The Aegean Sea, situated between modern Greece and Turkey, was a major commercial waterway during the Ottoman period. Attracted by economic opportunity, Jews settled in cities on the Greek and Turkish Aegean coasts and in the Aegean Islands. The mainland port cities of Salonica and Izmir became major centers of Sephardic settlement and culture. Jews also lived in cities located slightly inland, such as Manisa and Aydin, and by the late nineteenth century, small Jewish settlements dotted some of the other towns on the Aegean mainland. The m…