The Jews of Edirne - (Stanford Studies in Jewish History and Culture) by Jacob Daniels

About the Book

"At the turn of the twentieth century, the city of Edirne was a bustling center linking Istanbul to Ottoman Europe. It was also the capital of Edirne Province - among the most religiously diverse regions of the Ottoman Empire. But by 1923, the city had become a Turkish border town, and the province had lost much of its non-Muslim population. With this book, Jacob Daniels explores how one of the world's largest Sephardi communities dealt with the encroachment of modern borders. Using Ladino, French, English, and Turkish sources, Daniels offers a new take on the ways in which ethno-religious minorities experienced the transition "from empire to nation-state." Rather than tracing a linear path, Edirne Jews zigzagged between the Ottoman Empire and three nation-states - without moving a mile. And by maintaining interstate Sephardi networks, they resisted pressure to treat the shifting border as a limit to their zone of belonging. Ultimately, proximity to the border would undo Edirne's Jewish community, but the way this ending came about - local Jews were rarely killed or deported - challenges common assumptions about state borders and Jewish history. By studying Jewish encounters with the nation-state alongside the emergence of modern borders, Daniels sheds light on both phenomena"--

Book Synopsis

At the turn of the twentieth century, the city of Edirne was a bustling center linking Istanbul to Ottoman Europe. It was also the capital of Edirne Province--among the most religiously diverse regions of the Ottoman Empire. But by 1923, the city had become a Turkish border town, and the province had lost much of its non-Muslim population. With this book, Jacob Daniels explores how one of the world's largest Sephardi communities dealt with the encroachment of modern borders.

Using Ladino, French, English, and Turkish sources, Daniels offers a new take on the ways in which ethno-religious minorities experienced the transition "from empire to nation-state." Rather than tracing a linear path, Edirne Jews zigzagged between the Ottoman Empire and three nation-states--without moving a mile. And by maintaining interstate Sephardi networks, they resisted pressure to treat the shifting border as a limit to their zone of belonging. Ultimately, proximity to the border would undo Edirne's Jewish community, but the way this ending came about--local Jews were rarely killed or deported--challenges common assumptions about state borders and Jewish history. By studying Jewish encounters with the nation-state alongside the emergence of modern borders, Daniels sheds light on both phenomena.

Review Quotes

"The Jews of Edirne deftly explores the complex and unexpected ways a minority community on the frontlines of some of the twentieth century's greatest catastrophes made sense of their uncertain futures. An eminently readable and powerful work, this book prompts us to rethink the meanings of borderlands amid the localized logics of nationhood." --Devi Mays, University of Michigan

"In this skillfully researched monograph, Jacob Daniels tells the story of one of southeast Europe's oldest Sephardi Jewish communities, careful to establish the community's agency, diversity, and conflict in opinion as they weathered the tumultuous changes that shook, remade, and ultimately collapsed their world on the eve of World War II. The Jews of Edirne is a significant accomplishment." --Ipek Kocaömer Yosmaoglu, Northwestern University

"Jacob Daniels is not only a skilled historian: he is also a gifted storyteller who makes his subject come to life. The Jews of Edirne offers a sweeping new perspective on Jewish history between empire and nation state, and timely insight into the fate of a minority inhabiting a contested borderland." --Matthias Lehmann, University of Cologne

About the Author

Jacob Daniels is Assistant Professor of Instruction and Assistant Director of the Schusterman Center for Jewish Studies at The University of Texas at Austin.