The Shalvi/Hyman Encyclopedia of Jewish Women

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Ruth Lamdan

Ruth Lamdan, Ph.D. (1992), author of A Separate People: Jewish Women in Palestine, Syria and Egypt in the Sixteenth Century (2000), is a lecturer in the Department of Jewish History at Tel-Aviv University. She specializes in the history and social life of the Jews in the Ottoman Empire.

Articles by this author

Levant: Women in the Jewish Communities after the Ottoman Conquest of 1517

Following their expulsion from the Iberian Peninsula in 1492, many Jews settled in Palestine, Egypt, and Syria – regions which fell under Ottoman Control in 1517. Girls in the Levant were married at young ages, polygamy was common, and obtaining a get was very difficult. Nevertheless, many Jewish women worked outside the home and kept their earnings.