ABSTRACT
Jerusalem's ashkenazis sought protection and succor from the European "regime of the consuls"; for their part, the European powers found that the Jews could be equally useful, especially as a means of augmenting the European political presence in the city. As the Sephardis constituted the "official" Jewish community in Ottoman Jerusalem, Ashkenazis were allowed to be buried only in Sephardi cemeteries, a regulation that brought into Sephardi coffers a valuable burial tax. The Ashkenazi community, complete with its own spiritual center, now came fully into its own. The consular system provided protection against both Sephardi interference and that of local Muslims and the Ottoman authorities—though the fact that the construction went smoothly attests to those groups' recognition of the new political and social reality. The deep divisions between Misnagdi and Hasidic Jews, and between Gra and anti-Gra Prushis, reflected the diversity of Ashkenazi Jewry itself.
