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Imagining the Sephardic Community of


Vienna: A Discourse-Analytical Approach
Martin Stechauner

1. Introduction
Over the last few decades the study of Sephardic communities has become
more popular, especially in the fields of Jewish and Romance Studies. The
growing interest in the history and language of Sephardic Jews has not
solely been limited to the traditional and well-known cultural centres of
Sephardic Jewry, for example the former Ottoman Empire (for example
Benbassa and Rodrigue 2000) or Northern Europe (for example Bodian
1997; Kaplan 2000). In the recent past, smaller, although no less significant
and thriving Sephardic communities such as the (historic) Sephardic community of Vienna, have taken centre stage in several studies (for example
Eugen 2001; Kaul 1989), exhibitions1 and symposia.2
This paper presents a study on the constitution and consolidation of
Sephardic identity in relation to a diasporic experience. Its aim is to highlight another aspect of Sephardic Jewry that goes beyond the study of
Sephardic history and language, namely the notions of Sephardic diaspora
and identity in Vienna in the context of the late 19th century and early 20th
century. Animated by these objectives, the mechanisms responsible for the
emergence of Sephardic identity shall be brought to light. Furthermore, this
paper will also highlight how an experience of diaspora, as well as other
Notes on Romanisation: Hebrew expressions will be romanised according to the transcription system published by the Academy of the Hebrew Language in 2012. Arabic will
be romanised according to the system developed by the American Library Association
and the Library of Congress (ALA-LC Romanization).
1 See the exhibition Die Trken in Wien organised by the Jewish Museum of Vienna
(2010) and the Jewish Museum Hohenems (2011) about the Turkish-Israelite Community
of Vienna, website: http://www.jmw.at/de/exhibitions/die-tuerken-wien-geschichte-einerjuedischen-gemeinde (accessed January 2, 2014).
2 See the conference Sefarad an der Donau organised by Michael Studemund
Halvy at the Austrian Academy of Sciences (June 26, 2011 June 29, 2011), website:
http://www.oeaw.ac.at/vk/detail.do?id=92 (accessed January 2, 2014); see also Studemund-Halvy, Leibl and Vuina 2013.

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historical circumstances, played a significant role in the identity-finding


process of the Sephardic Jews of Vienna.
By applying the theoretical approaches of thinkers like Benedict Anderson (b. 1936) in combination with a discourse-analytical approach, especially the one devised by Stuart Hall (19322014), it shall be demonstrated
that cultural identities are rather complex and multi-layered constructs.
Hence, multiple approaches are required in order to be able to reconstruct
the mechanisms which are responsible for the formation of cultural identity.
Of course, it must be kept in mind that most of these approaches had originally been developed in order to analyse more secularpolitical, social
etc.phenomena, specifically nationalism. This is why certain considerations and conceptions might initially appear somewhat unconventional
when applied to the analysis of religious and ethnic communities. However,
since the Study of Religions should be perceived as a predominantly interdisciplinary subject, it is not only desirable but, in fact, absolutely necessary
to employ and test the common state-of-the-art approaches of other neighbouring disciplines, not least because religious phenomena can hardly be
understood separately or independently from social, political, psychological
or philosophical points of views. In this respect the theoretical approaches
of Anderson and Hall, as well as those of other prominent theorists included
in this paper, provide a very solid foundation for the analysis and evaluation
of culturalincluding religiousidentities.
Before proceeding with the discussion of the theoretical and methodological approaches applied in this paper, a few things must be said about the
religious group that is going to be presented in detail. The historic
Sephardic community of Vienna predominantly consisted of Jewish immigrants from the former Ottoman Empire (for example Bosnia-Herzegovina,
which became part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1878).3 The origin of
Ottoman Jewry, in large part, is the Iberian Peninsula where the Alhambra
Decree, issued by the Catholic Kings in 1492, practically forced all Jews of
Spain to choose either between conversion to Christianity, exile or death.
The Ottoman Sultan Bayezid II. (r. 14811512) gladly received a large
number of those refugees who had remained faithful to their Jewish religion
(Bossong 2008: 92-93). In the Ottoman Empire the Jewish refugees were
able to establish new communities, usually in cities or in areas that were
closely controlled by the Sublime Porte. Soon there was a Spanish Jewish

3 The contemporary Sephardic community of Vienna has a distinct history which


goes back to the immigration of Jews from Central Asia and the Caucasus region, as will
be discussed later at the end of section 3.

IMAGINING THE SEPHARDIC COMMUNITY OF VIENNA

51

congregation in almost every major city of the Ottoman Empire,4 for example in Constantinople, Izmir (Smyrna), Sarajevo, Belgrade, Bitola (Manastr), Sofia, Plovdiv (Filipopolis/Filibe), Edirne (Adrianopolis/Ordin),
Rhodes, Jerusalem, and Safed, to name but a few, but also in other territories that where strongly affected by the Ottoman Empire and its expansion
politics (Daz-Mas 1992: 39). For instance, after the Treaty of Belgrade had
been signed between the House of Habsburg and the Sublime Porte in 1739,
Ottoman citizensincluding the Ottoman Jewssuddenly had the opportunity to trade and to move freely within Austria and its crown lands (Seroussi 1922: 148). This is the reason why Sephardic Jews could also establish congregations within the Austro-Hungarian Empiremost prominently
in Viennawhich were smaller in size but no less influential and important
than the affiliated communities in the Ottoman Empire.
Together with their Jewish faith, the Iberian expellees also took their
Spanish language, culture and customs with them. It is difficult to tell what
kind of language the medieval Jewry spoke before the great expulsion;
however, outside the Iberian Peninsula the development of Djudezmo,5
which is also known as Judeo-Spanish (Djudeo-Espanyol 6 ), Djidio, 7
Ladino 8 or simply (E)spanyol, 9 can be reconstructed quite accurately.

4 The Iberian immigrants soon outnumbered the autochthonous Greek-speaking


Jews, also known as Romaniotes, as well as other, smaller (Ashkenazi, Italian, Karaite,
Arabophone) Jewish communities in the Ottoman Empire that had lived there long before
(Benbassa and Rodrigue 2000: 5, 11-26).
5 Sometimes also spelled Judezmo, originally meaning Judaism. David Bunis prefers to call the language of (Eastern) Sephardic Jews Djudezmo since this is a term that
originated among native speakers and was not imposed by outside sources (Bunis
1978: 98).
6 Judeo-Espanyol is often referred to as a relatively neutral, self-explanatory, academic term, usually preferred by Romance scholars (Harris 1994: 24). However, Bunis
adjudges the term Judeo-Espanyol rather to be pseudo-scientific since it was invented
by philologists and linguists of the eighteenth or nineteenth century; yet later the term
was adopted by many Sephardic Jews too (Bunis 2008: 427).
7 Other spellings: Jidio and Djudio; literally meaning Jewish (cf. the term Yiddish for Judeo-German).
8 Today, especially in Israel, Judeo-Spanish is best known by the name Ladino. Although this term is very popular among Jews and non-Jews alike, Ladino has not always
been used for the everyday speech of Sephardic Jews. The term Ladino derives from the
Spanish word latino (Latin) which in medieval times was used for referring to any
Moorish (Muslim) or Jewish Spaniard who was also fluent in Romance, the Christian
tongue of that time. Within the Jewish context Ladino became a term for what Paloma
Daz-Mas calls a calque hagiolanguage, that is, a language which was only used to
translate religious texts (for example, the Bible or popular prayers in Hebrew) word-byword into a vernacular language (Daz-Mas 1992: 75-76).

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Although its base mostly consists of medieval Castilian Judeo-Spanish,


from the 16th century onwards the language of Sephardic Jews developed
independently from peninsular Spanish in many respects, especially concerning its lexicon (for example many Turkish, later also French, Italian,
Greek but also Southern Slavic and German loanwords had been adopted).10
However, in the Western Mediterraneanmore precisely in North Africa
(Northern Morocco and parts of Algeria)which also became the home of
Spanish-speaking Jews who had fled Spain and Portugal, their language
developed quite differently. 11 Furthermore, these Western Mediterranean
Sephardim also called their vernacular by a different name, Haketia.12
The use of different names for what is often considered to be virtually
the same language is the rule rather than the exception in the case of Jewish
languages, and so it is for Djudezmo (Bunis 2008). According to Joshua
Fishman (1985: 9-10), the use of different names for the same language
indicates the absence of a higher status function of the language in question.
In fact many Western-educated Sephardic intellectuals, who considered
their language to be a corrupt form of (Castilian) Spanish, used to refer to
their mother tongue as Jargon or Zhargon (Harris 1994: 23).
Together with their own cursive script for manuscript writing, which
later became known as solitreo or soletreo (Bunis 2011: 25), Sephardic
Jews developed an elaborated book hand. Its typeface which had been designed for printing would become known as Rashi script (letras de Rashi),
named after the famous rabbi of Troyes because it was used for printing his
commentary on the Bible and the Talmud,13 in the first printed book ever
published in Hebrew in 1475 (Harris 2005: 101). For some Sephardic prints
Hebrew square characters (ktav meruba ) were also used, espe9 Literally meaning Spanish, also known as Muestro Espanyol (our Spanish, in
opposition to Castillian Spanish).
10 For a detailed account of the historical and linguistic development of JudeoSpanish, see Bunis 1992 and 2011.
11 Due to the geographical proximity, the Sephardic Jews of North Africa maintained closer contact with peninsular Spanish but also were strongly influenced by Arabic
and to some extent by British English (Gibraltar) (Zucker 2001: 10).
12 The name most probably derives from the Arabic root -k- which means to
tell or to chat (Bunis 2011: 24); thus Haketia can be translated as clever or witty
saying (Bunis 1978: 9, Daz-Mas 1992: 75). Apart from this, Daz-Mas and Bunis offer
an additional etymology, suggesting that Haketia could also derive from the name
Haquito, the diminutive of Hebrew/Biblical name Yitsak , actually meaning little
Isaac. Nowadays Haketia is also sometimes referred to as Ladino Oksidental (Western
Ladino) (cf. Bentolila 2005: 12), analogous to Eastern Ladino which was and, in some
cases, still is spoken in the Eastern Mediterranean.
13 Rashi ( = RShI) is the abbreviation of the name Rabi Shelomo Yitsak
( 10401105).

IMAGINING THE SEPHARDIC COMMUNITY OF VIENNA

53

cially for newspaper headlines and book titles and for religious texts with
masoretic vowels (Daz-Mas 1992: 99). In major Sephardic centres the
Rashi script was used to print books and newspapers until the 1920s (Turkey) or even until World War II (Salonika) (Harris 2005: 101). Also the
Judeo-Spanish text, which will be discussed later on in this paper and which
shall shed light on the constitution of Sephardic identity in Vienna, was
mainly printed in Rashi characters. However, in the course of the modernisation of the societies in which Sephardic Jews were living and through
acquaintance with other languages like French, Italian, Turkish and Spanish
at the turn of the 20th century, other writing and printing systems had been
adopted. In most cases it was the Latin script (for example in Turkey14), but
in others the Cyrillic alphabet (in Bulgaria and Serbia) or the Greek writing
system was adopted (Bunis 1992: 400-401). Today, many speakers of
Djudezmo no longer know how to read the Rashi script and the few texts
produced in this language are usually published in Latin characters (DazMas 1992: 95, 99-100). One of the most popular transliteration systems for
displaying Judeo-Spanish in Latin script nowadays is the graphic system
developed by Aki Yerushalayim (Revista Kulturala Djudeo-Espanyola), 15
one of the few remaining Judeo-Spanish periodicals published in Israel.
This graphic system is also used in the present paper in order to transliterate
Judeo-Spanish when originally printed in Rashi script. 16 For the sake of
convenience and comprehensibility, Hebrew square characters (... , ,),
instead of Rashi letters (... , ,), will be used for displaying original
phrases in Judeo-Spanish. Further, quotations in Djudezmo will be translated into English, whereas the German quotations will remain untranslated.

2. Deciphering Religious and Cultural Identity: A Discourse-Analytical Approach


As has been outlined above, a discourse-analytic approach turns out to be
the proper choice in order to gain deeper insights into the diasporic and
cultural identity of Sephardic Jews. Since the so-called linguistic turn in
14 In modern Turkey Mustafa Kemal Atatrk (18811938) abolished the PersianArabic alphabet in 1928 and introduced the Latin alphabet instead which was also
adopted for the Jewish media.
15 Website: http://www.aki-yerushalayim.co.il (accessed: November 9, 2013).
16 Some authors cited in this paper use different graphic systems for displaying
Djudezmo in Latin script, for example using a phonetic (Bunis 2008) or hispanicised
(Pulido Fernndez 1993) transcription system. These citations will not be transcribed into
the graphic system of Aki Yerushalayim but will be quoted in their original spelling.

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the 1960s and the following discursive turn in the early 1980s, discourse
analysis has become a popular methodological choice within most disciplines of the humanities and social sciences in order to study how our language use and [other] modes of representation fundamentally affect and
shape our understandings of reality and our constructions of meaningful
worlds (Moberg 2013: 4). Also in the fields of the Study of Religions discourse-analytical approaches have more and more frequently been applied
over recent years (see Wijsen 2013: 1-3), simply because such approaches
not only provide new perspectives on religious phenomena as such but also
because they offer new ways of (re-)evaluating and (re-)interpreting the
research material, namely the primary and secondary sources at our disposal. In this regard discourse analysis also turns out to be a very useful tool
for examining certain aspects of religion and religious communities, such as
topics dealing with religious and cultural identity.
The term discourse was coined by Michel Foucault (1969) who used it
in order to refer to representations (for example, representations constructed
through language) which are responsible for our understanding of reality.
Foucaults aim was to reveal the continuing effects that discourses have on
modern society and culture (Moberg 2013: 7). However, by now other definitions of discourse have been developed, as for example that of Stuart
Hall who is especially interested in empirically exploring the function of
discourse in relation to certain social phenomena (such as religion, for example) (ibid.: 9). According to Hall, discourses have to be seen as
ways of referring to or constructing knowledge about a particular topic of
practice: a cluster (or formation) of ideas, images and practices, which provide ways of talking about, forms of knowledge and conduct associated with
a particular topic, social activity or institutional site in society (Hall
1997: 4).

However, it has to be acknowledged that there is not just one single definition of discourse but a large variety of definitions. As Marcus Moberg
points out, it is not only impossible to find an all-purpose definition of
discourse but even undesirable since the particular concept of discourse
has to be understood in the context of [its] particular piece of research
(Moberg 2013: 9).
Such an openone might even say volatiledefinition of discourse
makes this concept especially attractive for the Study of Religions which to
some extent has always had trouble in defining its own topic of research.
Thus, since there is no such thing as a neutral or innocent (unschuldige)
theory defining religion, Hans G. Kippenberg and Kocku von Stuckrad
suggest that we should think of religion rather as a discourse or a field of

IMAGINING THE SEPHARDIC COMMUNITY OF VIENNA

55

discourse (Diskursfeld) in which particular identities and definitions


including scientific onesare constructed, boundaries are drawn and spaces
of power (Machtrume) are occupied. Consequently, Kippenberg and von
Stuckrad describe the Study of Religions as a sort of meta-discipline which
aims to describe the definitions within the field of discourse in which the
Study of Religions itself is operating (Kippenberg and von Stuckrad 2003:
14). Discourse analysis, then, turns out to be a useful tool which provides
researchers with a particular way of approaching how people use language
and other modes of representation in order to construct particular versions
of certain phenomena and states of affairs and to make them meaningful in
particular ways (Moberg 2013: 11). In this context it is important to note
that from a social-constructionist point of view meaning is always understood as something that is being produced or made, thus it is not a priori
inherent, permanent or static (ibid.: 10). The same is true about religion in
this context, which is why Moberg holds that religion within a discourseanalytical approach must be regarded as an empty signifier that has no
intrinsic meaning in itself (ibid.: 13).
For the purpose of analysing Sephardic diasporic identity, two principles
or meta-approaches which have been drafted in order to theorise group
identity turn out to be especially useful. The first one comprises Benedict
Andersons theories concerning national identity. The second approach
applied in this analysis is the models of cultural and diasporic identity
which have been devised by Stuart Hall. While Halls theoretical approaches explicitly build on concepts such as discourse and narrative according to the usual practise within constructionism and postmodernism,
Andersons theories are predominantly grounded in historical materialism
which, in turn, is heavily based on the methodological approaches coined by
Karl Marx (18181883). However, Anderson was very much aware of the
methodological affinity of his own approaches with discourse analysis.
Thus he himself states that his theories were actually designed in order to
combine a kind of historical materialism with what later on came to be
called discourse analysis (Anderson 2006: 227). Indeed, Andersons theories have given a new and fresh impetus to discourse analytical approaches
(see Sarasin 2003: 150-176), especially fruitfulas will be shownfor the
study of religious communities.

3. Imagining Sepharad
As mentioned above, this analysis of Sephardic group identity is largely
based on the theoretical approaches of Benedict Anderson. His reflections

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about nations and nationalism, especially in relation to the emergence of


print technology, were most famously discussed in his book Imagined
Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism (2006
[1983]). Although heavily influenced by Ernest Gellners (19251995)
notion of nations, namely that nations are mere inventions by nationalism in
places where they do not exist (Gellner 1964: 169), Anderson developed
his own concept of the nation. Instead of defining the nation as an invention, he rather describes it as an imagined community [] imagined as
both inherently and sovereign (Anderson 2006: 6). Re-describing this
thought, he claims that, in fact,
[every nation] is imagined because the members of even the smallest nation
will never know most of their fellow-members, meet them, or even hear of
them, yet in the minds of each lives the image of their communion. [] Finally, it is imagined as a community, because, regardless of the actual inequality and exploitation that may prevail in each, the nation is always conceived as a deep, horizontal comradeship (ibid.: 6-7).

Although Anderson had primarily developed this definition in order to analyse the mechanisms behind nation-building and the emergence of modern
nation states, he did not want to have this concept solely understood as an
exclusive model for the definition of the nation. As a matter of fact, quite
the contrary is the case as he adds that indeed [...] all communities larger
than primordial villages of face-to-face contact (and perhaps even these) are
imagined (ibid.). Furthermore, he puts much emphasis on the need not to
distinguish communities by their falsity/genuineness, but rather by the
style in which they are imagined (ibid.).
According to Anderson, religious groups follow similar rules and
mechanisms in order to imagine themselves as communities (ibid.: 12-19).
Thus, adapting Andersons considerations, we may easily conclude that
Sephardic communities also have to be understood as imagined communities, and therefore as constructed entities, imagined by people who perceive themselves as a group. However, the style in which Sephardic communities are imagined may differ according to certain contexts. This comes
most clearly into focus when having a closer look at terms such as
Sephardic, as well as Sepharad. In fact these terms turn out to be rather
eclectic and their meaning has changed over the course of time. To give an
example, the Biblical Sepharad is believed to be identical to the city of
Sardes, capital of the ancient kingdom of Lydia in Asia Minor (see Obadiah
1:20). In the Latin Bible, however, Sepharad was translated into
Bosporus. It was only in late Antiquity that this term became identified
with Spain or the Iberian Peninsula and although the modern Hebrew term

IMAGINING THE SEPHARDIC COMMUNITY OF VIENNA

57

today designates the modern country of Spain, for many Sephardic Jews it
has remained a rather volatile term, which was even expanded to the diaspora communities outside the peninsula as soon as the Iberian Jews were
forced to leave their homeland. So, although today the term Sepharad usually stands for Spain or the Iberian Peninsula, the term Sephardic Jewry
usually refers to Jewish diaspora communities in North-Western Europe
(for example Amsterdam, London, Hamburg), in Southern Eastern Europe
(the Balkans), in North Africa (for example Morocco), in the Middle East
(for example part of the old-established Jewish community of Jerusalem)
and even in the Americas (for example in the Caribbean and the Guianas).17
Despite the epochal changes, caused by the uprooting of the Iberian Jewry
in the late fifteenth century, the Iberian Peninsula should remain an important point of reference for the identity and the heritage of Sephardic Jews.
However, some semantic changes to the term have occurred since the time
Jews who continued to practice their faith left the peninsula. By presenting
an example from 1775 Salonika, David Bunis expounds that after the expulsion from Spain and Portugal the term Sepharad could also refer to loci
other than the Iberian Peninsula:
Sephardim in the Ottoman Empire occasionally referred to their language as
lan de Sefara [sic] language of Sefarad without necessarily identifying
Sefara [sic] with Spain, since the term had come to denote any region inhabited by Sephardim, such as the Ottoman Empire (Bunis 2008: 421).

These examples shall only make us aware of how the meaning and the use
of the term Sepharad began to change according to the new circumstances
in the diaspora. Consequently, this term also became used for the new lands
inhabited by Sephardic Jews after the gerush sepharad , which is
the Hebrew term for the expulsion from Spain (1492) and Portugal (1497).
Being aware of the great consequences that the gerush entailed for the history of Sephardic Jews, Max Weinreich (18941969) proposed to think
about Sephardic history in two stages: the history of Jews in Sepharad I,
which refers to a period from the earliest Jewish settlements on the Peninsula up to the end of the fifteenth century, and in Sepharad II, referring to
the history of the diaspora communities which were established outside the
Peninsula after the expulsion (in the Ottoman Empire, North Africa etc.).18
17 The first Jewish settlements in the New World were, in fact, established by Dutch
Jews of Portuguese descent (see Arbell 2002 and Gonsalves de Mello 1996).
18 Here, Weinreich employs a terminology he has already used for describing the
history of Ashkenazi Jews, by dividing it in Ashekenaz I for the time when most Yiddishspeaking Jews resided in German-speaking lands (for example the Rhineland), and Ashkenaz II for describing the period of Ashkenazi Jews after many of them had moved to

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Based on Weinreichs model, another term has since been created in order
to refer to the Sephardic communities now living outside Sepharad I and
Sepahrad II, a result of the dispersions, re-settlements and migrations of
Sephardic Jews in the nineteenth and twentieth century, for example to the
United States or Israel. Thus, this secondary dispersion can be referred to as
Sepharad III (mid 2002: 114n1).
Such a conceptualisation of space very much resembles Edward Saids
notion of imaginative geography which depends, above all, on knowledge
(for example of ones own imagined history) and power (for example a
hostile or exclusive outside force). According to Said (1979: 54-55) geographic boundaries are always accompanied by social, ethnic and cultural
ones which, in the end, are all imaginative.
Finally, it also has to be mentioned that especially today the term
Sephardic Jewry does not necessarily have to designate Jews whose ancestors actually lived on the Iberian Peninsula or who still speak Djudezmo.
Since the term Sephardic is also frequently used for referring to Oriental
Jewish communities who conform to the Sephardic minhag , that is, a
religious custom or tradition, it can also designate Jews of, for example,
Iraqi, Moroccan, and Central Asian descent or even any non-Ashkenazic
Jew. As such, we can conclude that in order to perceive themselves as a
community, Sephardic Jews necessarily had and still have to imagine
themselves as a group of people, by fixing the meaning of the term
Sephardic either to a common origin, common religious customs and laws
or a common vernacular language, just to name a few current examples.
Consequentlywhatever definition is chosenthere will always be individuals who will drop out of a particular definitional framework.
As a matter of fact, this observation is definitely verifiable when looking
at Viennas Sephardic communities now and then. While only a hundred
years ago being Sephardic in Vienna meant, first and foremost, being a
speaker of Djudezmo and having roots in South-Eastern Europe or the former Ottoman Empire, todays Bucharan Jews who emigrated to Vienna in
the 1980s and 1990s naturally define themselves as Sephardic Jews too
because they confirm to the Sephardic minhag which was introduced in that
community about two hundred years ago (Labudovic 2009). Such a definition, however, might be rejected by other Sephardic Jews who exclusively
use the term Sephardic for referring to Jews of Spanish or Portuguese heritage and who actually speak or spoke Judeo-Spanish (Lvy 2005). The
rejection of Jews who merely confirm to the Sephardic minhag but who
parts in North Eastern Europe, predominantly inhabited by Slavic peoples (Weinreich
1973: 100).

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lack a direct Iberian heritage by actual Djudezmo speakers or by Jews who


claim to have real Portuguese or Spanish ancestry is hardly surprising since
language is a very strong reference point when it comes to ones own identity. For this reason it is definitely worth having a closer look at language as
an identification factor, especially when dealing with an ethnic-religious
group that strongly perceives its own identity as very much linked to a vernacular language, as in the case of the historic Sephardic community of
Vienna. Again, Benedict Anderson provides an appealing model in order to
describe the mechanisms of this imaginary process.

4. Identity and Language


Apart from imagined communities Anderson has coined another term,
namely print-capitalism, which is based on the theory that the emergence
of national consciousness was only possible through the concurrent emergence of capitalism.19 To be more accurate, it was the creation of the print
industry and the adoption of vernacular languages (for example modern
German, French, Spanish etc.) instead of exclusive sacred print languages
(for example Latin, pre-modern Hebrew) that hitherto had been in use for
the distribution of intellectual ideas (Anderson 2006: 37-38). According to
Anderson, it was the invention of printing technology and the distribution of
printed media in vernacular languages that laid the bases for national consciousness (ibid.: 44). Vernacular languages had the power, similar to the
traditional print languages, to create an exclusive and particular languagefield of people to which only those could belong who were speaking or
could understand the same kind of language or at least a similar dialect. The
media, such as books and newspapers printed in the common vernacular
suddenly made people aware of their fellow readers. Furthermore, printed
media had the power to give language a fixed form which in the long run
helped to build an image of antiquity (ibid.). Not only could a printed
book be reproduced countless times but through print it also got a permanent form. This should make it possible for future generations to read in the
past or, in other words, to read the imagined past itself.
Another important fact about print-capitalism is that it simultaneously
created languages-of-power. Apparently, some dialects were closer to
the printed language and hence dominated its final form. This, inevitably,
leads on to distinctions between languages of higher status and prestige and
19 At this point we become aware of the fact that Andersons theories are actually
based on the methodological approaches of historical materialism and Marxism.

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languages or dialects that have been unsuccessful (or only relatively successful) in insisting on their own print-form (ibid.: 45).
Of course, print, as theorised by Anderson, should be understood as a
shibboleth. A similar cultural impact was precipitated, as Anderson maintains, by the invention of the radio in 1895 which made it possible to bypass print and create an aural representation of imagined communities,
thus also reaching people who were neither able to read nor write (ibid.:
54n28). As for the present, we can even conclude that new technologies,
such as the internet and social media, not only create virtual spaces but, in
fact, virtualimaginedweb communities. In this regard, Michal Held
(2010), who researched two popular Internet platforms frequently used by
Sephardic Jews all over the world, calls such virtual spaces Digital HomeLands which make it possible for a dispersed community to find common,
however imagined, ground. Here, we also become aware of the fact that
whenever we are talking about Sephardic communities, we are actually
dealing with diasporic communities which all happen to share some characteristic features.

5. Imagining Sephardic Diaspora


Studying Sephardic communities or texts produced by these communities,
one encounters many features which turn out to be typical for diasporic
communities in general. In fact, Sephardic communities very much fulfil all
the criteria for a typical diaspora which, according to Rogers Brubaker, are
(1) dispersion, (2) homeland orientation, as well as (3) boundarymaintenance (Brubaker 2005: 5-7). Principally the expulsion from the Iberian Peninsula and the reference to this homeland plays a significant role
in many Sephardic narratives. However, homeland orientation generally
plays an important role in Judaism since the Bible is full of narratives that
constitute a strong homeland orientation in connection with the biblical
topoi of exile and exodus. Although these events, whether the gerush
sepharad, the Exodus or the Biblical exile, were remembered rather as ruptures and collective tragedies, Sephardic diasporic communities created
coherent and meaningful narratives about their own past and origins in
order to experience the sense of being a coherent community, in spite of
being dispersed. This also led to the maintenance of boundaries in order to
distinguish themselves from other groups (for example the majority or host
society) in the diaspora.
According to Stuart Hall, who was researching the notions of the African diaspora and identity in the Caribbean (Hall 1990), the act of imagining

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61

a community is always an interpretation through discourses and narratives,


told and retold in national histories, literatures, the media, and popular
culture (Hall 1992: 293). Only by sharing these narratives do people consequently become part of an imagined community in Andersons sense. A
very important narrative for the formation of group identity is that of a
foundational myth which is a story that locates the origin of the nation, the
people and their national character (ibid.: 294). Furthermore, Hall points
out that national identity or, in other words, the identity of imagined communities is grounded on the idea of a pure, original people or folk
(ibid.: 295). However, as Hall adds, in the realities of national development, it is rarely this primordial folk who persist or exercise power (ibid.).
That is to say, in other words, the original folk was not yet a powerful nation but rather had to struggle for its survival and maintenance. The main
point of reference for Sephardic Jews in this regard, is certainly their own
anchorage in Judaism, together with its Biblical narratives. However, taking
a closer look at biblical terms such as am which is usually translated as
people or nation, we also become aware of the volatility of such identityestablishing terms, a phenomenon already mentioned in relation to the terms
Sepharad and Sephardic. The meaning of the term amthat is, designating Israel as a peoplewas only fixed within the context of the Exodus and
in reference to a repressive power regime (Egypt) which can be associated
with a discourse about the Self and the Other. These terms have been
frequently used by thinkers such as Foucault, Said or Jacques Derrida
(19302004), but are grounded on Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegels (1770
1831) meta-theory which became known as the Master-Slave Dialectic.
According to Hegel the dynamics emerging in this model are responsible
for the formation of self-consciousness, or in other words, identity (Hegel
1986: 145-154). This dichotomy between the Self and the Other shall
only remind us of the fact that an identity-finding process is never selfcontained but dependent on other, external agents as well. In this respect the
Book of Exodus can clearly be identified with a foundational myth, with
Moses being the mythological hero at centre stage. The aim of such myths
is obliviously clear, namely to create a coherent narrativemost likely
about a single agentfor establishing a group identity.
Therefore group identity should not primarily be valued as a collective
effort or struggle. In fact, group identitiesrespectively, the corresponding
official or authoritative narratives constituting such identitiesare usually
drafted by a small group of people belonging to a literate social elite. This is
why we can conclude that communal identity, first of all, is the product of
single visionaries who, in turn, draw upon their own social realities when
producing their identity-constituting narratives.

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MARTIN STECHAUNER

Regarding the nature of diasporic communities, Stuart Hall in his Cultural Identity and Diaspora (1990) arrives at another important conclusion,
namely that although most narratives circulating within diasporic communities suggest a pure identity pegged onto a single origin (Sepharad, the Holy
Land etc.), actual diasporic communities are not hallmarked by purity but
by hybridity (ibid.: 235). This means that the maintained boundaries are
rather permeable, creating new complex, multi-layered, syncretic, creole
societies. These communities, thus, are by far not as homogeneous and
pure as the popular narratives might at first suggest. In fact, by having a
closer look at popular narratives, its authorship, as well as the historical
circumstances, the hybrid character of these communities in question comes
into focus. The foundational myth of the Sephardic community of Vienna
serves as a good example in order to highlight the identity establishing
dynamics within diasporic societies that have been outlined so far.

6. Baron Diego dAguilar A Legendary Figure between


Myth and Reality
The legend of Baron Diego dAguilar or Diego de Aguilar (c. 1699
1759)also known by his Jewish name Moses Lopes Pereira or Mosche
Lopez Pereyraperfectly illustrates the consolidation of historical facts and
fiction which usually occurs in a foundational myth. Although there is
hardly any doubt that a man by the name of Diego dAguilar truly lived in
Vienna during the first half of the eighteenth century and that this man even
bore the aristocratic title of a Baron (Freiherr), many of his biographical
data apparently underwent some significant changes that finally transformed him into the rather mysterious and heroic figure that the historic
Sephardic community of Vienna claimed as its founder.
There are at least ten popular versions of the legend of Diego dAguilar
(Studemund-Halvy, Collin 2013). Perhaps the most famous one was published in a brochure (Festschrift) by Adolf von Zemlinsky (18451900) and
Michael Papo (18431918) in 1888, commemorating the 150th anniversary
of the Sephardic community of Vienna, officially known as Trkischisraelitische Gemeinde zu Wien in German. It is a bilingual edition which
was written in both German (printed in a black-letter typeface) and JudeoSpanish (printed manly in Rashi script). Both covers of the chronicle mention Adolf von Zemlinsky as the communitys Sekretr (sekretariyo), while
Michael Papo is mentioned as Functionr (funsyonariyo) of the TurkishIsraelite community of Vienna. Furthermore, Adolf von Zemlinsky is mentioned as the author of the chronicle (Verfasst von Adolf v. Zemlinsky [],

IMAGINING THE SEPHARDIC COMMUNITY OF VIENNA

63

Kompuesta en Alemano por Adolfo de Semlinski H[ashem] Y[ishmoro]),


while Michael Papo only seemed to have translated Zemlinskys text from
German into Judeo-Spanish (Ueversetzt ins Jdisch-spanische von Michael
Papo [], Traslada por Michael Menachem Papo H[ashem]
Y[ishmoro]; see Appendix, Figure 3 and 4). The two versions differ from
each other in style and length as well as in some other details, as will be
shown shortly, which is the reason why Papos text should be considered as
a very loose translation, or even as an independent text (Studemund-Halvy
2009). Nevertheless, the plots of both versions in the pamphlet closely resemble each other. It was published under the title Istorya de la komunidad
israelit espanyola en Vyena. Del tyempo de su fundasyon asta oy segun
datos istorikos 20 in Djudezmo and Geschichte der trkisch-israelitischen
Gemeinde zu Wien. Von ihrer Geschichte bis heute nach historischen Daten
in German and is to be considered the first official chronicle of the
Sephardic community of Vienna, or at least the earliest still preserved. Although both authors profess to have used historical sources (historische
Daten, datos istorikos; see Appendix, Figure 3 and 4) for their work,
neither Alexander von Zemlinsky nor Michael Papo mention their sources
or informants. The legend portrayed in their chronicle goes as follows:
It is the year 1725 and Diego dAguilar is an inquisitor in Madrid. One
day he sentences a young lady to death for being a clandestine Judaiser.
Shortly before the defendant is supposed to be burned at the stake, an older
woman seeks to receive an audience with the inquisitor. The woman, whose
name is Sarah, declares that she is the mother of the young convicted girl
and that she has come to beseech the inquisitor to stop the prosecution
against the young lady. When the inquisitor is not willing to give in to her
demands, the old lady finally reveals to him that she herself is in fact the
mother of both the young girl and the inquisitor. At first the inquisitor does
not believe her but when the old woman calls him by his original given
name Moshe, all of a sudden he realises that she is telling nothing but the
truth. Thus, he recalls that he was actually born as a Jew but separated from
his family at a very young age. Having come to his senses, he immediately
rushes off in order to save his sister from death but when he returns he has
to inform his mother that only a few hours ago her daughter, his sister, has
already died in agony under torture. Both are devastated. As a direct consequence of the event, dAguilar decides to flee Spain together with his
mother. Before leaving, dAguilar remembers that he still possesses a present from the Austrian Empress Maria Theresa (17171780) who found
20 ' . '
, see Appendix, Figure 4.

64

MARTIN STECHAUNER

accommodation in his palace while visiting Spain together with her father
Charles VI (16851740) several years ago. Summarily, dAguilar and his
mother decide to seek refuge in Vienna; however, according to the German
version of the legend his mother Sarah dies during the journey, never reaching the Austrian capital. On reaching his destination dAguilar goes to see
Maria Theresa, begging her to let him and several other refugees from Spain
stay in her realm. Of course the Empress immediately recalls their former
Spanish host, and kindly invites him to stay as her guest in Vienna. Gladly
accepting her offer, dAguilar becomes an influential court Jew and the
leaseholder of the imperial tobacco monopoly. Using his great influence at
the court, Baron dAguilar becomes a patron of the Jews in Vienna as well
as of those in the entire Austro-Hungarian Empire. For example in lieu of a
synagogue, he offers a room in his own house to the first Sephardic immigrants from the Ottoman Empire in Vienna in order to provide a place of
worship for them. Furthermore, he donates two sets of rimonim , that
is, torah crowns, with an engraving of his name to the Sephardic congregations of Vienna and Temeswar (Timioara in modern Romania), the latter
also being blessed by his patronage. One day, when dAguilar learns about
a secret plan that all Jews shall be expelled from the Austrian territories, he
and one of his friends seek to confound this scheme by sending a letter to
the Sultan in Istanbul. Promptly the Sultan sends back a letter personally
addressed to Maria Theresa in which he tries to convince the Empress to
renounce her plans of expelling the Jews from her realms. Concerning this
affair, Zemlinskys original version and Papos alleged translation differ
from each other. While in the German version Maria Theresa gladly accedes to the Sultans petition, refraining from her plans to expel the Jews
from Austria, the Judeo-Spanish text renders a rather more unkind picture
of the Empress. Although in the Djudezmo version Maria Theresa also
ultimately decides to spare the Jews, dAguilar decides to flee Vienna because he suspects that the anti-Jewish Empress knows about his eager intervention. In the German version, however, other reasons are said to have led
to the heros prompt departure, namely that the Spanish Inquisition has
finally gained knowledge of dAguilars residency in Austria and, moreover, of his return to Judaism, wherefore his immediate extradition is demanded in order to put him on trial for apostasy. Be that as it may, in both
versions it is pointed out that dAguilar essentially leaves without a trace.
According to Zemlinsky and Papo, nobody knows for sure about his final
destination; some say he might have gone to Amsterdam, while others believe he may have found refuge in Bucharest (the latter is only mentioned in
the German version). In remembrance of and in reverence for his generosity
and advocacy the Sephardim of Vienna and Temeswar consider him the

IMAGINING THE SEPHARDIC COMMUNITY OF VIENNA

65

founder of their communities, wherefore every rosh hashana


( the
Jewish New Year) a kaddish ( mourners prayer) is prayed in his remembrance (Papo and Zemlinsky 1888: 2-6; see also Kaul 1989: 58-59 and
Studemund-Halvy and Collin 2013: 287-294).
It is interesting to note here that Diego dAguilars legend consists of
two slightly different endings in German and Judeo-Spanish. However, this
official version of the legend is most obviously based on an earlier source,
namely a two-part article (Geschichte Diego de Aguilars) by Ludwig August Frankl (18101894) (1856a; 1856b) which was published in the Allgemeine Zeitung des Judenthums (see also Studemund-Halvy and Collin
2013: 242, 248-262). At the beginning of his article, Frankl informs his
readership that he himself learned about the legend from Hakham Ruben
Barukh (d. 1875), the venerable leader of the Sephardic community of Vienna at that time (Kohlbauer-Fritz 2010: 152). About thirty years later, in
1886, Aaron ben Shem Tov Semo, the son of Shem Tov Semo (18101881)
who was one of Viennas most famous publishers and editors of JudeoSpanish newspapers, published his own version of dAguilars legend
which, according to its author, is based on an earlier Hebrew version. 21
However, he does not mention an exact source and it remains open to question whether a Hebrew original of dAguilars legend has ever really existed
(Studenmund-Halvy 2010b). In 1888 Adolf von Zemlinsky (Shem Tov
Semos son-in-law) and Michael Papos version was finally published in the
above mentioned bilingual edition in which dAguilar is explicitly mentioned as the founder of the Sephardic community of Vienna:
Wollen wir mndlichen Traditionen Glauben schenken, so wrden sich gar
mancherlei Bindemittel finden, worunter namentlich eine traditionelle Fabel
ber das Entstehen dieser Gemeinde spricht, welche wir hier in Krze wiederzugeben uns verpflichtet halten, da eben die Hauptperson dieser Fabel
identisch ist mit der des Grnders unserer Gemeinde (Papo, Zemlinsky
1888: 2).

Here we see that the authors initially declare that their version of Diego
dAguilars legend is actually based on a popular fable. In so doing, they
seem to admit that their account might not resemble the true historical facts,
which does not seem to disqualify the legend from being adopted as the
official story of the foundation of the Sephardic community of Vienna.
21 The legend was published in the magazine Luzero de la Pasiensia in Severin
(Romania) under the title El estabilimento de la onorada Comuna Spagnola en Viena,
trezladada del ebraico conteniendo la beografia del Baron Diaga [sic] de Aguilar. Interestingly, it was not printed in Rashi but is in Latin script (Studemund-Halvy and Collin
2013: 244, 263-278).

66

MARTIN STECHAUNER

Even at this early stage we see that Ludwig August Frankl, the author of the
first known printed version, was not quite sure about the veracity of the
story, even though his informant was none other than the rabbi of the Sephardic community of Vienna:
Es ist offenbar, da uns hier Dichtung und Wahrheit innig ineinanderverschlungen entgegentreten, da aber selbst der Dichtung wirkliche Thatsachen, nur poetisch ausgeschmckt, zu Grunde liegen mgen (Frankl 1856b:
658).

Indeed, the legend of Diego dAguilar should not be taken as merely the
invention of its authors or their informants; actually it is based on several
historical facts. However, while Zemlinsky and Papo did not make any
attempt to prove its historical authenticity, Frankl, on the other hand, provided a range of historical data that draw a more authentic picture of
dAguilars life. For example, Frankl found out that dAguilars decision to
leave Vienna was based on economical rather than other considerations
because his contract for holding the Austrian tobacco monopoly ended in
1748. By then, his business had already been greatly weakened by foreign
ambassadors who had repeatedly tried to bypass his monopoly (Frankl
1856b: 659). Zemlinskys and Papos assumptions that dAguilar withdrew
from Vienna because he was afraid of Maria Theresas vengeance (in the
Judeo-Spanish version) or because the Spanish government had ordered his
extradition in order to hand him over to the inquisition (in the German version) seem to be no more than fictional literary elements. Particularly, the
fact that the authors offer two slightly different endings gives evidence that
they treated the source material at their disposal rather creatively in order to
serve different aims and maybe also a different readership. Obviously the
authors were eager to let Maria Theresa appear in a much more humane and
neutral light in the German version (Kaul 1989: 59), not least because this
version would address a much larger readership, including non-Jewish Austrian officials. These officials eventually could have interpreted the JudeoSpanish accounts of affairs as a lse-majest since the reputation of already
defunct rulers of the House of Habsburg was protected by a law in the Austrian Imperial penal code (cf. Strafgesetz of 1852: 64; Czech 2010: 62,
69).
When it comes to dAguilars mysterious flight, Frankl already ascertained that Diego dAguilar had not merely disappeared as the legend suggests but, in fact, he left Vienna in order to return to his house in London
which also indicates that dAguilar must have lived in England before he
settled down in Vienna (ibid.). Even Ruben Barukh, the rabbi from whom
Frankl had learned about the story in the first place, mentioned that

IMAGINING THE SEPHARDIC COMMUNITY OF VIENNA

67

dAguilar had reached Vienna via England (Frankl 1856a: 632) and not
directly from Spain Papo22 and Zemlinskys version suggests.
Frankls original assumption that dAguilar had gone to England after
having left Vienna was ultimately confirmed by a letter from his friend
Josef von Wertheimer (18001887), an Austrian Jewish philanthropist,
whom Frankl had asked to investigate the traces dAguilar must have left in
London. In his letter von Wertheimer quotes a short extract from a book
about the biography of dAguilars son, Ephraim Lpes Pereira dAguilar
(17391802), also including some information about his father:
Baron Diego de Aguilar war in Lissabon geboren, das er ungefhr 1722 seiner Religion wegen verlie. Er kam nach England und ging im Jahre 1736
nach Wien, wo er Pchter des Tabakmonopols wurde. Er war ein Liebling
der Kaiserin Maria Theresia. Im Jahre 1756 kehrte er nach England zurck
mit seiner Familie, die aus zwlf Kindern, Shnen und Tchtern, bestand. Er
starb im Jahre 1759 unermelich reich (Frankl 1856b: 661).

In another letter that Ludwig August Frankl received from his friend, Josef
von Wertheimer almost revokes the information that he had communicated
before by stating:
Es existiert kein Abkmmling von Baron Diego de Aguilar. Seine Grabschrift ist verlscht, und es wrde nicht unerhebliche Kosten verursachen,
sie zu entziffern. Andere Nachforschungen waren vergeblich (ibid.).

It is entirely conceivable that this was a letter previously written by von


Wertheimer which was delayed and arrived after the first. At any rate,
Frankl does not further clarify this contradiction. However, it is an interesting fact that Diego dAguilar obviously was not of Spanish but rather of
Portuguese origin.
While Frankl cannot provide any solid evidence of dAguilars death in
London, a genealogical record, today preserved in the library of the Society
of Genealogists in London, actually proves that the Bemaventurado
[blessed] MOSEH LOPES PEREIRA BARON DE AGUILAR []
S.A.G.D.E.G. was interred on the burial ground of the Spanish and Portuguese Jews (Row 17. No. 41) in Mile End which is located in the Borough
of Tower Hamlets in Londons East End.23 Furthermore, a pedigree of the
22 Only in the Papos version is it mentioned in passing that dAguilar and his
mother left for Vienna on a ship departing for England (Inglityera) (Studemund-Halvy
and Collin 2013: 290-291).
23 Genealogical Record in: Colyer-Fergusson Collection, archived in the Society of
Genealogists Library, London, UK; see Appendix, Figure 1.

68

MARTIN STECHAUNER

dAguilar family in the same record gives evidence that Moses Lopes
Pereira Baron Diego de Aguilar came to London from Vienna in the year
1756. It also informs us that his last will dates 5 August 1759, that he was
born in 1700 and that he finally passed away in the month of August in
1759 and was laid to rest on 17 Av 5519 (10 August 1759) at Mile End.24
Moreover, the above mentioned initials S.A.G.D.E.G. on his tomb give
evidence of his Portuguese origin, since this is an acronym written on many
grave stones of Portuguese Jews, standing for Sua Alma Goza da Eterna
Gloria (his/her soul attains eternal glory) (Arbell 2001: 304). At this point
it is also worth mentioning that the authors of Diego dAguilar's legendary
account also misrepresent the facts about the fate of his parents. While the
legend recounts that dAguilar arrived in Vienna without his family, Felicitas Heimann-Jelinek (1991: 28) informs us that both his mother (Sarah
Peryrea) and his father25 (Abraham Lopez di Pereyra) were buried in Vienna at the Jewish cemetery in Roau (Seegasse), together with two of his
children and his brother in law.26
Putting all the evidence together, Ludwig August Frankl was right in assuming that Diego dAguilar did not just mysteriously disappear after having left Vienna but, in fact, moved back to London where he had come from
before settling down in Vienna. Through Josef von Wertheimers letter and
the genealogical data from London we also learn that dAguilars roots did
not lie in Spain, as the legendary accounts suggest, but in Portugal. Owing
to his committed investigations, Frankl could even provide more evidence,
proving dAguilars Portuguese provenance. By consulting the K. and K.
Ministry of Internal Affairs, as well as several other archives in Vienna,
Frankl (1856b: 657) not only found out that dAguilar was entrusted with
the creation of the tobacco monopoly by the order of Emperor Charles VI in
1725 (thus, not by Maria Theresa) but that dAguilars father had been a
successful businessman who was responsible for the establishment of the
tobacco trade business in Portugal. The precise motive for Diego
dAguilars departure from Portugal and his immigration to England remains unclear. The fact that he already bore a Portuguese title of nobility
when leaving Lisbon and that he was conferred with the title of Baron (Don
24 Genealogical Record in: Colyer-Fergusson Collection in the Society of Genealogists Library, London, UK; see Appendix, Figure 2.
25 The death of dAguilar's fatherwho allegedly died in Spainis only mentioned
in Michael Papos version of the legend but not in Adolf von Zemlinskys which, once
again, indicates that Papos Judeo-Spanish version is not a word-by-word translation of
Zemlinsky.
26 See also Wachstein (1917: 216-217, 278-280, 311-317); Studemund-Halvy
(2010c).

IMAGINING THE SEPHARDIC COMMUNITY OF VIENNA

69

Diego Freiherr von Aguilar) in Vienna on March 26, 1726, is historically


confirmed. A draft of his patent of nobility is still preserved in the Austrian
State Archives (sterreichisches Staatsarchiv) (Milchram 2010: 80-81).
However, this also means that when dAguilar was awarded his barony in
Vienna Maria Theresa was only eight years old, which makes a previous
encounter in Portugal (or Spain as the legend suggests) not impossible but
very much unlikely.
At the end of his article Frankl mentions a number of testimonies by
rabbis who were contemporaries of Diego dAguilar. Salomon Salem
(17171781), the chief rabbi of the Portuguese-Jewish congregation of
Amsterdam, for example, described Diego dAguilar as a crown of Jewry
(Krone des Judenthums) for having an open house for every foreign rabbi
visiting Vienna. Moses ben Saul Katzenellenbogen (16701733/43), who
was also among those received by dAguilar, describes his generous host as
ger , thus, as a convert or proselyte of Jewish origin who was only able to
converse in Spanish or Dutchwhich suggests another (Dutch) connection. 27 Furthermore, Katzenellenbogen informs us that dAguilar did not
exclusively favour Sephardic Jews but also Ashkenazi Jews in need of support. 28 All these benevolent characteristics (see also Kaul 1989: 49-57)
seem to have nurtured the legendary accounts of Diego dAguilar, ultimately, turning him into a heroic figure.

7. A Legendary Hero of a Historical Legend


A remarkable fact about the legend of Diego dAguilar is that quite a few
alterations have been made to his biography although, as Michael Studemund-Halvy emphatically outlines, many facts about his life (for example
his Portuguese origin; London as his final destination) were already known
in the nineteenth century (die Fakten [waren] auch im 19. Jahrhundert
bekann; Studemund-Halvy 2010b). Herein lies the paradox: although
Ludwig August Frankls version obviously seems to have influenced most
other subsequent accounts about Diego dAguilar, the efforts made by
Frankl in order to draw a more realistic picture of the legendary figure were
widely ignored in Zemlinsky and Papos famous version. Thus, it is impressive that a story comprising so many unhistorical details could gain such an
27 According to Heimann-Jelinek (1991: 27), Diego dAguilar did not arrive in Vienna via London but Amsterdam.
28 Diego de Aguilar [machte] keinen Unterschied, ob die spanischer, deutscher oder
polnischer Abkunft waren; sie fanden bei ihm eine gleich gute Aufnahme (Frankl 1856b:
660; see also Studenmund-Halvy 2010a).

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MARTIN STECHAUNER

official character by turning Diego dAguilar into the founder of the


Sephardic community of Vienna. However, this appears to be much less
surprising when we perceive his legend as a typical foundational myth in
Stuart Halls sense or, in Tamar Alexander-Frizers terms (2008), as a historical legend. Alexander-Frizer defines five basic literary genres or narratives which are typical for the Sephardic folk tale.29 Thus, the story of Diego dAguilar is not only to be classified as a legend but as a historical
legend which constitutes a crucial sub-genre of Sephardic folk tales in general. One important feature of the narrative genre of the historical legend is
that
[i]t may portray encounters between personalities who could never have met
inactuality or connect events and places without any basis or reality. Among
members of the group, the legend is more powerful than history, and historical facts cannot change the belief in the legend (Alexander-Frizer 2008:
223).

Alexander-Frizers statement very much resembles another one made by


David Biale, who stresses that the very existence of historical narratives
already makes them as true as the historical facts that seem to contradict
them (Biale 2002: xxiv). This is the reason why even the disproval of
Diego dAguilars dubious encounter with Maria Theresa in Spain would
not eradicate the authority of this historical legend. The unbroken authority
that this historical legend inheres is maybe best expressed by Mordechai
Arbell, an Israeli diplomat and researcher of Sephardic communities with
Viennese roots, who is very familiar with the story of Diego dAguilar: Its
a legend. But this legend is very true (Personal Interview: April 12, 2011).
George Lukcs (18851971), a Marxist philosopher and literary historian who developed his own theories about The Historical Novel, highlights another feature which is especially important for the analysis of the
role of historic or epic heroes for group identity:
The epic hero is, strictly speaking, never an individual. It is traditionally
thought that one of the essential characteristics of the epic is the fact that its
theme is not a personal destiny but the destiny of a community (Lukcs
1983: 66).

Lukcs is very much aware of the fact that myths are an essential ingredient
for the consciousness of an entire community. Florian Krobb who analysed

29 (1) the legend, (2) the ethnic tale, (3) the fairy tale, (4) the novella and (5) the humorous tale (Alexander-Frizer 2008).

IMAGINING THE SEPHARDIC COMMUNITY OF VIENNA

71

another, German version of Diego dAguilars legend30 very much builds


upon Lukcs theoretical model. Krobb suggests that dAguilars legendary
accounts should rather be classified as a collective autobiography (Kollektivautobiographie), since the storyeven though it is fictional for the most
partbecomes relevant for the construction and imagination of the history
(Geschichtsbild) of an entire group.31 Further, Krobb holds that collective
autobiographies are at the same time, as he calls them, wishful autobiographies (Wunschautobiographien), by which he means the projection of contemporary sentiments (gegenwrtige Befindlichkeiten) into the past (Krobb
2002: 15-16). Lukcs has already pointed out that another fundamental task
of the epic hero is to link the crises of the past to the actual crises of the
present. On the one hand the hero appears in order to fulfil his historic
mission in the [historical] crisis and, on the other hand, to solve just [the
current social] problems (Lukcs 1983: 38). As we have seen, the legend of
Diego dAguilar is not only linked to the historical crisis of Sephardic
Jewrythe gerush sepharadand its aftermathsthe persecution of alleged Crypto-Jews in the Spanish realmsbut also to the Anti-Semitic
atmosphere under Maria Theresas rule. Furthermore, as will be shown later
on, the authors of the official version of the foundation of the Sephardic
community of Vienna found themselves in a significant crisis concerning
their Sephardic identity which, apparently, led to peculiar national aspirations in order to strengthen their Sephardic roots. In fact, Krobb is convinced that the emergence of collective autobiographies, such as that of
Diego dAguilar, went hand in hand with the formation of a Jewish national
consciousness in the 19th century (Krobb 2002: 34-43). Having said this,
Krobbs model of wishful autobiographies even more convincingly resembles Stuart Halls concept of national identity:
National cultures construct identities by producing meanings about the nation with which we can identify; these are contained in the stories which
are told about it, memories which connect its present with its past, and images are constructed about it (Hall 1992: 293).

30 Die Familie y Aguillar (1873) by Markus Lehmann (Krobb 2002: 73-86).


31 Krobb, for his part, is more interested in the impact of marrano literature on the
consolidation of Jewish-Ashkenazi identity in nineteenth century Germany. His thoughts
and concepts, however, may easily be applied to the analysis of Sephardic identity discourses, especially in the context of Vienna where Ashkenazi and Sephardic Jews were
interacting on many levels (Schleicher 1932).

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MARTIN STECHAUNER

Again, we have to keep in mind that in this context attributions, such as true
or false, are absolutely irrelevant for the formation of an identity,32 so we
may not conclude that historical legends are per se mere inventions, which,
for example, is definitely not true for the legend of Diego dAguilar as has
been noted on various occasions. Hence, even though many aspects of a
historical hero are imagined rather than actual proven facts, Lord Reglan, an
independent scholar who developed an influential model of the evaluation
of mythological heroes, reminds us
[...] that imagination is not the faculty of making something out of nothing,
but that of using, in a more or less different form, material already present in
the mind. We must conclude, then, that those who composed the traditional
stories [] applied, in a more or less modified form, [other] stories which
they had heard in a different but not dissimilar connection. We fail to explain the origin of these stories unless we trace the materials from which
they were composed (Reglan 2003 [1956]: 208).

In fact, there is no doubt that the creators of Diego dAguilars legend were
heavily influenced by popular marrano33 novels which had been published
throughout the nineteenth and into the early twentieth century. Daz-Mas
(1992: 174-175) names several Sephardic novels and theatre plays that
almost exclusively deal with themes such as the persecution of marranos or
the unscrupulous methods of the Inquisition. Popular novels representing
that typical view of Sephardic Jews towards inquisitorial Spain hold titles
such as La judia salvada del convento (The Jewish Woman Saved From the
Convent), Don Miguel San Salvador (About a Convert), La Hermosa Rahel
(A Story about Marranos of Portuguese Origin); among theatre plays there
were Don Yosef de Castilla, Don Abravanel i Formosa o Desteramiento de
los djudios de Espanya (Don Abravenel and Formosa or Exile of the Jews
from Spain) and Los marranos: Senas de la vida djudia myentres la
inkizisiyon espaniola (The marranos: Scenes from Jewish Life during the
Spanish Inquisition). The latter short play was published by T. Yaliz, also
known as Alberto Barzilay, in Salonika in 1934 and is about a convert by
the name of Don Miguel who became an inquisitor, persecuting Elena, a
Jewish woman who turns out to be his own mother. Studemund-Halvy and
Collin (2013: 245) suggest that the author of this play might have been
inspired by the popular legend of Diego dAguilar since the two plots very
32 [...] Communities are to be distinguished, not by their falsity/genuineness, but by
the style in which they are imagined (Anderson 2006: 6).
33 The conversos, or new Christians, in medieval Spain were also called marranos
(swines) or tornadizos (turncoats) which were expressions of resentment and contempt on
behalf of the old Christians (Kaplan 2012: 138).

IMAGINING THE SEPHARDIC COMMUNITY OF VIENNA

73

much resemble each other. At any rate, similar plots frequently reappear in
many Judeo-Spanish novels throughout the nineteenth century (Daz-Mas
1992: 175). These stories typically feature basic themes like denunciation,
persecution, separation from ones family, education in a Christian convent,
torture and Auto-da-f tribunals34 and sometimes even a miraculous rescue
and an escape to safe havens in cities such as London or Amsterdam. Usually these stories were adaptations from French, Hebrew or German novels
translated into Judeo-Spanish (Studenmund-Halvy 2010b). However, we
must not forget that these novels are based upon true historical events on the
Iberian Peninsula. Even before the expulsion it was not uncommon that
confessional fractures ran through the same family: while some family
members converted to Christianity, others remained true to their old faith
(Bossong 2008: 48). We may conclude that such incidents somehow became part of the collective cultural memory of Jews after the expulsion. The
same holds true for the conversos whoby virtue of being persecuted at the
hands of the Inquisitiongradually turned into mysterious and heroic figures that later became the protagonists of thrilling novels and even historical
legends, such as the one about Diego dAguilar (Krobb 2002: 25). So, although most historical legends are, in fact, based on historical events, Alexander-Frizer (2008: 223) outlines that historical legends themselvesor
rather their authorschoose the facts and the manner of their presentation
in accordance with a certain goal. This goal, following Hall (1992: 294295), is the formation of a foundational myth which helps disfranchised
or uprooted peoples to conceive and express their resentment and its contents in intelligible terms (Hobsbawm 1983: 1) by providing an alternative
history or counter-narrative (ibid.).
Returning to Krobbs concept of collective and wishful autobiographies,
another factor concerning this model seems worth discussing in detail,
namely the projection of contemporary sentiments into the past. By taking a
closer look at the biographies of Adolf von Zemlinsky and Michael Papo
and also at their social and historical environment, we learn a lot about their
version of Diego dAguilars legend; for instance, why the two authors
decided to publish their version of the legend in this particular way and not
another.

34 An Auto-da-f (act of faith) was a public inquisitorial show trial against heretics
(including Judaisers). The most severe punishment to be imposed was death by burning
(Prez 2006: 154-169).

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8. Authorship and Social Environment


Adolf von Zemlinsky was born in Vienna on 23 April 1845 as Adolf
Seminsky to Catholic immigrants from the Hungarian (today Slovakian)
town of Zsolna (also known as ilina or Sillein in der Zips). He decided to
change the orthography of his family name into the more ambiguous Zemlinsky, most probably because he found it more suitable for perusing a literary career. Together with the new family name he also adopted the aristocratic but rather spurious von in order to make his mark in the world of
letters (Beaumont 2000: 9). Adolf von Zemlinsky was the son-in-law of
Shem Tov Semo (born in Vienna, raised in his parents city Sarajevo) who,
for his part, was one of the most active promoters of the Judeo-Spanish
press in Vienna (Bunis 2013: 44). Together with his sons Haim, Shabatay
and Aron and, of course, his son-in-law Adolf von Zemlinsky, Shem Tov
Semo made Vienna one of the most important places for the publication of
printed media in Djudezmo (Studemund-Halvy 2010a: 61-62). The SemoZemlinsky family even had its own small publishing company and many
members of the family were committed authors and translators. Shem Tov
Semo, for instance, translated various novels originally written in German
by Zemlinsky into Judeo-Spanish (ibid.: 68-69). El Correo de Vyena
Viennas most important Judeo-Spanish periodical, which included several
supplements such as El Dragoman, Guerta de Istorya and Ilustra Guerta de
Istoryawas also published by Shem Tov Semo and his sons (StudemundHalvy 2009). These newspapers and magazines were not only eagerly read
in Vienna but they were also extremely popular among Sephardic Jews in
the Balkans.35 With Vienna being the capital of the so called Sephardic
Haskalah or Sephardic Enlightenment (Bunis 2013: 42-44), Semos mission was to create a synthesis of Sephardic traditions and modern pedagogy
in which he was heavily inspired by the rabbis Yehuda Bibas from Corfu
(17801852) and Yehuda Alkalay from Sarajevo (17981878), both crucial
figures in the advent of modern Jewish nationalism (Studemund-Halvy
2009).
Catholic by birth, Adolf von Zemlinsky decided to convert to Judaism in
order to be able to marry Shem Tov Semos daughter Clara (18481912).
His father-in-law did not seem to be bothered by the fact that Adolf von
Zemlinsky was actually a convert; he rather seemed pleased by the ambition
of his son-in-law to learn Djudezmo, which is why Zemlinsky soon became
35 For example, many of Semos texts were also published in Salonika (for example
Guerta de Estorya; Bunis 2013: 52-53) which was definitely the most important publishing place for Judeo-Spanish newspapers.

IMAGINING THE SEPHARDIC COMMUNITY OF VIENNA

75

one of Semos closest associates in the family business. Within the


Sephardic community of Vienna Adolf von Zemlinsky also gained much
respect and was even appointed as its secretary in 1872 (Heimann-Jelinek
2010: 146). Clara and Adolf von Zemlinskys daughter Mathilde Zemslinsky (18771923) who would later marry the Austrian composer Arnold
Schnberg (18741951). Clara and Adolfs son, Alexander Zemlinsky
(18711942), would also become a famous Austrian composer (KohlbauerFritz 2010: 162).
Similar to the formerly mentioned Shem Tov Semo, Adolf von Zemlinskys father-in-law, Michael Papos roots also lie in Bosnia-Herzegovina
(Sarajevo) which had become part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1878.
From 1888 to 1918 Papo severed as the rabbi of the Sephardic community
of Vienna. The Papo family would later on be heavily affected by the terror
of the Nazi regime. Michael Papos wife (ne Grnbaum) was deported to
Theresienstadt where she died in 1942 (Heimann-Jelinek 2010: 164). In the
same year their daughter was killed in the Maly Trostinec death camp in
Belarus. The only family member that survived the Holocaust was Manfred
Papo (18981966) who had also served as a rabbi in Salzburg and St. Plten
(ibid.: 166; Papo 1967: 327). For his lifelong commitment to the Sephardic
community of Vienna, which had not ceased to keep contact with the Ottoman Empire, Michael Papo was decorated with a medal on behalf of the
Ottoman Sultan in 1905 (Heimann-Jelinek 2010: 164). Shortly before his
death in 1918 he was even rewarded with the title haham bashi which is the
Turkish term for chief rabbi (Papo 1967: 342).
During his lifetime, Papo was an active supporter of the cultural and
academic association Esperanza which would play a significant role on the
World Zionist Congress in Vienna in 1913 (Kohlbauer-Fritz 2010: 174).
Esperanza (Hope in Judeo-Spanish) was exerting a huge influence on the
Sephardic communities in the Balkans (first and foremost in Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Romania and Bulgaria), promoting an ideology that Benbassa and Rodrigue (2000: 143-150) call Sephardism. Sephardism was
originally meant as a culturalist trend, thus, putting strong emphasis on the
language and culture of Sephardic Jews (Ayala and von Schmdel 2010:
85), but soon it changed into an ideological movement, similar to the emancipatory ambitions of Central and Eastern European Jewry. Sephardism can
be valued as a counter movement to (Ashkenazi dominated) Zionism, 36
which is why Benbassa and Rodrigue (2000: 147) refer to it as a Diasporatype kind of Zionism or nationalism. Its supporters hoped that Sephardic
36 In the course of the nineteenth century the Sephardim of Bosnia-Herzegovina and
Croatia were soon outnumbered by Ashkenazi immigrants who had moved there when
these parts of the Balkans were incorporated into the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

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MARTIN STECHAUNER

culture would continue to flourish in both the Diaspora and Palestine even
after the establishment of a new Jewish homeland.
Taking these circumstances into account, it is hardly surprising that Michael Papo and Adolf von Zemlinsky began their chronicle with a broader
discourse about the Jewish past as they perceived it:
[...] der Bestand eines Volksstammes [ist] in den Blttern der Weltgeschichte verzeichnet, der Bestand eines mchtigen groen Volksstammes, dessen
Geschichte gar eng verflochten sind [sic], mit dem anderer Volksstmme
und alle diese Folianten widmen immer und immer wieder ein Blatt der Geschichte dieses Volkes, das in Folge maloser an ihm verbter Grausamkeiten und Unterdrckungen jeglicher Art, eine Zeit lang der Befrchtung
Raum gab, auch diese Nation wrde vergehen, verderben. Diese Befrchtung erfllt sich jedoch nicht (Papo and Zemlinsky 1888: 1).

Here, Zemlinsky and Papo strongly emphasise the resolute national nature
of their own Volksstamm37 by simultaneously juxtaposing it in opposition to
other, more powerful tribes or nations that repeatedly used to oppress and
maltreat the Jewish people. This experienceof being an oppressed and
discriminated against Other and, respectively, the discourse about such an
experiencedefinitely seems to be one of the main reasons that two authors
imagine themselves and their co-religionists not only as a community but, at
long last, as a national entity in opposition to their oppressors (see Hegels
above-mentioned Master-Slave Dialectic). Defining ones own group
merely by a process of elimination, letting another party set up imaginary
boundaries which shall decide who belongs to one group and who to another, is only one step, although a decisive one, in imagining a national/
ethnic/religious entity.
Nevertheless, when Papo served as rabbi in Vienna it was already clear
that the Sephardic identity, including one of its main carriers, Djudezmo,
had entered into a state of decomposition. For instance, by the end of the
nineteenth century it was German that had become the dominant vernacular
within the Sephardic community of Vienna. This circumstance might explain Papos strong engagement within the Esperanza association which
sought to strengthen Sephardic culture as well as the use of Judeo-Spanish
as a spoken language. However, the efforts made by Esperanza could not
suspend this ongoing process of decay. Papo did his best in order to counteract these developments. In 1884 he published a German-Djudezmo dictionary (Traductor de lenguas) under the title Trajoman. Although it was
37 It is important to note that Zemlinsky apparently does not use Volksstamm or Nationtranslated as tribu and nasyon in Papos versionfor referring to
Sephardic Jews alone but Jews in general.

IMAGINING THE SEPHARDIC COMMUNITY OF VIENNA

77

primarily intended for Sephardic merchants from the Ottoman Empire who
wanted to sell their goods in German-speaking lands (Studemund-Halvy
2010b: 78; Hernndez Socas, Sinner and Tabares 2010), it can be valued as
an effort to strengthen the relations between the Sephardic Jews of Vienna
and their co-religionists in South Eastern Europe.
What is interesting to note in this context is that Benedict Anderson appraises the production of word lists and simple lexicons as an important
precursor for the emergence of modern nationalism. Of course, Michael
Papos Trajoman was not the only Sephardic dictionary or textbook ever
published; however, it is interesting to note that out of 21 Sephardic grammar books and dictionariesalso including books for teaching Hebrew to
childrenthat had been published between 1821 and 1930, sevenor one
out of threewere published in Viennaincluding the first one ever published, Hinuh leNaar: Maestro de kriatura en sortes de alef bet kon algunas
kuantas brahot menesterozas. Viyena 1821 (Studenmund-Halvy 2009: 1315). Andersons assumption that dictionaries and lexicons play a sort of
vanguard role when it comes to the advent of nationalism has another origin, which is also very compelling within the Viennese context. According
to Anderson, the invention of the dictionary stood at the beginning of a
broader development, namely the scientific comparative study of languages
and philology which, of course, was first of all an elitist endeavour (Anderson 2006: 70-71). So it is hardly surprising that at the turn of the twentieth
century Vienna had evolved into one of the first centres of academic research into Judeo-Spanish.
The variety of different dialects promoted several Romance philologists
and even rabbis, who were interested in the language of Sephardic Jews, to
engage in research into Judeo-Spanish. Most of these intellectuals came
from GermanyKurt Levy (19071935), Max Leopold Wagner (1880
1962)and AustriaJulius Subak (18721936), Kalmi Baruch (1896
1945)but also from North AmericaLeo Wiener (18621939), Max
Aaron Luria (18911966) (Quintana Rodrguez 2006: 3). In Austria the
Kaiserliche Akademie enlisted Julius Subak to collect recordings in the
Balkans in Judeo-Spanish for the newly inaugurated Phonogramarchiv in
Vienna (Studemund-Halvy 2010a: 70). Subaks recordings from 1908,
together with the material collected by Max A. Luria in 1926, were recently
published by the Austrian Academy of Sciences (sterreichische Akademie
der Wissenschaften) (Leibl 2009). These records and transcripts count
among the oldest recorded testimonies of Sephardic Jews from the Balkans.
Furthermore, several dissertations and essays about linguistic aspects of
Judeo-Spanish (phonology, grammar) and the history of Sephardic Jews
were published, most of them in Vienna or by scholars who had studied or

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MARTIN STECHAUNER

lived in Vienna. 38 Although Vienna was definitely an important point of


departure for many scholars studying Judeo-Spanish and Sephardic culture
in the Balkans, it is an interesting fact that almost nothing was published
about the variety of Judeo-Spanish spoken in Vienna. The only researcher
who explicitly named some examples of the Viennese dialect of JudeoSpanish is the Russian born American linguist Leo Wiener in his article
Songs of the Spanish Jews in the Balkan Peninsula (Wiener 1903: 206).39
Althoughfollowing Benedict Andersonthe activities of professional intellectuals were central to the shaping of nineteenth-century European nationalisms (Anderson 2006: 71), which also becomes evident from
the fact that Vienna became a centre for the promotion of Sephardism, we
have to remain realistic about the actual condition of Judeo-Spanish and its
role as a living vernacular language. Rafael Mazliach, a Sephardic banker
and commerce agent from Vienna, explicitly underlines the precarious
status of Judeo-Spanish not only in Vienna but all over the Balkans at the
turn of the twentieth century. In a letter to ngel Publido Fernndez (1852
1932), a Spanish physician and politician who started a campaign in order
to re-establish contact between Spain and the Sephardic diaspora, 40 he
wrote:
Sir, I can respond to you with deep sorrow that the Youth in Vienna as well
as in the Balkan states is alienating itself from the mother tongue; the
languages of their countries of residence, here German, there Serbian, are
ousting the Spanish language! while the Elderly still hold on to their mother
tongue.41

38 Grnwald, Moritz: Zur romanischen Dialektologie. ber den jdisch-spanischen


Dialekt als Beitrag zur Aufhellung der Aussprache im Altspanischen (Belovar ca. 1893);
Grnwald, Moritz: Sitten und Bruche der Juden im Orient (Vienna 1894); Levy, Moritz:
Die Sephardim in Bosnien (Sarajevo 1911); Baruch, Kalmi: Der Lautstand des Judenspanischen in Bosnien (Vienna 1923); Altarac, Isaac: Die Spracheigentmlichkeiten der
Judenspanischen Bibelbersetzung (Vienna 1932); Schleicher, Mordche Schlome: Geschichte der spaniolischen Juden (Sephardim) in Wien (Vienna 1932); see StudemundHalvy (2010a: 70n28).
39 According to Quintana Rodrguez there is no evidence for the existence of a distinct Viennese dialect of Djudezmo. However, we can assume that the spoken vernacular
of the Sephardic Jews of Vienna very much resembled the speech of Sephardic Jews in
Bosnia and Serbia, since these were the regions where most of the Sephardic families
living in Vienna originally came from (Quintana Rodrguez 2006: 40-41n30).
40 For a detailed biography of ngel Publido Fernndez and his engagement among
the Sephardim in South Eastern Europe cf. Meyuhas-Ginio (2007: 193-208).
41 Seor, yo puedo con mucha tristesa contastar, que la Juventud de Vienna y de los
estados balcaniquos se esta alejando de la lengua maternal; las lenguas de los estados de
sus domicillcos, aqu el aleman, ay el serbo, estan mayorgando el espaol! mientres que

IMAGINING THE SEPHARDIC COMMUNITY OF VIENNA

79

With regard to this regretful account it is possible that there is an additional


reason why as early as the 1880s Adolf von Zemlinsky and Michael Papo
decided to publish their chronicleincluding the legend of Diego
dAguilarin a bilingual edition. It is highly probable that the young generation of Sephardic Jews in Vienna had difficulty understanding and reading the languages of their parents and grandparents. In 1887, the same year
as the inauguration of the new Sephardic synagogue in Vienna and one year
before the publication of von Zemlinskys and Papos chronicle, a letter to
the editor of the periodical Allgemeine Zeitung des Judenthums was published that very well describes the loss of Judeo-Spanish and the ongoing
process of acculturation the Sephardic community of Vienna had gone
through:
[] Bis vor 30 oder 40 Jahren trugen die Mitglieder der trkischen Gemeinde, Mnner und Frauen, die malerische orientalische Tracht und sprachen
zumeist Spaniolisch, jetzt kleiden sie sich ausschlielich deutsch, respective
franzsisch, d. h. modern und sprechen deutsch. Sie haben eine Schule mit
deutscher Unterrichtssprache, und zahlreiche Kinder besuchen die allgemeinen Volks-, Brger- und Mittelschulen. So viel jedoch bekannt ist, widmen
sich nur selten Knaben oder Jnglinge der Wissenschaft im Allgemeinen der
jdischen insbesondere. Ihr Ritus in der Synagoge ist der spanische. Sie haben in letzter Zeit jedoch einen deutschen Kantor, Namens Bauer, und einen
Chor (Philippson 1887: 633; see also Seroussi 1992: 149-150).

This commentary vividly describes the drastic social changes within the
Sephardic community of Vienna which occurred only within a few decades;
apparently, a newin Halls termshybrid style of culture had emerged,
less Turkish and more Viennese. Consequently, this process was associated
with the loss of the Judeo-Spanish language and an alienation from the
traditional Sephardic culture. This was also the time when the children of
some long-established Sephardic families in Vienna decided to withdraw
their subscription from the Turkish-Israelite Community of Vienna.42
This was precisely the environmental setting in which the legend of
Diego dAguilar had emerged. The cultural changes that had taken place
only within a few decades must have been perceived as a real crisis by
Sephardic intellectuals, such as Papo and von Zemlinsky. Obviously these
two authors adopted and modified this legend of Diego dAguilar in order
to create a coherent history and to remind the Viennese Sephardim of their
los Viejos detienen con amor la lengua maternel. (Letter by Rafael Mazliach in Pulido
Fernndez 1993: 308). Translation is by the author.
42 As for example members of the wealthy Russo family (Kohlbauer-Fritz 2010:
108).

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MARTIN STECHAUNER

own, first and foremost Spanish, roots. In this respect remembrance of the
Balkan and the Ottoman heritage, from which contact had not yet broken
off, was not enough. For Papo and von Zemlinsky it was much more important to draw a direct link to the ancient homeland (Sephard I) in order to be
able to preserve the Sephardic character of the community; apart from these
Spanish/Sephardic elements they were also keen to emphasise the Viennese/Austrian, as well as Turkish/Ottoman aspects which altogether become
manifest in the main character of the founding legend. Several facts of
Diego dAguilars biographyfor example, his Iberian origin and his influence at the court of Habsburgappeared perfectly suited to conversion into
suggestive narratives, with the aim of creating a direct link between the
ancient Sepharad and Vienna, which also became known as the new
Sepharad of the Danube.43 However, the fact that the hero in question was
of Portuguese origin obviously did not make him Spanish, or in other
words, Sephardic enough. As a consequence, his biography had to be
altered and dramatised in order to turn it into an authentic Sephardic folk
story, including a setting in the Spanish capital Madrid, as well as the heros
involvement in the Spanish Inquisition. All these elements have obviously
been borrowed from popular Sephardic novels of the nineteenth century.
Apart from a direct link to Spain, a link to the new host society, in which
most Sephardic Jews living in Vienna had integrated so well, also had been
created: not only should the Sephardim of Vienna feel themselves to be
proud Jews of Spanish heritage but also Viennese Sephardim. The aim was,
in Halls sense (1990: 230-237), to connect, or one could say harmonise,
several cultural spaces or presences which were so significantly important
for the authors of Diego dAguilars legend.

9. Conclusion: The Sepherad of the Danube A Hybrid


Diaspora Society
According to what has been exposed so far, it is most evident that Michael
Papo and Adolf von Zemlinsky tried to position the historic figure of Diego
dAguilar within the narratives of the past, which seemed to have been of
greater significance for them. The result was a heroic and legendary figure
that should remind the addressees of this story, first and foremost their
Sephardic co-religionists in Vienna, of their cultural, as well as their histori43 Sepharad of the Danube (Sefarad an der Donau, La Sefarad del Danubio) is a
term frequently used by Michael Studemund-Halvy for referring to the Sephardic community of Vienna (Studemund-Halvy 2009; 2010a; 2013).

IMAGINING THE SEPHARDIC COMMUNITY OF VIENNA

81

cal and geographical roots. However, in order to make dAguilar a much


more Austrian figure or, in other words, to create a link to the present environment, the legendary account of dAguilar featured prominent and authoritative Austrian figures such as Maria Theresa and Charles VI.44 Last
but not least, another link to the Sephardic colonies on the Balkans and in
Anatolia, where most of the Viennese Sephardim had come from, had to be
accommodated by featuring a no less imperious figure than the Ottoman
Sultan.45 Although the personal contact between dAguilar and these historical figures may well be questioned, we have seen that many of those
allegedly historical links are not all per se fictional. In fact, several elements
of dAguilars biography are not only feasible but even seem to reflect real
historical events, as for example his converso background, his confirmed
presence in Vienna, his relations with the Habsburgian court, and his patronage of local Jewish communities. The legendary heroic figure of
dAguilar, however, is first and foremost an imagined character; thus,
merely an image of the historical figure. Of course the imaginative elements
within his legendary biography do not make his figure less authentic or
even corrupt, but rather bring into focus all the different elements or, again
in Halls terms, presences, which constitute the diasporic/cultural identity
of the Sephardic Jews in Vienna. By drawing upon the (imagined) diasporic
experience of one Spanish (former converso) Jew and by highlighting his
vivid interactions with the Austrian and Ottoman authorities, the main recipients of that legendthe Sephardic Jews of Viennashould be reminded, first of all, of their Spanish but also of their Austrian and Ottoman
heritage, especially at a time when the traditional Sephardic lifestyle and
culture, together with its language, was about to disappear. Furthermore, we
may also conclude that the non-Jewish readers of the German version of the
legend were intended to receive the impression that this community was
for historical reasonsafter all an autochthonous Austrian community.
Moreover, the legends whole plot featured a certain aristocratic aura which
is quite a typical narrative element employed by many Sephardic authors as
well as in Sephardic folk tales since, according to Miriam Bodia (1997: 85),
the typical medieval Sephardic Jew most popularly imagined by Sephardim
in the diaspora is usually a nobleman or, in her owns words, a figure without parallels in other Jewries. The aristocratic standing of Baron Diego
44 In Ludwig August Frankls and Michael Papos version of the legend even Prince
Eugene of Savoy (16631736) makes a short cameo appearance.
45 Neither Papo nor Zemlinsky mention the name of the ruling Ottoman Sultan who
supposedly intervened when Maria Theresa made plans for expelling the Jews from
Austria. Frankl, in turn, mentioned Sultan Selim; however, a Sultan by that name was
not in power in the lifetime of Diego dAguilar (Akin Somel 2010: lxxv-lxxvi)

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dAguilar most perfectly served the authors efforts in the course of creating
a figure that most closely resembles an outstanding and legendary hero.
This hero was able to incorporateat leastthree significant presences
constituting the Sephardic diaspora in Vienna: a Spanish/Sephardic presence (representing the strong retrospective dependence on the imagined
homeland, that is, Sepharad I), an Austrian/Viennese presence (for having
gradually integrated/assimilated into the Viennese society) and an Ottoman/Turkish presence (representing the historical and political ties with the
Ottoman Empire); furthermore, we could also add the existence of a Balkan
presence, since many community members continued to maintain close
contacts with their regions of origin (for example represented in the legend
by dAguilars close relation with the Sephardic community of
Temeswar46). By applying Halls conceptual model of diaspora and cultural
identity, we immediately become aware of the hybrid nature of the Sephardic community of Vienna. The manifolds presences featured in the legend
do not constitute pure origins but should rather be understood as discourses
about historical and geographical origins. Only the knowledge of a coherent
history allows individuals to imagine themselves as groups of people belonging together and, hereinafter, as a community or even as a nation. Following Benedict Anderson, we may not forget that an original and meaningful identity of a whole groupand maybe even of individualscan only be
imagined because history and even personal biographies turn out to be
highly complex and full of elusive ruptures. Precisely for that reason,
Sephardic communities in particular always must be studied within their
particular cultural, social and historical contexts. This is why, for example,
the different notions and nuances of Viennese Sephardic identity cannot be
understood without keeping the differentBiblical, Spanish, Portuguese,
Balkan, Ottoman, Habsburgian, and nowadays even Central Asian, Caucasian, Russian and Soviet presences in mind, which all have a share in
this imagined collective identity of Sephardic Jews in Vienna to a greater or
lesser extent. In order to give such an identity its shape and meaning, the
creation and the distribution of an identity-establishing foundational myth,
representing not only the origins in the past but also the present circumstances, seems to be inevitably necessary. Especially in a diasporic context,
such a narrative, for example about a legendary hero, is able to define the
boundaries of ones own aspired identity. In order to maintain a national
character, single intellectuals and even entire intellectual associations
46 One could argue whether Temeswar really is a Balkan city since Romania is not
always counted as a Balkan country. However, as Maria Todorova (2009: 46-49) has
exposed, Romania also may be counted as a Balkan country since the Balkans is, too,
an imaginary place without clearly defined borders.

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83

sought after efficient ways of distributing these identity-constituting narratives at the turn of the twentieth century, most likely through the production
of printed texts in a language that every potential addressee was able to
understand. Thus it is not surprising at all that Michael Papo, the co-author
of one of the most popular printed versions of the foundational myth of the
Sephardic community of Vienna, was also one of the most prominent supporting members of Esperanza. However, in 1923only a few years after
Papo had passed awayan article in El Mundo Sefaradi (Esperanzas own
club magazine) was published which already drew a much less enthusiastic
picture of the future of the Sephardic community of Vienna. Both the decay
of Sephardic print culture, as well as of Judeo-Spanish as a spoken language, were clearly considered to be the main reasons for the erosion of the
national identity of the Sephardic Jews in Vienna:
Vienna once [was] an important Sephardic centre. Here, many JudeoSpanish newspapers were published, as well as many other different works
in that language, especially many religious books for the Sephardic rite were
published and edited in Vienna. [] But over the time the good old Jewish
tradition was lost [] The contact between Judaism and the Sephardic way
of life in the East is crumbling day by day. []. The young Sephardic generation is uprooted. At best they know a little how to read Hebrew, JudeoSpanish they do not speak at all, as Spaniards they do not participate in the
Jewish national life, thus they are urged to give an answer to the question:
what nation are you part of?47

47 Vyenah [era] un importante sentro sefardi. Aki aparesian gazetas judeoespanyoles, se publikavan diferentes ovrasen este idioma, i espesyalmente redaktavan en Vyenah
i imprimian los livros relijyozos para el rito sefardi. [] Ma, la buena tradisyon judia se
fue kon el tyempo perdyendo []. El kontakto de este judaizmo kon la vida sefardi en el
oryente se rompia de dia en dia [...] La jenerasyon jovena sefardi es una dezraizada. En
ebreo save, en el major falo, apenas meldar, el judeo-espanyol no avla del todo, komo
espanyoles no partesipan en la vida nasyonal-judia, i se topa en apreto de dar repuesta a
la demanda: de ke nasyon sos (El Mundo Sefardi 1 (1) 1923: 39-41). Translation by the
author.

84

MARTIN STECHAUNER

Appendix

Figure 1: Transcript of Diego dAguilars tombstone inscription (selected from the


Genealogical Record in the Colyer- Fergusson Collection, archived in the Society of
Genealogists Library, London, UK)

Figure 2: Pedigree of the dAguilar Family (selected from the Genealogical Record
in the Colyer- Fergusson Collection, archived in the Society of Genealogists Library, London, UK

IMAGINING THE SEPHARDIC COMMUNITY OF VIENNA

Figure 3: Cover sheet of Papo, Zemlinsky 1888 (German version)

85

86

MARTIN STECHAUNER

Figure 4: Cover sheet of Papo, Zemlinsky 1888 (Judeo-Spanish version)

IMAGINING THE SEPHARDIC COMMUNITY OF VIENNA

87

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