OTTOMAN EMPIRE
Ottoman Empire by Esther Eillam
It had a strong presence in the culture of the Jews of Salonica, my parent’s birthplace: my father’s family lived there for generations. My mother’s grandfather moved there from a Macedonian city called Monastir (I found out that there is in Jerusalem a synagogue of the Jews from Monastir).
The Turkish era in our region influenced in many ways the life of the people here, for hundreds of years. It also had part in the history of Zionism, because they ruled Palestina till 1917, when General Commander Alenbi established here a British occupation that had the form of a mandate. For me, the year 1917 in connection to the Ottoman Empire is associated with my father’s story about the big fire that year in Salonica, which demolished most of the Jewish houses (mostly from wood), including his own (people said it was a man-made fire, against the Jews).
His family went to live with his uncle in the town of Ismir, in Turkey, and stayed about a year. He was then 10 years old. He came again to Ismir as a young man to live for a while with his uncle’s family before leaving with his parents to Palestine, in 1931, avoiding the obligation to serve the Greek army. I met his cousin, Matilde, in 1992, in a reunion of the family near Paris. She was then 74 years old. Since then, I lost the connection with her, and do not know if she is still alive.
Esther Eillam / one of the founding mothers of the feminist movement in Israel in the early 70′s.
