Haleṿi Saʻadi ben Betsalel - A Jewish voice from Ottoman Salonica ;edited and with an introduction by Aron Rodrigue and Sarah Abrevaya Stein ; translation, transliteration, and glossary by Isaac Jerusalmi: the Ladino memoir of

A Jewish Voice from Ottoman Salonica

STANFORD STUDIES IN JEWISH HISTORY AND CULTURE

EDITED BY Aron Rodrigue and Steven J. Zipperstein

The Ladino Memoir
of Saadi Besalel a-Levi

Edited and with an Introduction
by Aron Rodrigue and Sarah Abrevaya Stein

Translation, Transliteration, and Glossary
by Isaac Jerusalmi

Stanford University Press
Stanford, California

2012 by the Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University.
All rights reserved.

The original soletreo text of Saadi Besalel a-Levis memoir is posted in its entirety online: http://www.sup.org/book.cgi?id=18553

No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system without the prior written permission of Stanford University Press.

Printed in the United States of America on acid-free, archival-quality paper

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Halevi, Saadi ben Betsalel, author.

A Jewish voice from Ottoman Salonica : the Ladino memoir of Saadi Besalel a-Levi ; edited and with an introduction by Aron Rodrigue and Sarah Abrevaya Stein ; translation, transliteration, and glossary by Isaac Jerusalmi.

pages cm.--(Stanford studies in Jewish history and culture)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

English with Ladino romanized text and English translation.

ISBN 978-0-8047-7166-5 (cloth : alk. paper)

1. Halevi, Saadi ben Betsalel. 2. Jewish publishers--Greece--Thessalonike--Biography. 3. Jewish journalists--Greece--Thessalonike--Biography. 4. Sephardim--Greece--Thessalonike--History--19th century. I. Rodrigue, Aron, editor. II. Stein, Sarah Abrevaya, editor. III. Jerusalmi, Isaac, 1928- translator, transcriber. IV. Title. V. Series: Stanford studies in Jewish history and culture.

DS135.G73H35 2012

305.892404954--dc23 2011036183

Typeset by Bruce Lundquist in 10.5/14 Galliard

E-book ISBN: 978-0-8047-8177-0

Working with a century-old memoir that has iconic stature among scholars of Sephardic history, despite its never having been published in full before this moment, has been a stimulating and poignant experience. The editors have many friends and colleagues who generously donated critical commentary, expertise, and time to this project.

Isaac Jerusalmi gave himself fully to this book for several years. It could not have been realized without his deep knowledge of Ladino and Sephardic culture, extraordinary erudition, and fierce commitment to scholarly inquiry. Nimet Hananel Jerusalmi worked indefatigably together with her husband, Isaac, at all stages of the transliteration and translation as a full partner in this endeavor. Her contribution was truly invaluable.

A number of colleagues were generous enough to read and carefully comment on this manuscript and offer their help. Olga Borovaya offered important insights on Saadis life and career and on the development of Ladino print culture; we are enormously appreciative of her erudition, generosity, and unmatched attention to detail. Matthias Lehmann offered perspicacious suggestions regarding our handling of Saadis conflicts with the rabbinical establishment that influenced the final manuscript in important wayshis many insightful queries were invaluable. Frances Malino pushed us to elaborate on our discussion of women and gender in Saadis account, leading us to reconsider the memoir in fascinating ways. Uur Zekeriya Pee was of great assistance in the identification of Ottoman figures and place names. Finally, Devin Naar was relentlessly generous in sharing his fine-grained knowledge of late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Salonica and Salonican Jewry. His many questions, suggestions, and insights had a profound influence on this book.

Early on, Esther Benbassa saw the importance of publishing this memoir. Aron Rodrigue is deeply grateful for her precious compagnonnage de route now spanning exactly three decades in the development of Sephardic studies.

The Jewish National and University Library of Israels Manuscripts Department and Institute of Microfilmed Hebrew Manuscripts, which holds the only extant copy of Saadis memoirs, permitted us to publish this transliteration and translation: we are immensely grateful for their stewardship and permission. Crucial financial support came from Stanford Universitys Sephardic Studies Project, based at the Taube Center and the Mediterranean Studies Forum, and from the Maurice Amado Chair in Sephardic Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles.

We are pleased that this book is appearing as part of Stanford University Presss Studies in Jewish History and Culture series: we offer our appreciation to Steven J. Zipperstein, who, with Aron Rodrigue, edits this series, for his encouragement. Norris Pope has been an astute and munificent editor: we are especially thankful to him, his editorial assistant, Sarah Crane Newman, and the production team at Stanford University Pressespecially our copy-editor, Joe Abbott, and our production editor, Mariana Raykovfor their patience with the complex nature of this manuscript.

Our appreciation is also due to Rabbi David E. S. Stein, whose superb work far surpassed an indexers normal duties, and to Bill Nelson for patiently creating and fine-tuning our maps.

The Levi family of Rio de Janeiro generously provided and permitted us to reproduce the photograph of Saadi on the cover of this book. We thank especially Silvio Levi for his help and interest in this project.

We wish that we could convey our appreciation to Saadis great-grandson, Sadi Silvio Levy, who donated his great-grandfathers manuscript to the National Library of Israel in 1977; to Saadis grandson, Leon David Levy, who preserved it; to Saadis son, journalistic collaborator, and relentless champion, Sam Lvy, who likely sent the manuscript from Paris to his nephew, Leon, in Brazil; and, finally, to Saadi himself, who had the wisdom to commit to paper the following reflections on his life and the now-lost world of Ottoman and Jewish Salonica.

It is now customary in scholarly works to transliterate Hebrew words in Ladino texts according to modern standardized Israeli Hebrew. However, this obscures the distinctive Sephardic pronunciations that were common among the Ladino-speaking populations of the Ottoman Empire. For example, the transliteration of the second and third of Saadis names, which would be rendered Betsalel and ha-Levi according to contemporary rules of Hebrew transliteration, would be alien to Sephardim of Saadis era, who would have pronounced the name Besalel and a-Levi. Similar examples are numerous.

The romanized transliteration of Saadis memoir offers a glimpse into the dizzying multiple linguistic repertoires of Ladino, a cultural universe that is now all but erased. It would be anomalous (and indeed against the spirit of revivifying Saadis voice) to impose a contemporary transliteration system on his writing. This, we believe, would represent a double death of the author, his memoir, and the language he spoke.

Hence, the transliteration of the rich Hebrew vocabulary within Ladino is rendered throughout this book in a way that restitutes the voice of Ladino speakers, as follows:

Punctuation in the original soletreo manuscript is irregular. For ease of reading, we have added punctuation and quotation marks to the Ladino transliteration and English translation of Saadis memoir. In all instances except otherwise noted, personal names in transliteration respect the