288 r Efrat E. Aviv
the environmental influence on the Jewish community intensified, an
increasing number of plays were performed on Saturdays and festivals.
Women were finally allowed to perform. This phenomenon was so prob-
lematic that the actresses’ full names were never listed; only their initials
appeared. The theater, as it was, had many opponents, particularly the rab-
bis and religious figures. They considered the theater as halikha behuqot
hagoyim (following the ways of the Gentiles) and an offense against the
Jewish religion, regardless of the play’s theme. They believed the theater
was an acute threat to the purity of Jewish life.^18
The educated strata of the Jewish community considered theater an
aesthetic art form that could contribute to the education of the lower
classes, who used to shove each other in the theater entrances. The news-
papers published advertisements that recommended abstaining from un-
necessary joking or laughter, bottle throwing, and littering during perfor-
mances or bringing babies to the theater.
The elite saw the theater as a highly important cultural gauge and
wished to prove that Jewish society was not inferior to other societies in
its appreciation of theater as an art. Hence it was used as a way of inte-
grating Jewish society into the general Ottoman-Turkish population. For
instance, one newspaper advertised a “dramatic and entertaining” eve-
ning, with all proceeds going to Talmud Torah, a prevalent phenomenon
in Jewish society, which meant raising money from plays for the needs of
the community. A committee was created for this Talmud Torah, headed
by senior Muslim functionaries, including the mayor and chief of police.
The ad states:
Our donor X has recently published a colorful invitation for our
people... to participate in a dramatic and musical evening that
will be given during mid-Passover, on Monday evening, April 1, at
the Sporting Club. This will not only be an occasion for enjoyable
entertainment and significant assistance to the devotion of Torah
study so dear to our community. The partaking of the play’s suc-
cess is also a special opportunity to demonstrate to the non-Jewish
residents... that the Jewish community of Izmir knows how to
uphold its institutions and can be very generous with them. This is
truly a great honor and pleasure for us, to see the senior non-Jewish