Yair Wallach, “The Unexplored History of Ashkenazi Integration in Late Ottoman Palestine,” Jewish Social Studies: History, Culture, Society n.s. 29, no. 1 (Winter 2024): 161–92. Copyright © 2024 The Trustees of Indiana University. doi:10.2979/jss.00006 Abstract To what extent did Ashkenazi Jews integrate and acculturate into the local society, cul- ture, and politics of late Ottoman Palestine? This question has been almost entirely ignored by the voluminous scholarship on the migration of Jews from central and eastern Europe to Palestine. This article challenges the widely held assumption that such inte- gration was nonexistent and impossible. Building on recent work on Ashkenazi adop- tion of Arab clothes, Arabic language, and urban encounters and cohabitation, I argue that Ashkenazi integration in Ottoman Palestine was a very real process, which took on signifcant dimensions. I focus on civic participation and local politics, military service in the Ottoman army, and deep economic interdependence. Integration was uneven and did not follow a single pathway; rather, there were diverse avenues of integration through Jewish Sephardi society, the Arab elite, Ottoman institutions, and more. Key words: Ashkenazim, integration, migration, Palestine/Israel S himon Rokach (1863–1922) was born in Jerusalem to Hasidic Ashkenazi migrant parents. Aged 14, he was sent “back” to eastern Europe—to Brisk (Brest), Belarus—to get married, settle down, and work in his in-laws’ successful timber business. As we read in the account written by his daughter and son-in-law, Shimon suffered badly from the Russian winter and could not han- dle the cold. The Unexplored History of Ashkenazi Integration in Late Ottoman Palestine Yair Wallach