There seems to be a pretty broad historical consensus that medieval Jewish life under Turkish rule was generally much better than it was under Catholic rule. I'm curious why more Ashkenazi Jews didn't try moving to Turkish territory after various expulsions from European polities. Was it for simple logistical reasons, (IIRC the Ottomans sent a fleet to pick up the Sephardic Jews when they were expelled from Spain, but made no analogous efforts to encourage Ashkenazi immigration) or were there cultural reasons why Ashkenazi Jews wanted to stay and try and build a life in Europe?
(Once again, just to be clear, I'm talking about the period *prior* to the founding of the Zionist movement in the late 19th century.)
Hey there,
Just to let you know, your question is fine, and we're letting it stand. However, you should be aware that questions framed as 'Why didn't X do Y' relatively often don't get an answer that meets our standards (in our experience as moderators). There are a few reasons for this. Firstly, it often can be difficult to prove the counterfactual: historians know much more about what happened than what might have happened. Secondly, 'why didn't X do Y' questions are sometimes phrased in an ahistorical way. It's worth remembering that people in the past couldn't see into the future, and they generally didn't have all the information we now have about their situations; things that look obvious now didn't necessarily look that way at the time.
If you end up not getting a response after a day or two, consider asking a new question focusing instead on why what happened did happen (rather than why what didn't happen didn't happen) - this kind of question is more likely to get a response in our experience. Hope this helps!