The Maccabaean

Or the 600,000 Sephardic Jews, or, to be more correct, Jews who have adopted the Sephardic customs, 400,000 are to be found in Turkey. Among them can be found descendants of the first grandees of Spain, such as the Abravanels, and the Abouhavs. These Turkish Jews occupy themselves almost exclusively with commerce, but, unfortunately, not with com- mierce on a large scale. In the latter field they are superseded by the Greeks and Armenians. In Saloniki and Smyrna there do exist some large and important Jewish firms but they are mostly Italian subjects. The Turkish Jews could play the most important political role, because, not having behind them a European power with its continual menace, they possess the confidence of Turks. But with the best will the Turks are unable to reckon with them on account of the low cultural level in which the Jews find themselves.

The history of Jewish culture in Turkey dates back from about 1850, and the initiator was the Alliance who gave it its character. This organization established primary schools only. It created no secondary schools even of a general, not to speak of a national nature. Its Rabbinical Seminary and its Teachers Seminary are in Paris. But the worst feature about the education that the Turkish Jews received from the Alliance was that all the emphasis was laid on the French language and culture. The Turkish language and Turkish history were neglected. Thus it happened that these Alliance pupils, and especially those among them who had succeeded in acquiring a higher education, almost always emigrated. The call of the foreign culture that they had imbibed was too strong tu be resisted. Instead, therefore, of preparing the Turkish Jews for the task of elevating their fellows in the slums of Constantinople, for example, the Alliance prepared them for a life on the Boulevards of Paris.

In the late Revolution the Jewish masses did not participate,—and neither did the Turkish for that matter. Propor-

tionally, however, the Jews did contribute revolutionary workers, but it is interesting to note that all those Jews who did participate, such as Mazliach Effendi and Carasso Effendi, were not Alliance pupils, but had obtained their education in the Turkish universities. As a result, therefore, of this indifference of the Jewish masses, the young Turks had to look upon them as a negligible quantity and reckoned them with the Armenians and the Greeks than with them.

While the political role of the Turkish Jews at present is insignificant, it can become very important at any moment, because the Jews can get the balance of power and become the decisive minority, especially in view of the fact that Saloniki, the principle political center, is practically a Jewish city.

As regards their inner composition, the Jews of Turkey can be divided into two. large classes,—the vast majority who are submerged in ignorance and _ indifference, and the upper and more intelligent classes. Among the latter there are two strongly opposed elements, the national and Alli- ancistic. The influence of the Alliance is naturally very great in Turkey, and it has many adherents, especially among its former pupils, but even the latter are not satisfied with it. They begin to underStand that clerks and small salesmen do not constitute a nation. The national movements among the other nationalities it so strong that the Jews must come out as a nation, otherwise they will be an anomoly. Hence, the Jewish national movement has been greatly strengthened. The best journals are in the hands of the nationalists, and a general school reform in the national direction is going on. Assimilation is being crowded out by life itself,

The Turkish Jews have not hitherto participated in the colonization of Palestine, because they have been unaccustomed to active work. Absolutism on the one hand and charity on the other have wrung out from them all energy and initiative.