Ottoman Empire & Turkey 1492-1541 Arrival to Bulgarian Independence in 1878
Ottoman Empire 16th Century to Late 19th Century
The Varsano family was likely moved from Naples or other parts of the Italian peninsula to the Salonica area of the Ottoman Empire in the 16th Century. Many other Sephardic families living in the kingdom of Naples made a similar journey.
The evidence of the tombstone inscriptions of Salonika indicates that the first Modiliano/Modillano must have settled in that city between 1500 and 1600.
A collection of books from the 18th Century for sale in a Jerusalem auction that were printed in Livorno and Amsterdam with handwritten signatures and ownership inscriptions lists a Chiddushei HaRitva from Amsterdam in 1729. Handwritten signatures and ownership inscriptions with Sephardic script from various writers, the first of which is Ovadia Varsano. The sales copy also states that Ovadia Varsano is presumably the author of Chazon Ovadia from Salonika in 1775. The product description is the earliest reference that I was able to find of a Varsano family member in Salonika.
Salonica Jewish Quarter: “The Etz Hayim quarter was located in the streets Varsano (Pharoh), Etz Hayim Havrasi (Theodorou Laskareos), Hisar (Pausaniou) and the perpendicular street Kastilya Havrasi (Aghiou Nikolaou) that begins from the seashore and continues northwards.” The Varsano Synagogue of Salonica was founded by the Varsano Family during the Ottoman Period on Etz Hayim Havrasi Street in the Etz-Hayim quarter. “It probably stopped functioning before 1917.”
Most Jews, however, were not fortunate enough to leave by ship and simply walked away from the country that had been their home for hundreds of years. 120,000 Jews went on foot to neighboring Portugal who would exile them again only a few years later. 50,000 crossed the straits of North Africa. The Varsano family was among the 30,000 destined for the friendly Mediterranean regions. The Sultan Beyazit II extended the invitation of expelled Jews from Spain to Ottoman territories. Turkey, Greece, Bulgaria, Bosnia, Serbia, Alabania, parts of Romania, Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, and Jerusalem were the new Ottoman home for Spanish Jewry. Most exiles were welcomed into pre-existing Jewish communities within the empire. The Turkish leadership of the empire had high esteem for the Jewish people. The Ottoman Muslims regarded the Jews as “people of the book,” part of the monotheistic tradition which led eventually to Islam. Moslems and Jews managed to live together in relative peace over next 500 years.
As the Sephardim settled along the welcoming Mediterranean communities, the extended Varsano family settled in several countries. Immigration records reveal citizens with the Varsano surname in Bulgaria and Greece. My particular branch of the family migrated inland to the non-Mediterranean and unfamiliar region of Bulgaria. The immigrants to Bulgaria came in four separate waves via Salonika, Constantinople, Adrianople, and Ragura. The third wave of Sephardic immigrants, including my family, settled in Sofia some time after 1497.
The Sepharic culture of the Spanish Jews mixed with Romaniot and Askenazi culture of the native Jews of Bulgaria. The rich tradition of the Spanish Jews quickly spread and Ladino became the predominant language of the Balkan Jews. The new Jewish community of the Ottoman Empire mostly lived in cities working as merchants and artisans. They had little contact with the majority of the Bulgarian people who were illiterate peasants living in the countryside.
The Jews of Bulgaria had almost no need to even speak the dying Bulgarian language. Trade was conducted in Turkish, Greek, or Ladino. Jewish religion and scholarly pursuits were taught in Hebrew. The Bulgarian cities during this period were multi-ethnic but had a Turkish majority. By the 16th Century, the Ottoman Empire had reached its peak and the thriving Jewish community dubbed it “The Golden Age of Balkan Sephardim.”
The great Sephardic culture had overcame adversity and thrived once again. The culinary tradition of the Spanish Jews now incorporated dishes from the heritage of Greek, Roman, Byzantine, Persian, Arab, and Ottoman culture. The flexible language of Ladino borrowed words from Greek, Turkish, French, Arabic and even some Bulgarian and Slavic additions.
There was a separate Jewish millet in the Ottoman system, through which Jews enjoyed some measure of self-government. A few politically adept Jews became influential advisors of the sultans. When the Turks completed their conquest of the Balkans in the 1500s, Sephardic Jews followed them into the interior, settling in the larger towns. In the area of Northern Greece, the city of Solonika became an Ottoman Center for Jewish life and the Jewish residents briefly held a majority in an area with a population of mostly Catholics.
Meanwhile, the Ashkenazi Jews in Western and Northern Europe were experiencing an entirely different civilization. On one hand, the Renaissance theoretically led to a more “enlightened” view of religions and the invention of the printing press made popular the studies of ancient texts such as Hebrew, Greek, and Roman. Unfortunately, the realty of the times was a constant struggle between the different sects of Christianity and Judaism.
In the 1540’s, the Roman Church wanted to stamp out all heresy and reform movements. In the Pope’s eyes, the Jews appeared to be the allies of the Protestants. Starting in Italian cities, Jewish communities were confined to ghettos which were a place of depravation and isolation. The xenophobic practice of banishing Jews to clearly defined ghetto areas quickly spread throughout Italy, then throughout the rest of Christian Europe.
During the 16th Century, Poland held the world’s largest Jewish community. In 1569, Poland annexed the Ukraine with a majority of Eastern Orthodox Christians. The Ukrainians responded by attacking Poles, Swedes, and Russians killing 100,000 Jews in the process. The surviving Ashkenazi Jews of these war torn countries fell into a spiritual despair.
Further south, militant Christian sects from the imperialist nations to the north began attacking the Moslem nations of the Ottoman Empire causing the displacement of many Jews. Experiencing a similar spiritual despair as the Ashkenazim, the Sephardim turned to blind faith and false hope. In 1665, Shabeti Savee, a Turkish Jew, proclaimed himself the messiah. Many Jews drew inspiration and hope from this apparent messiah. He was charlatan! The Turks eventually arrested him and forced him to convert to Islam.
By the 18th Century, the Christian nations of Europe were growing stronger, while the Ottoman Empire was beginning to crumble. In Western Europe, many Jews became integrated into the greater society by being involved in commerce and government. Generally, they were elegant, wealthy, and accepted. The Enlightenment purportedly eased social repression and religious intolerance as well as scientific breakthroughs. The American Declaration of Independence of 1776 and the French Revolution of 1789 allowed religious freedom to spread to a wider area of the globe and provided even more opportunities for Jews.
In Russia, however, over half of the Jews enjoyed no freedom and languished under medieval customs and institutions. The Byzantine Empire and the Eastern Orthodox faith controlled the region. Later in the 18th Century, Russia annexed Poland, the Ukraine, and Lithuania along with over 1 million of their Jews. The Pale of Settlement was established which was an area the Jews could not leave. Jewish commerce was suppressed and they were forced into a rural agricultural based existence which was centered around the Shetle, or meeting market. Jews and Christians occasionally mingled in business but were completely separate both politically and socially.
The industrial revolution of the late 19th Century saw artisans and farmers lose their careers to new technologies. Assembly line factories mass produced products that relied on a distribution network of merchants and the financing of banks. Some banks and industrial plant owners were high profile Jews who became tremendously wealthy in the new economy. However, the vast majority of Jewish businessmen were relatively low volume merchants that were considered only middle class. Although most Western European Jews were merely middle class families, they became a symbol of the new power and wealth to many people. Anti-Semites blamed the problems of the modern world and poverty on the Jews. The hate filled propaganda machines of various organizations made up lies about the Jewish “race.” In times of crisis throughout history, the religion of Judaism has been demonized with slanderous lies and even the stereotyping of a diverse group of people that follow a particular faith into a new “race” of the human species. Similar to the Conversos of Spain, many prominent European Jews simply converted to Christianity so that they could be more accepted into the culture and avoid the wrath of the Jew haters.
In the 1850’s, Tsar Alexander II of Russia allowed Jews to leave the Pale and go to universities. He sought to modernize the nation as the farmers gravitated towards the cities. In 1881, Alexander was assassinated by anarchists and the Jews were wrongly blamed. A pogram, or riot, against the Jews ensued. In 1881, many Jews left Russia mostly for the US and some to Palestine. 2 Million Jews, about 1/3, of Eastern European Jews went to the US between 1881 and 1921 on steamboats across the Atlantic Ocean.
In 1878, the Bulgarians and Russians defeated the ruling Turks of the debilitated Ottoman Empire, and an independent Bulgarian State was declared. The Ottoman Empire was completely unstable at this point which was not comforting to the Jews of the region. An environment of uncertainty and impending war caused many Ottoman Jews to flee with their Russian neighbors to the Americas. My family weathered the storm and stayed in Bulgaria for several more decades.
Every Jewish family has a nomadic story filled with oppression and triumph. The Varsano family finds its origins in France, Spain, Bulgaria, and Greece. Although generation after generation was subjected to the whims of history, my ancestors weave a unique quilt of experience over the years that explain who we are today. The traditions are a reflection of the past and an explanation of the present. Mordecai Varsano, a Sephardic Jew living in Bulgaria, was a man bred to deal with the adversity that he would face him as a child and young man.
NEW STUFF
When the Turks completed their conquest of the Balkans in the 1500s, Sephardic Jews followed them into the interior, settling in the larger towns. Jews eventually became the majority in Salonika (in today’s northern Greece). CHECK BULGARIAN JEWS WHEN SPEHARDICS ARRIVED
Bulgaria had an even smaller Jewish population. Jews lived there since medieval times and were not treated badly : one of the tsars of the Second Bulgarian Empire in the 1300s married a Jewish woman. When Sephardic Jews came to the Balkans, the newcomers absorbed the older Bulgarian communities. Jews were not active among Bulgarian nationalists in the 1800s because of their relatively favorable situation under Ottoman rule: there was fear that their position would worsen in a state that was Bulgarian in ethnicity and Orthodox in faith.
When Bulgaria gained autonomy, the Jewish community retained a special status with substantial self-administration under a chief rabbi. In a census of 1881 (which omitted Eastern Rumelia), 14,000 Jews are listed. The 1893 census shows some 28,000 Spanish-speaking (Sephardic) Jews out of 3.5 million people. The number of Jews rose at the same rate as the overall population, remaining just under 1 percent. In 1910, there were 40,000 Jews, out of a population of 4.4 million. Most lived in cities, especially Sofia.
In 1579 the sovereign of Moldavia, Petru Schiopul (Peter the Lame), ordered the banishment of the Jews on the grounds that they were ruining the merchants. In the Danube harbors it was the Greek and Bulgarian merchants who incited riots against the Jews, especially during Easter. Anti-Jewish excesses which occurred in the neighboring countries often extended to Rumania. In 1652 and 1653 Cossacks invaded Rumania, murdering a great number of Jews in Jassy
In 681, the Bulgars conquered the entire region which would later become known as Bulgaria. In 864-865, Bulgaria officially converted to a Christian country. For many years every religion in Bulgaria was a co-mingling of Christianity, Paganism, and Judaism. In 1018 after years of fighting, Bulgaria finally loses to Byzantinum and they impose Greek rule for the next two centuries. The expansion of the Byzantine empire allowed borders to fall and Jewish merchants could trade more readily with other Balkan nations. The Jews of Bulgaria were insulated from the Anti-Semitism of the rest of the Byzantine empire because of the multi-ethnic and tolerant culture of Bulgaria.
By the 13th Century, a second Bulgarian kingdom rose up against the Greek forces. As the 6th Crusade persecuted Askenazi Jews throughout Europe, the tolerant kingdom of Bulgaria became a safe haven for all types of persecuted people, namely Jews. In 1241, the death of King Ivan Asen led to a rapid deterioration of Bulgarian prominence, and the kingdom was eventually conquered by Serbia.
Jewish persecution and exile became a continent wide trend. In 1290, England expelled the Jews. In 1306 the Royal Territories of France expelled the Jews. In 1331, Ivan Aleksandur became King of Bulgaria. Four years later he divorced his wife a married a Jewish woman named Sarah. Sarah converted to Christianity and changed her name to Queen Teodora. In 1360, the Holy Synod of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church condemns Judaism marking the first official anti-Semitic policy in Bulgarian history. However, the conditions for the Jews in Bulgaria were still far better than other European nations. In 1376, Hungarian Jews were exiled and moved south to Bulgaria. In 1394, the many Jews of France and Provence fled east to the safety of Bulgaria.
In 1396, the Islamic Turks known as the Ottomans conquered Bulgaria. The Jews were tolerated under the Moslem system while the Christian were discriminated against. The Turks showed little interest in forcing conversion to Islam, but many Christians did so voluntarily. Christianity did not have a long tradition in Bulgaria and the benefits of being Moslem were very enticing. The Jews, on other hand, had a long tradition of Judaism and were considered Jews before they were considered Bulgarians. The Jews were also considered a stateless people with no military defense which garnered sympathy from the Ottomans. Since the Bulgaria nation did not exist during the Ottoman period, the Balkan Jews within the empire were considered one people. In the 15th and 16th Centuries, the Jews of Bavaria were banished and immigrated to the tolerant Ottoman Empire. The result was a Judeo-German Askenazi community in Sofia.
In 1492, the Jews of Spain were expelled causing a major population shift of the Jewish people from west to east. In 1498, Portugal expelled its Jews which increased this shift. The largest populations of Jews were now in Poland and the Ottoman empire. The immigrants to Bulgaria came in four separate waves via Salonika, Constantinople, Adrianople, and Ragura. Salonika was a center for Jewish life in the empire and briefly had a Jewish majority in the population. The third wave of Jews settled in Sofia some time after 1497. The Sepharic culture of the Spanish Jews mixed with Romaniot and Askenazi culture of the native Jews of Bulgaria. The rich tradition of the Spanish Jews quickly spread and Ladino became the language of the Balkan Jews. The new Jewish community of the Ottoman empire mostly lived in cities working as merchants and artisans. They had little contact with the majority of the Bulgarian people who were illiterate peasants living in the countryside.
The Jews of Bulgaria had almost no need to even speak the dying Bulgarian language. Trade was conducted in Turkish, Greek, or Ladino. The Bulgarian cities during this period were multi-ethnic but had a Turkish majority. Religion and Scholarly pursuits were taught in Hebrew. By the 16th Century, the Ottoman empire had reached its peak and the thriving Jewish community dubbed it “The Golden Age of Balkan Sephardim.”
After years of Ottoman taxation and a repression of Bulgarian culture, economic stagnation and external pressure started to decline the power of the empire. European foes from the North repeatedly attacked Bulgaria hitting the port cities of Nikopol and Vidin first. The Jews of these Danube River port towns were subject to the anti-Semitic persecution of the Northern European conquerors. Most of these Jews fled inland to the safety of cities like Sofia. By the end of the 16th Century, the Ottoman empire was a economic disaster and over taxation only worsened the problem. Scapegoating became more common and religious tolerance dwindled. The Jewish community suffered with the rest of the empire and became disillusioned. A false Jewish Messiah named Shabbetai Tsevi gave some of the faithful hope but in the eventually disappointed and frustrated them.
Since Bulgaria was not a central part of the Ottoman Empire, the Jews in Bulgaria received a diluted form of the spiritual movements within the empire. The changes caused by the Reformation, Renaissance, and Enlightenment to the Christian community were barely felt in Bulgaria. The Bulgarians were always individualistic and lacked an enthusiasm for the trends of the rest of the empire. Bulgarians by their very nature are moderate people. Therefore, the Jews of Bulgaria did not really buy into the whole Messiah movement like the rest of the Balkan Jews. When the Messiah was finally revealed as a fraud, the Jewish community became disillusioned and religious teaching lost credibility. Traditional Jewish theological studies were replaced by cultural, social, and the political nationalism of the Zionist movement.