Sephardi Lives

Jewish Studies and Middle Eastern Studies have seen an unprecedented diversification in focus over the course of the last twenty years, yet neither pedagogical materials nor documentary compendia have kept pace with these dramatic changes. This comprehensive documentary reader fills the void in modern Jewish and Ottoman history, presenting a staggering array of primary sources generated by or about Sephardi Jews in the heartland of modern Judeo-Spanish culture (Southeastern Europe and the Levant under Ottoman and post-Ottoman rule) and in its diaspora (the United States, the Caribbean, South America, Europe, and Africa). The approximately 150 sources in this edition--originally written in fifteen languages, including Ladino, Hebrew, Ottoman Turkish, Modern Turkish, French, Greek, Serbian, Croatian, Bulgarian, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, German, Yiddish, and English--have been selected carefully and specifically for students, researchers, and general readers. Individuals researching life in the nation-states that emerged after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire will find in this collection perspectives and selections previously inaccessible to them. At long last, this volume makes available the largely unknown works of the individuals who drafted them, and should expand the fields of Jewish Studies, Ottoman Studies, and Middle East Studies in multiple and crucial ways.