Description:

Please join the Global Religion and Politics Research Group as they host PhD candidate in Anthropology, Idil Ozkan (Northwestern University).

Abstract: This paper traces how converso (Sabbatean) Jews reckon with their religious ancestry in the context of reparations in Spain and Portugal. Five hundred years after the horrors of the Catholic Inquisition, the Spanish and Portuguese governments extended citizenship in 2015 to Jews worldwide, provided the applicants evidenced their Sephardic ancestry. While the offer sparked widespread interest and fostered reconciliation for many Sephardic people in the Global South, it also brought about moral dilemmas and anxieties for others. Among those for whom the citizenship offer had unintended consequences were Selanikli in Turkey. This subgroup of Sephardic Jews from Ottoman Salonika had converted in the 17th century from Judaism to Islam following the self-proclaimed messiah, Sabbatai Zevi. For centuries, the disciples practiced Judaism in private while publicly adhering to a Muslim identity; a movement which hence became known as Sabbateanism. Following the founding of modern Turkey and its fin de siècle wave of secularism and modernity, the Sabbatean memory and practices have faded, leaving many oblivious to their roots. Spanish and Portuguese reparation initiatives disrupted the culture of oblivion, prompting the surfacing of many family histories. In this presentation, I analyze social tensions and religious questions that arise as individuals seek reparative citizenship. Through ethnographic accounts of how individuals invoke cultural, linguistic, genetic, and spiritual ancestralities, I trace ideologies of religious and civic belonging. In doing so, I explore “excess” as an analytical thread to investigate semiotics of social differentiation.