Concern over a shrinking population led Ottoman authorities to undermine reproductive autonomy in the 19th century, writes grad fellow Büşra Demirkol, starting with outlawing abortion and exiling two "bloody" Jewish midwives.
Has anti-Semitism always been the same, or have ideas about Jewishness, and suspicion towards Jews, changed over time? In this episode, guest Ana Gómez-Bravo helps to answer these questions by looking at the lives of Jews and “conversos” (Jewish converts to Christianity) in medieval Spain, exploring how Catholic authorities tried to define and restrict their Jewish and converso residents.
In late nineteenth-century Vienna, one Sephardic Jew battled for "authentic" Hebrew pronunciation -- in Ladino.
Looking at how Sephardic Jews in Seattle recalled massacres of Armenians in Ottoman Turkey shows why it's important to go beyond "good guys" and "bad guys" in interpreting history, writes graduate fellow Oya Rose Aktaş.
Video interview between David Bunis, the world's expert in Ladino, and Devin Naar about Ladino, the treasured language of Sephardic Jews.
Watch a complete tutorial on writing soletreo, the alphabet of the endangered Ladino language!
Graduate Fellow Oscar Aguirre-Mandujano specializes in Ottoman Turkish history, but his Jewish Studies research project has led him to a rare Ladino manuscript.
