Robin Buller Lectures on Sephardi Immigrants to France, 1919-1945

Robin Buller, recipient of the 2022 Sorrell and Lorraine Chesin/JDC Archives Fellowship, lectured on “Ottoman Echoes: Remnants of the Empire among Sephardi Immigrants to France, 1919-1945.”

In this lecture, Robin Buller discussed how in the first decades of the twentieth century, tens of thousands of Sephardi Jews migrated out of the Ottoman Empire and its successor states to build new lives in France. Culturally, Ottoman Jewish immigrants transformed Paris’ 11th arrondissement into a “Little Turkey.” Socially, they introduced Ottoman networks into Paris’ burgeoning immigrant Jewish associational scene. The lecture examined how Ottoman Jews wielded plural passports and protégé papers, which became critical documents for negotiating escape during the Second World War—a process in which the JDC played an instrumental role.

The JDC Archives Fellowships allow scholars engaged in graduate level, post-doctoral, or independent study to conduct research in the JDC Archives, either in New York or Jerusalem. All fellows give a public presentation on their research; watch more of these JDC fellowship lectures here.