Donmeh

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Note: The Donmeh officially practice/d Islam. They are not regarded as Jews whereas most Sabbateans during and after Sabbatai Zevi were Jews and practiced only Judaism.

Donmeh refers to a group of Crypto-Jews of the Near East who followed Sabbatai Zevi (also called Shabbatai Zvi) and converted to Islam in 1666. Zevi's conversion is generally understood to have been forced. They are also called Selânikli (person from Thessaloniki) or referred to as Donmeh (dönme (read 'ö' like the 'u' in turn) or avdetî), a Turkish word for a religious convert. Although they consider themselves as some kind of Jews, they are not officially recognised by Jewish authorities.

1 History
2 References
3 See also
4 External links

[edit] History

While outwardly Muslim, the Sabbateans secretly remained close to Jewish beliefs, and continued to practice Jewish rituals covertly. They recognized Sabbatai Zevi as the Jewish Messiah, observed certain rituals with similarities in Judaism and prayed in Hebrew and later in Ladino. They also observed rituals celebrating important events in Zevi's life. They interpreted Zevi's conversion in a Kabbalistic way.

Some of the original Sabbateans were also Muslims or Christians who were converted to Sabbateanism.

There are several branches of the Sabbateans. The first was the Ismirli formed in İzmir, Turkey (Smyrna). The second were the Jakubi founded by Jacob Querido, a successor to Zevi who also made messianic claims. Also were the Osman Baba led by Berechia. This group taught Jacob Frank who led the Frankists in 18th century eastern Europe and the fifth were the Lechli who are of Polish descent who lived in exile in Salonika (modern Thessaloniki, Greece) and Constantinople.

Several Sabbateans were among the Young Turks, revolutionaries who brought down the Ottoman Empire. At the time of the population exchange between Greece and Turkey, some among the Salonika Sabbateans tried to be recognized as non-Muslims to avoid being forced to leave Salonika. After the foundation of the Turkish Republic, Sabbateans strongly supported the Republican, pro-Western reforms of Ataturk (himself a reputed donmeh [1]) that tried to restrict the power of the religious establishment and modernize the society. In particular, Sabbateans were instrumental in establishing trade,industry and culture in the emerging Republic of Turkey which partially is due to the prominence of Rumeli immigrants in general and of Salonica in particular in the early Republic years.

Although they only married within their own community, the mixed-marriage and assimilation began already at the end of 19th century. It should be noted that as of the end of 20th century Sabbateans were fully integrated to the Turkish society and the intermarriage tradition largely ceased after the 1960s.

Since the publication of the book Şebeke "Network" by socialist writer Prof. Dr. Yalçın Küçük in 2002, a new wave of conspiracy theories popular among the right-wing and left-wing nationalists emerged. According to these speculative postulates, Sabbateans are related to each other through a network that consequently links them to "International jewry" and they are the ones behind consecutive governments in Turkey.

An interesting case is the one of Ilgaz Zorlu, a Sabbatean publisher who founded Zvi Publishers in 2000 and sought recognition as a Jew but a Beth Din denied to recognize his Jewishness without a full conversion. He claimed to have converted in Israel and then filed a lawsuit for changing his religion from Islam to Judaism in his registry records and ID. The court voted in his favor. His acts are seen controversial by many, particularly due to his cooperation with Islamic figures like Mehmed Şevket Eygi.

Işık University which is part of the Feyziye Schools Foundation (Feyziye Mektepleri Vakfi - FMV) and Terakki schools were founded originally by the Sabbatean community in Salonica in the last quarter of the 19th century but ceased to be community schools after their move to Istanbul.