316 | Zionism in the Era of Ottoman Brotherhood
a founding member and long-time president of the Bnai Brith lodge of Jerusalem
and in that capacity continued his father’s legacy in land purchases and the eco-
nomic development of the Jewish community.
If David was a product of and remained deeply embedded in Jerusalem and
things Jewish, his younger brother Shlomo took a different trajectory, one that
sent him to the center of Ottoman culture and power. Ten years younger than
David, Shlomo began his secular education much earlier in his childhood. (See
figure 22.1.) His Ottoman Turkish–language training was much stronger than
that of his brother—so much so that in 1891, at age seventeen, Shlomo earned a
spot at the prestigious Galatasaray Imperial Lycée in Istanbul, followed by the
Imperial Law School. At both institutions, Shlomo found himself in a multicul-
tural cohort of fellow students from throughout the empire, and his non-Jewish
personal network and Ottoman horizons widened considerably.
Unfortunately almost nothing is known of Shlomo’s Istanbul years. It is
clear, however, that the Yellin family viewed his chosen profession as part of
broader Jewish communal service. As his brother David wrote at the time in the
Figure 22.1 The Yellin family in Jerusalem, ca. 1880s. Yehoshu’a is seated in the center of the
front row; David stands at the left of the second row, holding his daughter Chana, and next to
him is Shlomo. (Courtesy of the Central Zionist Archives.)