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Last Century of a Sephardic Community: The Jews of Monastir, 1839-1943
Last Century of a Sephardic Community The Jews of Monastir 18391943 Author:Mark Cohen It was 1839, a time when European ideas were infiltrating every aspect of life in the Ottoman Empire. The Ottoman Sephardim, descendants of the Spanish Jews exiled in 1492, were also about to undergo vast changes in their education, outlook, and family life. In Monastir, a series of fires initiated these changes early and dramatically. But, b... more »y 1943, during the Holocaust, the Monastir Jewish community suffered complete destruction, and no Jewish community has existed in the city since the end of World War II. In its life and in its death, Monastir exemplified the experience of the Balkan Sephardim's tumultous last century. Last Century of a Sephardic Community is the first book to tell this revealing story, and it provides what is perhaps the most complete account of a Spanish-speaking Jewish community available in English. Drawing on unpublished documents from Israel, France, Canada, England, and the United States, Last Century offers an in-depth social history of the Monastir Jews. Additionally, it presents for the first time rare photographs and illustrations, original translations of Monastir's Sephardic folklore, and a complete listing of the Monastir Jews who were deported to the Treblinka concentration camp. Last Century will be welcomed by all those interested in Jewish and Sephardic history, folklore, genealogy, education, or the Holocaust.« less