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Voluume<br />
14, No 4 – January 2013 2<br />
Publlished<br />
6 time es a year<br />
<br />
HA ADASSAH CARDS C BY PHHONE<br />
6 ca ards/$10: for Birthday, Ann niversary, Ne ew Baby, Mazzel<br />
Tov, Blankk<br />
Cards, Sympathy<br />
Cards;<br />
Small certif ficate: In Hon nor or In Memory<br />
$ 5.00, CCall<br />
Sylvia Glaaser,<br />
301-2166-9838:<br />
Cards are $3.00 $ each; small<br />
certificat tes In honor oof<br />
or In Memoory<br />
of are $6.000<br />
each<br />
<br />
YOUTH ALIY YAH CERTIFFICATES:<br />
Please contact Shar ron Cadoff, sjcadoff@aol.c<br />
s<br />
com, 301- 8881-3703,<br />
or (inn<br />
winter) 561-496-3672<br />
<br />
The T WASHINGTON<br />
CHAP PTER'S DOR L'DOR: TREEE<br />
OF LIFE<br />
This beautif ful Tree of Life e is a stunning<br />
mural at thee<br />
Hadassah OOffice.<br />
Purchhase<br />
a leaf forr<br />
any<br />
occasion, to o honor or to remember r a Dear D One. It'ss<br />
a very meanningful<br />
way too<br />
help Hadasssah!<br />
For<br />
donations & details: please<br />
contact Ca aroline Fierst, , clfierst@aol.com<br />
or 301-6649-3156,<br />
or call the<br />
office: 301-8 881-8203 and d mention our r HS group.<br />
<br />
WITNES SS TO HISTTORY<br />
Pers spectives on the Hebraic c Book, Editeed<br />
by Dr. Pegggy<br />
Pearlmann.<br />
pu ublished in celebration<br />
of th he Centennial<br />
of the Hebraaic<br />
Section off<br />
the Library oof<br />
Congress<br />
The earliest printed<br />
Hebrew books came e from Italy and a Constanntinople.<br />
Thhe<br />
Soncino fa family, nameed<br />
for a town n<br />
in Itaaly<br />
in which they t were ac ctive, established<br />
the firs st Hebrew ppress<br />
in Italy in 1484. Thhe<br />
Jews whoo<br />
were<br />
expeelled<br />
from Sp pain and Portugal<br />
becam me the prima ary Hebrew book printerrs<br />
in the Ottooman<br />
Empiree,<br />
beginning g<br />
with the Nahamia<br />
family, 1493-1522.<br />
The Nahamia br rothers took their printing g equipment t with them wwhen<br />
they wwere<br />
expelledd<br />
from Spainn,<br />
and within n<br />
a year<br />
and a half,<br />
they had set s up their press, p purch hased paper, , and made a connection<br />
with one oof<br />
the<br />
greaatest<br />
scholar rs of the Otto oman Empire e, Rabbi Elia ah beRabi BBinyamin<br />
ha-Levi,<br />
a Rommaniote<br />
rabbbi,<br />
who<br />
preppared<br />
the boo ok for printin ng and read the proofs of o an eight huundred<br />
pagee<br />
Halakhic ccode,<br />
Sefer aarba’ah<br />
turim m<br />
(Thee<br />
Book of Fo our Columns).<br />
Printing ra aised Halakhic<br />
questionns<br />
about the format – forr<br />
example, wwhether<br />
or<br />
not ttexts<br />
printed on paper were<br />
as sacre ed as those traditionally written by sscribes<br />
on paarchment<br />
Withh<br />
the exception<br />
of the He ebrew press,<br />
no printing presses exiisted<br />
in the eempire<br />
until the seventeeenth<br />
century.<br />
The firs st attempt to o establish an<br />
Arabic pre ess in Constaantinople<br />
waas<br />
in 1727; tthis<br />
press waas<br />
active for r<br />
only fifteen years s and produced<br />
fewer th han twenty books. b Withhin<br />
the Musliim<br />
society, the<br />
reverencce<br />
for the<br />
handdwritten<br />
word d, the involv vement of nu umerous seg gments of thee<br />
schooled ccitizenry<br />
in bbook<br />
copyingg,<br />
the<br />
religious<br />
establis shment, social<br />
conserva atism, and fe ears of the innfluence<br />
of pprinting<br />
all coonspired<br />
to rrepress<br />
the<br />
Arabbic<br />
press. Th he Greek pre ess failed be ecause of re eligious politiics<br />
within thee<br />
Christian wworld,<br />
and thhe<br />
political<br />
intriggues<br />
of the great g Catholic<br />
and Prote estant power rs and the Greek<br />
Churchh,<br />
as well ass<br />
ideological differences. .<br />
In coontrast<br />
to this,<br />
there was s no known opposition o to o Hebrew prrinting<br />
either r in Constanttinople<br />
or elssewhere<br />
in<br />
the eempire.<br />
The e Jews were given licens se to print their<br />
own boooks.<br />
It may bbe<br />
assumed that an explicit<br />
decree<br />
(ferm rman) was issued<br />
by the e central gov vernment au uthorizing Heebrew<br />
pressses.<br />
Moreovver,<br />
there waas<br />
extensive e<br />
and openly cond ducted trade in Hebrew books b betwe een Venice aand<br />
Constanntinople.<br />
The Jewish com mmunity of the<br />
Ottoman Empire E in the e sixteenth ccentury<br />
wass<br />
composed of both longtime<br />
residdents<br />
and im mmigrants. The T veteran residents we ere Romanioote<br />
Jews whho<br />
had comee<br />
from Byzanntium<br />
and<br />
livedd<br />
in the areas s ruled by th he Italian city y-states thro oughout the MMediterraneean<br />
basin; the<br />
Karaites, wwho<br />
lived in<br />
the ccentral<br />
and eastern e parts s of the emp pire (in Europ pean Turkeyy<br />
and Anatollia),<br />
and the Mostarib Jeews<br />
in the<br />
eastern<br />
regions (natives of the<br />
cites of Syria, S the Land<br />
of Israel, , and Egypt) ). The formeer<br />
spoke mainly<br />
Greek,<br />
and the latter ma ainly Arabic.<br />
By thhe<br />
end of the e fifteenth ce entury the majority m of Ot ttoman Emppire<br />
Jews weere<br />
the immiggrants<br />
from Spain and<br />
Portuugal<br />
who ha ad been drive en out of the e Iberian Pen ninsula by thhe<br />
Expulsionn,<br />
and who sspoke<br />
Ladinoo.<br />
Addiitional<br />
immig grants came from Ashka anaz, Italy, Provence, P annd<br />
Hungary.<br />
More e than ever, Hadassah Ha needs ds your support rt<br />
page 4<br />
6101 Execcutive<br />
Blvd, Suite 130<br />
RRockville,<br />
MMD<br />
20852
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