The first Ottoman statistic during the nineteenth century AD indicated that the Jews existed as an active sect in society, especially that the Jewish immigration to Anatolia was motivated by political and economic motives, in addition to a religious spiritual thought that was welcomed by the Turkish sultans.

The Jews found a safe place in the Ottoman Empire, and the policy of Turkish reforms and new laws enacted by the sultans in that era resulted in determining the status of sects, including the Jewish sect. It is noted that they were called state Jews, and they had a clear connection with the Ottoman governmental and judicial bodies, which provided them with a sense of security and stability.

In his book “The Jews in the Arab Countries”, the writer Samuel Ettinger mentions that large numbers of Jews got a great deal of education and culture, and this resulted in the emergence of a new group of Jewish youth who started thinking about global Zionism later, and that is my opinion.

On the other hand, the economic conditions of the Jews in the Ottoman Empire became of special importance, and during the second half of the nineteenth century they had an impact on the economic movement itself, especially in the city of Thessaloniki, and their number was about 75 thousand Jews.

The Ottoman records stated that the Jews constituted an estimated 10% of the population in the city of Izmir, and their concentration in it increased due to the Greek Revolution and the Balkan War. They lived freely under the auspices of foreign consulates, and then the economic competition between them and the Ottomans arose, which eventually led to the deterioration of the economic situation. At that time, the state’s economy depended on raising the value of taxes and collecting them from Arab countries with the power of pashas and governors.

We must mention that there was a class of wealthy Jews in the Ottoman Empire, most of whom relied on establishing projects with the immigrant Jews. Here is something surprising, which is the immigration of numbers of Turkish Jews to reside in the western side of the United States of America.

According to what Samuel Ettinger mentions, some Jews helped the rebels in the revolution of Crete and Bulgaria and were the cause of burdening the Ottoman Empire with debts. This was confirmed by Rafiq Shakir Al-Natsheh in his book “Sultan Abdul Hamid II and Palestine”.

Rabbi Yosef Farts, a Jewish geographer who emigrated from Germany to the Ottoman Empire, mentioned that period saying: “The situation prevailing in this era is very good and the Jews residing in the country enjoy calm and stability”.