Jacob Daniels, "The Jews of Edirne: The End of Ottoman Europe and the Arrival of Borders" (Stanford UP, 2025)

About this episode

Jacob Daniels discusses the Jewish community in Edirne and their experiences during the transition from the Ottoman Empire to modern nation-states.

At the turn of the twentieth century, the city of Edirne was a bustling center linking Istanbul to Ottoman Europe. It was also the capital of Edirne Province—among the most religiously diverse regions of the Ottoman Empire. But by 1923, the city had become a Turkish border town, and the province had lost much of its non-Muslim population. In The Jews of Edirne: The End of Ottoman Europe and the Arrival of Borders (Stanford UP, 2025), Jacob Daniels explores how one of the world's largest Sephardi communities dealt with the encroachment of modern borders. Using Ladino, French, English, and Turkish sources, Daniels offers a new take on the ways in which ethno-religious minorities experienced the transition "from empire to nation-state." Rather than tracing a linear path, Edirne Jews zigzagged between the Ottoman Empire and three nation-states—without moving a mile. And by maintaining interstate Sephardi networks, they resisted pressure to treat the shifting border as a limit to their zone of belonging. Ultimately, proximity to the border would undo Edirne's Jewish community, but the way this ending came about—local Jews were rarely killed or deported—challenges common assumptions…

People in this episode

Guest: Jacob Daniels

Topics covered

• Jewish history
• Ottoman Empire
• nation-state
• ethno-religious minorities
• borders
• Sephardi community

Keywords

• Edirne
• Jewish community
• Ottoman Europe
• borders
• Sephardi
• nation-state
• Ladino
• ethno-religious
• history

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Stanford UP

Places: Edirne, Ottoman Empire, Turkey

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