The Jews of Edirne, Turkey

Edirne once held one of the world’s largest Sephardic communities. Drawing on Ladino, French, Turkish, and English sources, Jacob Daniels traces how upheavals from the Young Turk Revolution to the Thracian violence of 1934 reshaped their identity: wary of Zionism under Alliance schools, briefly supportive during the Greek occupation, then forced into silence under the Turkish Republic. Prosperous yet resented, Edirne’s Jews became the last minority in a sensitive borderland, and the 1934 attacks—though not fatal—drove most to Istanbul, ending centuries of communal life.

Jacob Daniels earned his History PhD at Stanford. He now serves as Assistant Professor of Instruction and Assistant Director of the Schusterman Center for Jewish Studies at The University of Texas at Austin. His book, "The Jews of Edirne, The End of Ottoman Europe and the Arrival of Borders" is published by Stanford University Press: https://www.sup.org/books/jewish-stud...

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