Emissaries from the Holy Land: The Sephardic Diaspora and the Practice of Pan-Judaism in the Eighteenth Century by Matthias B. Lehmann (review)

If early modern historiography at the end of the twentieth century was intent on reclaiming a locally contextualized perspective on the Jewish experience, the past ten years have seen the emergence of a new emphasis on Jewish trans-regional connections and global networks. Matthias Leh-mann’s rewarding study, which can be situated within this recent trend, has the added merit of moving the historiographic discourse in new directions. Unlike most studies of early modern Jewish networks, Lehmann’s does not probe commercial systems—although economic concerns are not alien to the volume—but rather focuses on the ties of solidarity promoted by the Committee of Officials for the Land of Israel in Istanbul (Vaad Pekide Erets Israel be-Kushta) from 1726 to the mid-nineteenth century, when its mission was gradually overshadowed by Western European philanthropic organizations. While doing so, he nuances a number of scholarly assumptions regarding tradition and modernity within the Sephardic world.

Lehmann’s book provides the first comprehensive assessment of shelihut since Abraham Yaari’s encyclopedic study, Sheluhe Erets Israel (1951). Importantly, his account emphasizes the challenges faced by the philanthropic effort, as well as the contested nature of its underlying “pan-Jewish” ideology. His persuasive interpretation of the work and motivations of the Istanbul officials and their emissaries is based on a vast array of sources in Hebrew and various Jewish vernaculars, such as the correspondence of the Pekide Kushta and of diasporic Jewish leaders, sermonic and apologetic literature penned by shadarim, Haim Joseph David Azulai’s diary Maagal Tov, as well as rabbinic responsa and communal minute books.

The first chapter places within the broader Ottoman context the Pekidim’s efforts to ensure the viability of the networks of solidarity they promoted. As Lehmann shows, the Istanbul officials struggled to enforce their central oversight over the vast financial operations they sponsored, and encountered tensions with the Jewish leadership in Jerusalem. When it came to the collection, investment, and transfer of funds, the challenges they confronted resembled obstacles faced by international Sephardic merchants, such as the Ergas and Silvera partnership studied by Francesca Trivellato. In an age of relatively slow communication, the Pekidim were pressed to develop trust-building strategies that ensured the timely transfer of funds and guaranteed that all expenses would be accounted for.

The second chapter considers the emissaries themselves. Again trust appears as a key analytical category. As the Pekidim endeavored to guarantee network reliability from Istanbul, the traveling shadarim used specific tools to prove themselves trustworthy on the road, such as letters of recommendations. Additionally, the chapter nuances notions of center and periphery, and of “East” and “West,” in early modern Jewish culture. The emissaries’ visits, Lehmann claims, created “contact zones” that connected geographically and culturally disparate communities. Still, Palestinian scholars could not escape their own cultural predilections and prejudices, a fact that in turn contributed to their own occasional othering of Ashkenazi and North African settlements. Despite their frequent success, moreover, shelihut collections came to represent a burden for diaspora communities, several of which attempted to limit them.

The shadarim’s ideology is explored in the third chapter, together with the reasons that drove acculturated Western Sephardim to donate. Support for the Holy Land assumed multivalent meanings depending on its advocates. For emissaries such as Moshe Hagiz, the relentless anti-Sabbatean campaigner and defender of rabbinic authority, promoting the importance of Erets Israel was a crucial way to champion the centrality of rabbinic tradition among diaspora Jews. Ironically, the lay leaders of the Amsterdam community, whom he maligned as enemies of his mission, shared with him a profound commitment to both Jewish orthodoxy and pan-Jewish philanthropy. For their part, though, wealthy donors supported the Holy Land precisely as a way to signal their own important status in the diaspora.

In chapter 4, Lehmann investigates the...