Franz Kobler, editor, Letters of Jews Through the Ages; Volume Two: From The Renaissance to Emancipation. A Self-Portrait of the Jewish People (1952; New York: Hebrew Publishing Company, 1978)

"The Provencal Jews in Salonica to the Jews in Provence"

Franz Kobler:

From the time that they had reached Europe in the fifteenth century, the rulers of the Ottomon Empire showed themselves extraordinarily well disposed towards the Jews. The Jewish immigrants found in Turkey an atmosphere different entirely from the embittered hostility they had to face in the countries of the Catholic Majesties. What the shrewd observer David dei Rossi had stated . . . was in no way an exaggeration: hatred of the Jews was unknown in the Ottoman countries, and the Turks held the Jews in high esteem. Turkey, in fact, was to the Jews of Western Europe much what America became to the Jews of Eastern Europe in the nineteenth century. Although Isaac Zarfati's call to the Jews of Germany found little response, the Jewish settlement in Turkey during the hundred years following the capture of Constantinople developed through the influx of Sephardic Jews into one of the most populous and important of the Diaspora.

The two main Jewish communities were Constantinople and Salonica, and the latter soon eclipsed the capital in the size of its Jewish population. Among them the Jews who had come from Provence formed a distinct body. A letter addressed by them to their countrymen in Hebrew, resembling Zarphati's appeal, is a fine testimony both to the splended position in which they found themselves under the Turkish rule and to their fraternal feelings. The expulsion of the Provencal Jews, which was the actual occasion for the message, seems to have been a renewal of an edict issued as early as 26 September 1501 but apparently not executed at that time.


The Jews of Salonika:

"Our esteemed brethren, do not hesitate to come hither and to enjoy the best of the land."
[Salonica, 13 August 1550]

To our faithful and pious brethren of the holy camp, the stone of [Jacob's] pillow [Gen. XXVIII. 18], to the community of the great and mighty men, to you the exiles of Jerusalem who dwell in all places of the exile in Provence! May the Lord ordain that no evil befall you and that you shall no more be subjected to shameful affliction among the nations. Amen.

The two Hebrew men, the two good messengers whom you have prudently sent to search out a refuge for you, have arrived here, and we rejoiced when we saw them, but we were deeply afflicted in our hearts on hearing of the yoke which the nations are about to let fall on you, and of the sufferings of exile which have been heaped up and placed upon your neck. And even this does not satisfy the nations. Their hand is stretched out in order to strike at you once more, as they say: 'Let us drive out the Jews!' Because of this our heart is faint, and we are sorry for you because the enemy has prevailed. The only thing which comforts us by the mercy of the Lord, the Master of pity, praise to Him and to His gracious deeds, is that He has made us come hither to this vast place where we eat bread which has not been given in pledge, to a land which the Lord careth for from the beginning of the year even unto its end [Deut. XI. 12], and where nothing is lacking. It is entirely open to you, settle here, our brethren, in the best of the land! If there are among you mighty men on whom the Lord has bestowed fortune and reputation, they may establish themselves where they like and acquire new property; the poor and needy, however, who do not possess any resources, will find here in any case a place where their feet can rest, and they will be able to exercise a suitable profession; they will suffer neither hunger nor thirst, they will not be afflicted by the burning fire of oppression and of exile, because the Lord has bestowed upon us His mercy, and He has made us find favor, grace and pity in the eyes of the nations in the midst of which we are living, to such a degree that it would almost be proper to give us a new name and call us 'the captives ransomed by the Lord' [Is. XXXV. 10], because the Turk does not let us suffer any evil or oppression.

Ye wise and intelligent men, contemplate with your prudence and wisdom (for we are not able to make you know even the thousandth part of the blessings of fortune and reputation that the Lord has bestowed upon us in this land) all that the honorable men sent on a pious errand will tell you when they report to you all they have seen here with their own eyes. From the report of these envoys you will learn the way which leads hither and on which you will travel; you shall not rely upon our words, although our love to you is neither the love of a hungry man, nor a love for gain, but only a love of good in itself, because we are all children of one Father [Mal. II. 10]. Our community is less numerous than the other holy communities, and if the Lord loves us, He will lead you to this land, and we shall become a vast camp which will augment the Jewish community in this country, the more as we were your neighbors and you will become ours, because, thanks to Heaven, the Lord has granted us and will grant us good fortune in order that our friends may acquire wealth. Surely the Lord is in this place [Gen. XXVIII. 16]. He will fill your treasure house. He has also left among us the members of all the families of the Caspi and of the Cadenet and of the other distinguished families which we do not mention by name in order to avoid undue length.

Therefore, our esteemed breathren, who combine judgement with energy, do not hesitate to come hither and to enjoy the best of this land, and do not wait until the Count-Palatine tells you: "Rise up, and get you forth from among my people!' [Exod. XII. 31], lest the Egyptians become urgent upon you and send you out of the land in haste [Exod. XII. 33]. You might not be able to spare the time necessary for the preparation of the departure, and the name of the Lord might, unfortunately, be profaned, as happened with the painful expulsion of the unfortunate Jews, descendants of Jacob, driven from Castile and Portugal, who, pressed by time, were forced to change their faith, on account of our great sins.

May the supreme Lord reunite the whole of Israel in the one place which has been elevated from the beginning, the place of our sanctuary; may your eyes and ours see Zion, the peaceful abode, when the Lord will bring back the captives of Jacob, and when it will again be said: 'The Lord will be magnified from the border of Israel' [Mal. I. 5], because He will break the yoke of the nations which weighs heavily on your neck according to the desire of your heart, full of the fear of god, and according to the desire of us who are making vows for your welfare and for your deliverance, and who invoke the Lord every day in favor of the remnant of Israel.

Your brethren and your flesh, the Community of the exiles of Provence who sign here, in Salonica, on the first of Ellul, of the year 5310, in the section of the Law containing the verse 'Thou shalt not remove thy neighbor's landmark.' [Deut. XIX. 14]

[pp. 344-347]