Sephardim in Israel
The early modern Western Sephardic congregations provided financial support for Sephardim in Israel, or Terra Santa as Israel was then known, within the Ottoman Empire.
Researching in the Amsterdam and London Sephardic Jewish archives, Ton Tielen has discovered lists of names (listas) of those supported. These Sephardim came from the Ottoman Empire and Morocco, as well as Spanish and Portuguese Jewish communities. They lived four Holy Cities of Eretz Israel: Jerusalem, Hebron, Safed and Tiberias. The charity payments were often funnelled through Livorno and Constantinople. These payments continued until the close of the 18th Century. Later, Sir Moses Montefiore personally travelled to Terra Santa.
The community in Livorno, and presumably the other Spanish and Portuguese Jewish congregations also financially contributed to Sephardim in Israel. The following quote is from the Narrative of a Mission of Inquiry to the Jews from the Church of Scotland in 1839.
“The Jews of Leghorn send about £800 to Palestine every year. This sum is gathered in the boxes at the synagogue doors, and sent to the four holy cities, Jerusalem, Hebron, Saphet, and Tiberias , sometimes by individuals going to Palestine, but more frequently through their mercantile correspondents at Constantinople, where there is an agency appointed to manage such sums sent from any part of the world. The Jews in Leghorn believe in the restoration of their nation to the Holy Land; but, added the Chancellor, it is “più credenza, che desidério,” more a belief of the head, than a desire of the heart.”
This is when charitable donations were winding down. The UK National Archives estimates £800 then as about £50,000 now, and would have paid (in England) the wages of around 16 skilled tradesmen for a year.
Some Background
The Jewish ancestral home and religious focus, Eretz Israel was conquered by the Ottoman Turks in 1516/1517. It was briefly under Egypt rule between 1831 and 1840 after which Turkish rule was restored. Britain captured Jerusalem from the Turks in 1917. Israeli rule was established in west Jerusalem in 1948, and the city was reunited in 1967.
Following the Tanzimat reforms, in 1864 the Sanjak/Mutasarrifate of Jerusalem became part of the Vilayet of Syria (also called the Vilayet of Damascus).
The district was separated from Damascus and placed directly under the Ottoman central government in Constantinople (now Istanbul in English) in 1841,[4] and formally created as an independent province in 1872. The British conquered Jerusalem in 1917, and the Near East was divided between Britain and France, with the British getting Eretz Israel. Subsequent history is well known.
Sephardic Genealogy in Israel
The focus on this website is principally the early modern period (broadly 1492-1750). Now, most Sephardim live in Israel. The charity listas are discussed above.
Nüfūs registers (Ottoman census and population registers of Palestine), 1883-1917.
There is useful material in the Ottoman archives, consular archives of other countries, archives of Christian missionary societies, travel books and guides and elsewhere. There are probably surviving property and court records, maybe including Islamic sharia court records which would likely include cases involving Jews.
In 1849 Sir Moses Montefiore, a leading figure of the London Spanish and Portuguese Jews Congregation visited the Holy Land, took a census of the Jewish population and encouraged Jewish settlement outside the walls of the Old City of Jerusalem. https://www.montefioreendowment.org.uk/census/
Israeli sources include:
- Israel Genealogy Research Association
- Central Archives for the History of the Jewish People
- National Library of Israel
- Central Zionist Archives
- Israel State Archives
If you have found this page on Sephardim in Israel useful, please consider making a small donation to support this site and my work. Do you need a professional genealogist to work on your Sephardic genealogy? Click here.