Tamir Karkason
Tamir Karkason (PhD, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 2019) is a historian of Jews in the Muslim world, focusing on Ottoman and post-Ottoman Jews and their diasporas, including the State of Israel.
His monograph, "Home and Away: The Ottoman Jewish Enlightenment in the Nineteenth Century" (The Ben-Zvi Institute Press, 2024; Hebrew), uncovers the nearly forgotten maskilic center that flourished in nineteenth-century Anatolia, Southeastern Europe, and the Ottoman Middle East. During a period of reforms, Ottoman Jewish intellectuals preserved and strengthened key cultural elements: adherence to religious commandments, promotion of secular studies, and a connection to global Hebrew modernity. In these ways, they resembled other Ottoman reformers, particularly Greeks and Armenians. The book also examines the network of relationships between Ottoman Jewish intellectuals from the "East" and their counterparts in the "West", especially in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Karkason is working on an English version of his monograph.
His second book, "In the Vineyard of Enlightenment: Barukh Mitrani’s Sermon 'My Vineyard' (1881)" (The Bialik Institute Press, 2024; Hebrew), is an annotated edition of a sermon by the Ottoman maskil Barukh Mitrani (1847-1919), in which he saw every Jewish individual as part of three interrelated circles: the self, the family, and the nation. The introduction features the first intellectual biography of Mitrani and an analysis of the sermon within the context of the late Ottoman period.
His current projects focus on two main themes: the Haskalah in Tunisia during the early colonial period (1881-1897) and the migration of Jews from Turkey to Israel in the 1950s.
Karkason is currently a postdoctoral fellow in the BMBF project “Beyond Conflict and Coexistence: An Intertwined History of Jewish-Arab Relations” at Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg (2022-2026). Previously, he was the “Olamot” Center Visiting Fellow at the Borns Jewish Studies Program, Indiana University (2018-2019); a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Jewish History at Ben-Gurion University (2019-2021); and a visiting scholar in the research group “Jews and Modern Legal Cultures” at the Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies, University of Pennsylvania (2022).
His monograph, "Home and Away: The Ottoman Jewish Enlightenment in the Nineteenth Century" (The Ben-Zvi Institute Press, 2024; Hebrew), uncovers the nearly forgotten maskilic center that flourished in nineteenth-century Anatolia, Southeastern Europe, and the Ottoman Middle East. During a period of reforms, Ottoman Jewish intellectuals preserved and strengthened key cultural elements: adherence to religious commandments, promotion of secular studies, and a connection to global Hebrew modernity. In these ways, they resembled other Ottoman reformers, particularly Greeks and Armenians. The book also examines the network of relationships between Ottoman Jewish intellectuals from the "East" and their counterparts in the "West", especially in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Karkason is working on an English version of his monograph.
His second book, "In the Vineyard of Enlightenment: Barukh Mitrani’s Sermon 'My Vineyard' (1881)" (The Bialik Institute Press, 2024; Hebrew), is an annotated edition of a sermon by the Ottoman maskil Barukh Mitrani (1847-1919), in which he saw every Jewish individual as part of three interrelated circles: the self, the family, and the nation. The introduction features the first intellectual biography of Mitrani and an analysis of the sermon within the context of the late Ottoman period.
His current projects focus on two main themes: the Haskalah in Tunisia during the early colonial period (1881-1897) and the migration of Jews from Turkey to Israel in the 1950s.
Karkason is currently a postdoctoral fellow in the BMBF project “Beyond Conflict and Coexistence: An Intertwined History of Jewish-Arab Relations” at Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg (2022-2026). Previously, he was the “Olamot” Center Visiting Fellow at the Borns Jewish Studies Program, Indiana University (2018-2019); a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Jewish History at Ben-Gurion University (2019-2021); and a visiting scholar in the research group “Jews and Modern Legal Cultures” at the Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies, University of Pennsylvania (2022).
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https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/56/article/944932
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This essay offers a framework for understanding the changes in Jewish-Christian relations from the latter decades of the Ottoman Empire to the early decades of the Turkish nation-state. During the Ottoman period, Jewish elites often viewed Greeks and Armenians as role models, given their significant integration into Ottoman society. In contrast, the early Turkish nation-state witnessed a narrowing of the power gap between local Christians and Jews, fostering greater opportunities for cooperation. To illustrate this framework, I analyze two sources: a legal translation from Ottoman Turkish into Ladino—the vernacular of Ottoman Sephardim—from the early 1880s, and a Ladino journal article on shared Jewish-Greek sports activities from the late 1940s.
Bu bölüm, 18. ve 19. yüzyıllarda ağırlıklı olarak Ladino (Yahudi İspanyolcası) dilinde ama aynı zamanda İbranice yazılmış Sefarad edebiyatındaki temel eğilimleri panoramik bir bakış açısıyla sunarken, bu edebiyatın hedef kitlesinin bir profilini de sunmaktadır. Özellikle Ladino külliyatının kapsamının önemli ölçüde genişlediği 19. yüzyıl söz konusu olduğunda, Sefarad edebi yaratıcılığının tüm türleri tartışmama dahil edilemez. Bu bölüm daha ziyade, bu edebiyatın hem nicelik hem de nitelik açısından en öne çıkan türlerini belirlemeye çalışmaktadır. 18. ve hatta 19. yüzyıllarda, Sefarad edebiyatının büyük bir kısmı yüksek statülü dil İbranice yerine yerel Ladino dilinde yazılmıştır. Bu nedenle Ladino edebiyatı, İbranice okuryazarı olmayan geniş Sefarad kitleler için erişilebilirdi. 18. yüzyıldan itibaren Ladino edebiyatı hem yerel dilin kullanımının yaygınlaşması hem de edebi türlerin çeşitlenmesi ve popülerleşme eğilimlerinin güçlenmesi yoluyla daha önce hiç olmadığı kadar geniş bir kitleye hitap etmeye başladı.
The article first examines the contribution made by scholars from the 1940s through the 1960s along the spatial dimension. It then considers studies written by scholars born from the 1970s onward while focusing on the contribution of this sensitivity to the study of the role of Mizrahi Jews in pan-Jewish cultural, ideological, and social movements, namely the Kabbalah, the Haskalah, and Hebrew culture. I find that the growing sensitivity to spatial issues is associated with the “long history” (longue durée) approach to the study of Mizrahi Jews in Israel. Thus, for example, several of the scholars discussed in the article helped to eliminate the artificial boundary between the pre- and post-1948 periods. Sensitivity to the spatial dimension also helps to link the discussion of the Mizrahim in Israel to the “long history” of solidarity between Jews from the “East” and the “West.”
https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/56/article/944932
***
This essay offers a framework for understanding the changes in Jewish-Christian relations from the latter decades of the Ottoman Empire to the early decades of the Turkish nation-state. During the Ottoman period, Jewish elites often viewed Greeks and Armenians as role models, given their significant integration into Ottoman society. In contrast, the early Turkish nation-state witnessed a narrowing of the power gap between local Christians and Jews, fostering greater opportunities for cooperation. To illustrate this framework, I analyze two sources: a legal translation from Ottoman Turkish into Ladino—the vernacular of Ottoman Sephardim—from the early 1880s, and a Ladino journal article on shared Jewish-Greek sports activities from the late 1940s.
Bu bölüm, 18. ve 19. yüzyıllarda ağırlıklı olarak Ladino (Yahudi İspanyolcası) dilinde ama aynı zamanda İbranice yazılmış Sefarad edebiyatındaki temel eğilimleri panoramik bir bakış açısıyla sunarken, bu edebiyatın hedef kitlesinin bir profilini de sunmaktadır. Özellikle Ladino külliyatının kapsamının önemli ölçüde genişlediği 19. yüzyıl söz konusu olduğunda, Sefarad edebi yaratıcılığının tüm türleri tartışmama dahil edilemez. Bu bölüm daha ziyade, bu edebiyatın hem nicelik hem de nitelik açısından en öne çıkan türlerini belirlemeye çalışmaktadır. 18. ve hatta 19. yüzyıllarda, Sefarad edebiyatının büyük bir kısmı yüksek statülü dil İbranice yerine yerel Ladino dilinde yazılmıştır. Bu nedenle Ladino edebiyatı, İbranice okuryazarı olmayan geniş Sefarad kitleler için erişilebilirdi. 18. yüzyıldan itibaren Ladino edebiyatı hem yerel dilin kullanımının yaygınlaşması hem de edebi türlerin çeşitlenmesi ve popülerleşme eğilimlerinin güçlenmesi yoluyla daha önce hiç olmadığı kadar geniş bir kitleye hitap etmeye başladı.
The article first examines the contribution made by scholars from the 1940s through the 1960s along the spatial dimension. It then considers studies written by scholars born from the 1970s onward while focusing on the contribution of this sensitivity to the study of the role of Mizrahi Jews in pan-Jewish cultural, ideological, and social movements, namely the Kabbalah, the Haskalah, and Hebrew culture. I find that the growing sensitivity to spatial issues is associated with the “long history” (longue durée) approach to the study of Mizrahi Jews in Israel. Thus, for example, several of the scholars discussed in the article helped to eliminate the artificial boundary between the pre- and post-1948 periods. Sensitivity to the spatial dimension also helps to link the discussion of the Mizrahim in Israel to the “long history” of solidarity between Jews from the “East” and the “West.”
The article positions the decision by Danon and his colleagues to revive Hebrew-alphabet printing in Edirne as part of their membership of a maskilic association that sought to urge the Jews of the Ottoman Empire in general, and those in Edirne in particular, to take their fate into their hands and to promote modernization in their community through their own initiatives.
I found that Elmaleh considered the Ma'aminim to be an integral part – though peripheral – of the Sephardic sub-diaspora he constituted in his studies and enterprises, and therefore found them to be of great interest. In a dialectic process, relating to the Jewish interest in the "Remote Jews" (Nidhe Israel), Elmaleh considered the Ma'aminim to be a sort of "Sephardic Remote Jews". To prove his arguments, he used some of the writings of two Sephardic scholars, Abraham Danon and Joseph Néhama, published from 1887 to 1902, and assigned their findings to his needs.
It seems that for Elmaleh, the Ma'aminim could have been counted among the Sephardic sub-diaspora even if they were not necessarily part of the Jewish diaspora. This leads to a certain tension between the definition of the Sephardic sub-diaspora and the definition of its parent-diaspora, the Jewish one – a tension that accompanied Elmaleh's studies and figure for many years.
Deadline: February 12, 2017.