Bernard Lewis, "The Jews of Islam"
(2) Harvey Goldberg, "Sephardi and Middle Eastern Jewries", introductoin
         p15
(3) Norman Stillman, "Sephardi and Middle Eastern Jewries"
    Essay 1, "Middle-Eastern and North African Jewries"
         p67

1996, Lev Epshteyn, SUNY Binghamton.