Middle Eastern Jews

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The Jewish Communities of the Ottoman Empire and Algeria in the 19th Century by Zubeyde Oysul
The Ottoman and North African Jews lead a different life than their European counterparts until the 19th century.
While Western European Jewry improved, Ottoman and North African Jewry was in decline. The European penetration
of these areas reconnected Jews with Europe and modern Western ideas, and lead a modernization movement throughout
the 19th century. The transformations brought with cultural change that can tensions for some, but was also
accommodated.
The Ottoman Empire, an Islamic-Turkic empire had a different governance than its Western and Central European
counterparts. The empire itself was multi-ethnic and multi-religious. Unlike in Western Europe, there was no framework
of citizenship. In the existing fixity, everyone knew their identity, and a neutral setting, such as becoming Turk, did not
exist. All minorities, however, were tolerated and were allowed self-administration. This was called the millet system,
where minorities were “exercising autonomy under the governance of their religious leaders.”
i
The system allowed Jews
to live in self-contained communities with strong internal religious traditions and a Rabbinic elite until the 19th century.
The Ottoman Empire had two main Jewish communities, Sephardic Jews and Mizrahi Jews. Sephardic Jews were
a large community of Ladino speaking Jews from the Iberian Peninsula. They came to the Ottoman Empire and North
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