While people from different religions lived freely in their own cultural and religious environment in Ottoman lands, Muslims in Europe did not have a right to live, and Jews lived under very hard conditions. The Jews were even accused of absurd things, such as natural disasters and plagues. For instance, Jews were targeted after a great plague outbreak in Europe in the 14th century, and it was believed that the plague would end if they were slaughtered. In the spring of 1348, the first pogroms against Jews started in southern France. They were burned after they were brought together in houses. In Bavaria, 12,000 were killed and in Erfurt 3,000 Jews were killed; in Strasburg 2,000 were burned alive. These pogroms happened nearly everywhere in Europe. Sometimes, Jews burned themselves so as to not be caught by these murderers. In some places, they were impaled or thrown into rivers in barrels.

First Jewish emigration

Jews started to immigrate to places conquered by the Ottomans in the 14th century. When Hungarian King Louis acted to dismiss Jews in 1360, they sheltered in Ottoman lands. Mehmed II, known as Mehmed the Conqueror, gave Jews the right to settle, trade and build synagogues and schools in Istanbul after he conquered the city. Mehmet the Conqueror also assigned Moses Capsali as the chief rabbi. In the Byzantine period, the Jewish rabbinate was not an effective and respected duty. The Ottomans made it equal to the patriarchate, giving it added reputation and prestige. Jews who lived in their lands were used as a financial power against Christians and Europeans. Jews from Anatolian and Rumeli cities were settled in Istanbul. They were in port regions from Çıfıt Gate to Zindan Gate, business centers previously dominated by Venetians. Venetians had had a great role in the city in the Byzantine period, but Mehmed II replaced them with Jewish merchants. The sultan even demanded that the Venetian Department of Justice (DOJ) allow Venetian Jews, who escaped from Istanbul to Venice before and during the siege, be allowed to return. At the end of Mehmed II's reign, the Jewish population in Istanbul greatly increased. There were 1,647 Jewish houses; that is, nearly 8,000 Jews in Istanbul in 1477.

Escaping the Inquisition

Jews were also discriminated against on the Iberian Peninsula, starting from the 15th century. After 1480, the Inquisition started to oppress Jews in Spain. Gangs attacked them. By order of the Great Inquisitor Tomas de Torquemada in 1483, thousands of Jews were killed. At this point they started to abandon their homelands. Jews converted to Catholicism by force, known as Marranos, returned to their own religion after taking shelter in Ottoman lands. In the period of Bayezid II, Jews who were exiled by European countries, such Spain, Portugal and Italy, moved to the Ottoman Empire after 1492. A Jewish historian, Elijah Capsali, wrote in his diary that the sultan had mercy for Jews and ordered everyone to allow them to enter the country. It is estimated that 90,000 of 165,000 Jews who emigrated from the Iberian Peninsula entered Ottoman lands. From the middle of the 16th century, Jewish people started to migrate from Central and Eastern Europe to the Ottoman Empire, and it continued in the following centuries.

Some of the Jews in Eastern Europe and Russia again came to Turkey at the end of the 19th century because of the pressure there.

Austrian Hans Dernschwam, who came to the Ottoman lands in the 16th century, best described the Jewish migration to Turkey. He said: "When Jews are dismissed from a country in the world, they directly come to Turkey."

Conquests ended Jewish exile

In "Seder Eliyyahhu Zuta" by the Jewish historian Elijah Capsali, who wrote the most important Hebrew history book about Ottoman history, it is accepted that the conquests of the Ottoman sultans who defeated Christians are the end of exile for Jews and a harbinger of the Messiah. The book evaluates the Ottoman sultans as savior Messiahs and discusses their relations with Jews in detail. While drawing attention to the messiah roles of the sultans, the book reflects not only the Spanish exile but also many other events, including the conquests of Syria, Egypt and Rhodes, in relation to the appearance of the Messiah.

Named according to homelands

Jews who had been living in lands since the Roman and Byzantium period that the Ottomans conquered were called Romaniots. Jews from Spain and Portugal were called Sephardic Jews. Ashkenazi Jews were those who came from Central and Eastern Europe.