“Living off others’ aid”: The Socioeconomic Structure of Salonica’s Jews in the Mid-Nineteenth Century

Abstract

Through an analysis of data compiled in the Ottoman income and property registers (temettuat) of 1844–45, this article explores the socioeconomic and demographic structures of Salonica’s Jews in order to understand the extent of Jewish poverty in Salonica in the mid-nineteenth century and its causal matrix. It examines the socioeconomic hierarchies within the Jewish community, as well as the position of Jews within broader urban social structures composed mainly of Jews, Muslims, and Christians. It also analyzes the mechanisms that Jews employed to deal with this poverty. Finally, it argues that community-based reasons alone cannot explain the existence of widespread severe poverty among Salonica’s Jews in this period; broad fluctuations in the Ottoman economy had a significant impact on all the inhabitants of Salonica and must also be taken into account.