Sephardic woman

Öz
Osmanlı İmparatorluğu’nu şekillendiren belirleyici unsurlardan biri, millet sistemidir. Sistem içinde yer alan her cemaat kendine has dini ve kültürel özelliklerini koruma serbestliğine sahipti ve böylelikle her bir cemaat, Osmanlı kültürel zenginliğine katkı sağladı. Bu cemaatlerden biri de Yahudi cemaatiydi. Cemaatin erkekleri kadar kadınları da Osmanlı toplumsal yaşamında aktif rol oynadı. Özellikle Osmanlı kadınları arasında gelişimini ileri bir düzeye taşıma fırsatını yakalayan da Yahudi kadınları oldu. Bu ilerlemeyi, 16. ve 19. yüzyıl sürecinin öne çıkan isimleri ya da olayları gözler önüne sermektedir. Dolasıyla bu makale genel hatlarıyla evde eş ve anne; haremde kira; pazarda tüccar; şıklığıyla Kamondo ya da fabrikada çeyizi için çalışmak zorunda kalan tütüncü kız yani işçi olan Yahudi kadınlarının Osmanlı sosyoekonomik yaşamındaki yeri ve gelişimini ortaya koymayı amaçlamaktadır.
Anahtar Kelimeler: Yahudi Kadını, Osmanlı Kadını, Osmanlı Yahudileri, Sefarad Kadını.
Abstract
One of the defining characteristics that shaped Ottoman Empire was its millet system. Any community that was in this system had the freedom to maintain its religious and cultural characteristics and therefore; each community made a contribution to the richness of Ottoman culture. One of these communities was Jewish community. The women, as well as men, of this community played an active role in Ottoman social life. Among all Ottoman women, it was Jewish women who had the most opportunity to improve their status. This development is clearly visible by the prominent figures and events of 16th and 19th century. Therefore, the objective of this study is to determine the status and development of Jewish women, who in general were wives and mothers in their home, kiera (kira) in harem, saleswoman in markets, who could match Kamondo with their beauty and had to work in factories in order to earn their dowries, in Ottoman socio-economical life.
Keywords:  Jewish woman, Ottoman woman, Ottoman Jews, Sephardic woman.

Ivana Vučina Simović's article deals with the role of the Sephardi woman in preserving/transforming Judeo-Spanish in the former Yugoslavia. The paper analyzes the link between the woman’s social status and her choice of spoken language, based upon a corpus collected in Belgrade and Sarajevo. The main argument is that as long as the traditional-patriarchal social structure was maintained, the woman represented the mainstay of the preservation of community identity and the Judeo-Spanish language. But with modernization and the emancipation of women things became reversed. It was precisely the women who worked to replace Judeo-Spanish so as to make it easier for them to assimilate into broader society, which they saw as a springboard for social and professional advancement. Apparently, lack of loyalty to the group language did not encounter any social criticism of the type hurled against the changes in women’s behavior and customs.