Sadkah Houssin’s Struggle for Control over the Baghdad Community

This chapter discusses the struggle between the nasi (president) of the Jewish community of Baghdad — a figure of the old order who joined with the local Torah scholars in order to create a united front — and Rabbi Sadkah Houssin, who was sent from Aleppo to serve as rabbi of the Baghdad community, where he attempted to extend his authority at the expense of the nasi and the other Torah scholars. In Baghdad, the chief rabbi headed the communal rabbinic court; however, his activity was generally overshadowed by the figure of the nasi. The fact that Rabbi Houssin came from Aleppo, a community with a totally different tradition of leadership, inevitably led to conflicts with the nasi of the Baghdad community. R. Houssin introduced various Aleppo customs to Baghdad and strengthened the ties with his own community of origin, leading the nasi to feel that his own status was under threat. The chapter then looks at how the gradual recovery of the circle of rabbinic sages in Baghdad, combined with the renewed stability of the institution of nasi under the leadership of Yitshak Gabbai, prepared the ground for a movement to reverse the changes in community governance made by Rabbi Houssin.

Yitshak Abulafia’s Troubled Path to Rabbinic Office in Damascus

This chapter focuses on Rabbi Yitshak Abulafia's struggle against the extended family of Rabbi Shalom Moses Hai Gagin of Jerusalem and the gevir Shemaiah Angel of Damascus. Rabbi Ephraim Mercado Alkalai's abandonment of Damascus paved the way for Rabbi Abulafia's ascent to the office of ḥakham bashi. Despite his being a man of exceptional Torah learning and the scion of a distinguished rabbinic family, his appointment to this office, to which he was eminently suited, had been delayed for more than ten years, owing to disputes with his own relatives, his family connections with Rabbi Shalom Gagin, and the wealthy laymen Shemaiah and Eleazar Angel. However, in 1883, he had no rivals for the office in Damascus, while his enemies in the Angel family had temporarily left the city for Istanbul. While divisions in the community persisted, at this point, the position of Abulafia's supporters was stronger than that of his opponents and he was appointed, in addition to his existing position as head of the religious court, to the office of ḥakham bashi of Damascus.

Epilogue

This epilogue studies how the Young Turk Revolution further weakened both Jewish autonomy within the Ottoman Empire and, along with growing secularization, the official recognition and legal authority hitherto accorded to the law of the Torah and to the religious leadership. In the controversies that broke out after the Young Turk Revolution, the call to remove the chief rabbis in a number of Jewish communities drew on revolutionary, reformist, and Enlightenment arguments, including the idea of free expression. Struggles over power in the community began to assume the character of a confrontation between those who were defined as enlightened liberals and their opponents, who were seen as benighted conservatives. Ultimately, the ‘secularization of the rabbinate’ — that is, the involvement of the ḥakham bashi in political matters and his role as a government official fulfilling explicitly administrative functions — led to a ‘cheapening of the rabbinate’. Modernization, and especially the expansion of education, disseminated ideas of secularism and individualism, and facilitated the emergence of new kinds of leader. During the first decade of the twentieth century, patterns of leadership that had been accepted in the Ottoman Empire for generations, including the placing of a religious figure at the head of the community, were increasingly perceived as outdated.

Introduction

This introductory chapter provides an overview of the rabbinate, particularly the chief rabbis, in the Jewish communities of the Ottoman Empire. There is a widely held conception that, throughout history, the rabbi was the ultimate Jewish leader and, in the absence of counterbalancing community institutions, had the final word in all matters. For Jews within the Ottoman Empire, the right to appoint their rabbis was part of the autonomy they enjoyed, an aspect of the community's life with which the imperial authorities were not involved. However, the creation in 1835 by the Ottoman authorities of the institution of ḥakham bashi transformed the chief rabbi from the senior religious figure within Jewish society into its senior government official. With this change, the long arm of the government began to reach into Jewish communal affairs, and as a result Jewish autonomy gradually weakened. From this point on, the chief rabbi's relationship with the rulers became the most important aspect of his position. This tendency was strengthened throughout the period of the Ottoman reforms (1839–76), during which security, protection, and equality before the law were promised to members of all religions.