הדחת החכם באשי ששון הלוי כביטוי למאבקים המעמדיים בקהילת בגדאד

In the summer of 1879, Rabbi Sasson ha-Levi was overthrown by the leaders of the Jewish community in Baghdad from his post as the Hakham Bashi — Chief Rabbi — of the community. During the next two years, a struggle ensued between the rabbi's supporters and opponents, culminating in the approval of his overthrow by the Hakham Bashi in Istanbul, in the spring of 1881. The history of the Jewish communities in the center of the Ottoman Empire in the second half of the 19th century was plagued by the outbreak of many severe disputes concerning questions of leadership and authority. These issues surfaced due to the constitutional reforms initiated by the Ottoman Empire during the 19th century and were related to the changing nature of the community, in which certain social classes now claimed their right to participate in the communal institutions and leadership. Some of these struggles resulted in the overthrow of the Hakham Bashi. This article claims that the main Jewish community in Iraq, in spite of its being on the periphery, did not differ from the communities in the center of the Empire. In Baghdad as well, social and class tensions in the second half of the 19th century, generated the disputes concerning the position of the Hakham Bashi.