![Jews of Salonika-1917](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/28/Jews_of_Salonika-1917.jpg)
The history of the Jews of Thessaloniki reaches back two thousand years. The city of
Thessaloniki
Thessaloniki (; el, Θεσσαλονίκη, , also known as Thessalonica (), Saloniki, or Salonica (), is the second-largest city in Greece, with over one million inhabitants in its metropolitan area, and the capital of the geographic region of ...
(also known as Salonika) housed a major
Jewish
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
community, mostly
Eastern Sephardim Eastern Sephardim are a distinctive sub-group of Sephardi Jews, mostly descended from families expelled and exiled from Iberia as Jews in the 15th century following the Alhambra Decree of 1492 in Spain and the decree of 1497 in Portugal. This branch ...
, until the middle of the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...
. Sephardic Jews immigrated to the city following the
expulsion of Jews from Spain
The Expulsion of Jews from Spain was the expulsion from Spain following the Alhambra Decree in 1492, which was enacted in order to eliminate their influence on Spain's large '' converso'' population and to ensure its members did not revert to Jud ...
by Catholic rulers under the
Alhambra Decree of 1492. It is the only known example of a city of this size in the
Jewish diaspora
The Jewish diaspora ( he, תְּפוּצָה, təfūṣā) or exile (Hebrew: ; Yiddish: ) is the dispersion of Israelites or Jews out of their ancient ancestral homeland (the Land of Israel) and their subsequent settlement in other parts of th ...
that retained a Jewish majority for centuries. This community influenced the Sephardic world both culturally and economically, and the city was nicknamed ''la madre de Israel'' (mother of Israel).
The community experienced a "golden age" in the 16th century, when they developed a strong culture in the city. Like other groups in the
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University) ...
, they continued to practice traditional culture during the time when western Europe was undergoing industrialization. In the middle of the 19th century, Jewish educators and entrepreneurs came to Thessaloniki from Western Europe to develop schools and industries; they brought contemporary ideas from Europe that changed the culture of the city. With the development of industry, both Jewish and other ethnic populations became industrial workers and developed a large working class, with labor movements contributing to the intellectual mix of the city. After Greece achieved independence from the Ottoman Empire, it made Jews full citizens of the country in the 1920s.
During
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
, Greece was
occupied by Nazi Germany and its allies. In 1941, the
Axis Powers
The Axis powers, ; it, Potenze dell'Asse ; ja, 枢軸国 ''Sūjikukoku'', group=nb originally called the Rome–Berlin Axis, was a military coalition that initiated World War II and fought against the Allies. Its principal members were ...
started systematically persecuting the Salonican Jews. In 1943 the Salonican Jews were forced into a
ghetto
A ghetto, often called ''the'' ghetto, is a part of a city in which members of a minority group live, especially as a result of political, social, legal, environmental or economic pressure. Ghettos are often known for being more impoverished t ...
near the rail lines, and deportations began to the
concentration camps
Internment is the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without charges or intent to file charges. The term is especially used for the confinement "of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects". Thus, while it can simply ...
and labor camps. The majority of the 60,000 deported died. This resulted in the near-extermination of the community. Only 1200 Jews live in the city today.
Early settlement
![ElGrecoPaul](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/95/ElGrecoPaul.jpg)
Some scholars believed that
Paul of Tarsus
Paul; grc, Παῦλος, translit=Paulos; cop, ⲡⲁⲩⲗⲟⲥ; hbo, פאולוס השליח (previously called Saul of Tarsus;; ar, بولس الطرسوسي; grc, Σαῦλος Ταρσεύς, Saũlos Tarseús; tr, Tarsuslu Pavlus; ...
' ''
First Epistle to the Thessalonians
The First Epistle to the Thessalonians is a Pauline epistle of the New Testament of the Christian Bible. The epistle is attributed to Paul the Apostle, and is addressed to the church in Thessalonica, in modern-day Greece. It is likely among t ...
'' mentions
Hellenized
Hellenization (other British spelling Hellenisation) or Hellenism is the adoption of Greek culture, religion, language and identity by non-Greeks. In the ancient period, colonization often led to the Hellenization of indigenous peoples; in th ...
Jews in the city about 52 CE. This is based on certain interpretation of
1 Thessalonians 2
1 Thessalonians 2 is the second chapter of the First Epistle to the Thessalonians in the New Testament of the Christian Bible. It is authored by Paul the Apostle, likely written in Corinth in about 50–51 CE for the church in Thessalonica. Th ...
:14 "''For you, brethren, became imitators of the churches of God which are in
Judea
Judea or Judaea ( or ; from he, יהודה, Standard ''Yəhūda'', Tiberian ''Yehūḏā''; el, Ἰουδαία, ; la, Iūdaea) is an ancient, historic, Biblical Hebrew, contemporaneous Latin, and the modern-day name of the mountainous sou ...
in Christ Jesus. For you also suffered the same things from your own countrymen, just as they did from the Judeans.''" (NKJV). Others believe that this Christian community consisted only of gentiles (pagans) and others that Jews were a small minority in that church of Thessalonike. The Greek word for "your own countrymen" in the original text is "συμφυλέται" (''of the same tribe/race/nation''). The interpretation of "συμφυλέται" as "Jews" is debated by many scholars. Also, there is no firm archaeological and other written evidence for the existence of a Jewish community in Thessaloniki during the 1st half of the 1st century AD. However, the existence of such a community is considered as very likely, even if its character is not known. Researchers have not determined yet where the first Jews lived in the city.
[A. Vacalopoulos, ''A History of Thessaloniki'', p. 9]
In 1170,
Benjamin of Tudela reported that there were 500 Jews in Thessaloniki. In the following centuries, the native
Romaniote community was joined by some
Italian
Italian(s) may refer to:
* Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries
** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom
** Italian language, a Romance language
*** Regional Ita ...
and
Ashkenazi Jews
Ashkenazi Jews ( ; he, יְהוּדֵי אַשְׁכְּנַז, translit=Yehudei Ashkenaz, ; yi, אַשכּנזישע ייִדן, Ashkenazishe Yidn), also known as Ashkenazic Jews or ''Ashkenazim'',, Ashkenazi Hebrew pronunciation: , singu ...
. A small Jewish population lived here during the Byzantine period, but it left virtually no trace in documents or archeological artifacts.
[Gilles Veinstein, ''Salonique 1850–1918, la "ville des Juifs" et le réveil des Balkans'', pp. 42–45]
Under the Ottomans
In 1430, the start of Ottoman domination, the Jewish population was still small. The Ottomans used population transfers within the empire following military conquests to achieve goals of border security or repopulation; they called it ''
Sürgün''. Following the
fall of Constantinople in 1453, an example of ''sürgün'' was the Ottomans' forcing Jews from the Balkans and
Anatolia
Anatolia, tr, Anadolu Yarımadası), and the Anatolian plateau, also known as Asia Minor, is a large peninsula in Western Asia and the westernmost protrusion of the Asian continent. It constitutes the major part of modern-day Turkey. The ...
to relocate there, which they made the new capital of the Empire.
[Bernard Lewis, ''Islam'', Gallimard, 2005, pp. 563–567.] At the time, few Jews were left in Salonika; none were recorded in the Ottoman census of 1478.
Arrival of Sephardic Jews
![Diaspora salonika](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a0/Diaspora_salonika.svg)
In 1492, the joint
Catholic Monarchs
The Catholic Monarchs were Queen Isabella I of Castile and King Ferdinand II of Aragon, whose marriage and joint rule marked the ''de facto'' unification of Spain. They were both from the House of Trastámara and were second cousins, being bot ...
of Spain
Isabella I
Isabella I ( es, Isabel I; 22 April 1451 – 26 November 1504), also called Isabella the Catholic (Spanish: ''la Católica''), was Queen of Castile from 1474 until her death in 1504, as well as Queen consort of Aragon from 1479 until 1504 by ...
and
Ferdinand II had promulgated the
Alhambra Decree to expel
Sephardic Jews
Sephardic (or Sephardi) Jews (, ; lad, Djudíos Sefardíes), also ''Sepharadim'' , Modern Hebrew: ''Sfaradim'', Tiberian: Səp̄āraddîm, also , ''Ye'hude Sepharad'', lit. "The Jews of Spain", es, Judíos sefardíes (or ), pt, Judeus sefa ...
from their domains. Many immigrated to Salonika, sometimes after a stop in
Portugal
Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...
or
Italy
Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...
. The Ottoman Empire granted protection to Jews as ''
dhimmis'' and encouraged the newcomers to settle in its territories. According to the historians Rosamond McKitterick and Christopher Allmand, the Empire's invitation to the expelled Jews was a demographic strategy to prevent ethnic Greeks from dominating the city.
[Rosamond McKitterick, Christopher Allmand, ''The New Cambridge Medieval History'', p. 779 –]
The first Sephardim came in 1492 from
Majorca. They were "repentant" returnees to Judaism after earlier forced conversion to Catholicism. In 1493, Jews from
Castile and
Sicily
(man) it, Siciliana (woman)
, population_note =
, population_blank1_title =
, population_blank1 =
, demographics_type1 = Ethnicity
, demographics1_footnotes =
, demographi ...
joined them. In subsequent years, other Jews came from those lands and also from
Aragon,
Naples
Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...
,
Venice
Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 bridges. The isla ...
and
Provence
Provence (, , , , ; oc, Provença or ''Prouvènço'' , ) is a geographical region and historical province of southeastern France, which extends from the left bank of the lower Rhône to the west to the Italian border to the east; it is bor ...
. Later, in 1540 and 1560, Jews from
Portugal
Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...
sought refuge in Salonika in response to the political persecution of the ''
marranos
Marranos were Spanish and Portuguese Jews living in the Iberian Peninsula who converted or were forced to convert to Christianity during the Middle Ages, but continued to practice Judaism in secrecy.
The term specifically refers to the cha ...
''. In addition to these Sephardim, a few
Ashkenazim
Ashkenazi Jews ( ; he, יְהוּדֵי אַשְׁכְּנַז, translit=Yehudei Ashkenaz, ; yi, אַשכּנזישע ייִדן, Ashkenazishe Yidn), also known as Ashkenazic Jews or ''Ashkenazim'',, Ashkenazi Hebrew pronunciation: , singu ...
arrived from
Austria
Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...
,
Transylvania
Transylvania ( ro, Ardeal or ; hu, Erdély; german: Siebenbürgen) is a historical and cultural region in Central Europe, encompassing central Romania. To the east and south its natural border is the Carpathian Mountains, and to the west the Ap ...
and
Hungary
Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the ...
. They were sometimes forcibly relocated under the Ottoman policy of "
sürgün," following the conquest of land by
Suleiman the Magnificent
Suleiman I ( ota, سليمان اول, Süleyman-ı Evvel; tr, I. Süleyman; 6 November 14946 September 1566), commonly known as Suleiman the Magnificent in the West and Suleiman the Lawgiver ( ota, قانونى سلطان سليمان, Ḳ ...
beginning in 1526. Salonika's registers indicate the presence of "
Buda Jews" after the conquest of that city by the Turks in 1541.
The Jewish population of the city was 20,000 in 1553. Immigration was great enough that by 1519, the Jews represented 56% of the population and by 1613, 68%.
Religious organization
Each group of new arrivals founded its own community (''aljama'' in Spanish), whose rites ("''
minhagim''") differed from those of other communities. The synagogues cemented each group, and their names most often referred to the groups' origins. For example, Katallan Yashan (Old Catalan) was founded in 1492 and Katallan Hadash (New Catalonia) at the end of the 16th century.
A government institution called ''Talmud Torah Hagadol'' was introduced in 1520 to head all the congregations and make decisions (''haskamot'') that applied to all. It was administered by seven members with annual terms. This institution provided an educational program for young boys, and was a preparatory school for entry to
yeshivot
A yeshiva (; he, ישיבה, , sitting; pl. , or ) is a traditional Jewish education, Jewish educational institution focused on the study of Rabbinic literature, primarily the Talmud and halacha (Jewish law), while Torah and Jewish p ...
. It hosted hundreds of students.
[Moshe Amar, Le Monde sépharade, Volume II, Seuil, 2006, p. 284] In addition to Jewish studies, it taught
humanities
Humanities are academic disciplines that study aspects of human society and culture. In the Renaissance, the term contrasted with divinity and referred to what is now called classics, the main area of secular study in universities at the t ...
, Latin and Arabic, as well as medicine, the natural sciences and astronomy.
[Jacob Barnaï, ''The Jews Spain: story of a diaspora, 1492–1992'', Liana Levi, 1998, p. 394–408.] The yeshivot of Salonika were frequented by Jews from throughout the Ottoman Empire and even farther abroad; there were students from Italy and Eastern Europe. After completing their studies, some students were appointed rabbis in the Jewish communities of the Empire and Europe, including cities such as
Amsterdam
Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the capital and most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population of 907,976 within the city proper, 1,558,755 in the urban ar ...
and
Venice
Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 bridges. The isla ...
.
The success of its educational institutions was such that there was no illiteracy among the Jews of Salonika.
Economic activities
![Jewish east mediterranea](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cf/Jewish_east_mediterranea.svg)
The Sephardic population settled mainly in the major urban centers of the Ottoman Empire, which included Salonika. Unlike other major cities of the Empire, the Jews controlled trading in Salonika. Their economic power became so great that the shipping and businesses stopped on Saturday (
Shabbat)—the Jewish sabbath. They traded with the rest of the Ottoman Empire, and the countries of Latin
Venice
Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 bridges. The isla ...
and
Genoa
Genoa ( ; it, Genova ; lij, Zêna ). is the capital of the Italian region of Liguria and the sixth-largest city in Italy. In 2015, 594,733 people lived within the city's administrative limits. As of the 2011 Italian census, the Province of ...
, and with all the Jewish communities scattered throughout the
Mediterranean
The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western Europe, Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa ...
. One sign of the influence of Salonikan Jews on trading is in the 1556 boycott of the port of
Ancona
Ancona (, also , ) is a city and a seaport in the Marche region in central Italy, with a population of around 101,997 . Ancona is the capital of the province of Ancona and of the region. The city is located northeast of Rome, on the Adriatic ...
,
Papal States
The Papal States ( ; it, Stato Pontificio, ), officially the State of the Church ( it, Stato della Chiesa, ; la, Status Ecclesiasticus;), were a series of territories in the Italian Peninsula under the direct sovereign rule of the pope fro ...
, in response to the ''
auto-da-fé
An ''auto-da-fé'' ( ; from Portuguese , meaning 'act of faith'; es, auto de fe ) was the ritual of public penance carried out between the 15th and 19th centuries of condemned heretics and apostates imposed by the Spanish, Portuguese, or Mexi ...
'' issued by
Paul IV
Pope Paul IV, born Gian Pietro Carafa, C.R. ( la, Paulus IV; it, Paolo IV; 28 June 1476 – 18 August 1559) was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 23 May 1555 to his death in August 1559. While serving as pap ...
against 25
marranos.
Salonikan Jews were unique in their participation in all economic niches, not confining their business to a few sectors, as was the case where Jews were a minority. They were active in all levels of society, from porters to merchants. Salonika had a large number of Jewish fishermen, unmatched elsewhere, even in present-day
Israel
Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...
.
The Jewish speciality was
spinning wool
Wool is the textile fibre obtained from sheep and other mammals, especially goats, rabbits, and camelids. The term may also refer to inorganic materials, such as mineral wool and glass wool, that have properties similar to animal wool. ...
. They imported technology from Spain where this craft was highly developed. The community made rapid decisions (''haskamot'') to require all congregations to regulate this industry. They forbade, under pain of excommunication (''cherem''), the export of wool and indigo to areas less than three days' travel from the city.
[Gilles Veinstein, ''Salonique 1850–1918, la "ville des Juifs" et le réveil des Balkans'', p. 52–54.] Salonikan sheets, blankets and carpets acquired a high profile and were exported throughout the empire from Istanbul to
Alexandria
Alexandria ( or ; ar, ٱلْإِسْكَنْدَرِيَّةُ ; grc-gre, Αλεξάνδρεια, Alexándria) is the second largest city in Egypt, and the largest city on the Mediterranean coast. Founded in by Alexander the Great, Alexandri ...
through
Smyrna
Smyrna ( ; grc, Σμύρνη, Smýrnē, or , ) was a Greek city located at a strategic point on the Aegean coast of Anatolia. Due to its advantageous port conditions, its ease of defence, and its good inland connections, Smyrna rose to promi ...
. The industry spread to all localities close to the
Thermaic Gulf
The Thermaic Gulf (), also called the Gulf of Salonika and the Macedonian Gulf, is a gulf constituting the northwest corner of the Aegean Sea. The city of Thessaloniki is at its northeastern tip, and it is bounded by Pieria Imathia and Laris ...
.
This same activity became a matter of state when the Ottoman Sultan,
Selim II, chose the Salonican Jews to be exclusive manufacturers of uniforms for the Ottoman
Janissary
A Janissary ( ota, یڭیچری, yeŋiçeri, , ) was a member of the elite infantry units that formed the Ottoman Sultan's household troops and the first modern standing army in Europe. The corps was most likely established under sultan Orhan ...
troops. This made the city one of the most significant textile producers and exporters in the eastern Mediterranean. His
Sublime Porte
The Sublime Porte, also known as the Ottoman Porte or High Porte ( ota, باب عالی, Bāb-ı Ālī or ''Babıali'', from ar, باب, bāb, gate and , , ), was a synecdoche for the central government of the Ottoman Empire.
History
The name ...
issued a ''
firman'' in 1576 forcing sheep raisers to provide their wool exclusively to the Jews to guarantee the adequacy of their supply. Other provisions strictly regulated the types of woollen production, production standards and deadlines.
Tons of woollen goods were transported by boat, camel and horse to Istanbul to cloak the janissaries against the approaching winter. Towards 1578, both sides agreed that the supply of wool would serve as sufficient payment by the State for cloth and replace the cash payment. This turned out to be disadvantageous for the Jews.
Economic decline
The increase in the number of
Janissaries contributed to an increase in clothing orders putting Jews in a very difficult situation. Contributing to their problems were currency inflation concurrent with a state financial crisis.
Only 1,200 shipments were required initially. However, the orders surpassed 4,000 in 1620.
[Gilles Veinstein, ''Salonique 1850–1918, la "ville des Juifs" et le réveil des Balkans'', p. 54–58.] Financially challenged, the factories began cheating on quality. This was discovered.
Rabbi Judah Covo at the head of a Salonican delegation was summoned to explain this deterioration in Istanbul and was sentenced to hang. This left a profound impression in Salonika.
Thereafter, applications of the Empire were partially reduced and reorganized production.
These setbacks were heralds of a dark period for Salonican Jews. The flow of migrants from the Iberian Peninsula had gradually dried up. Jews favored such Western European cities as
London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
,
Amsterdam
Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the capital and most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population of 907,976 within the city proper, 1,558,755 in the urban ar ...
and
Bordeaux
Bordeaux ( , ; Gascon oc, Bordèu ; eu, Bordele; it, Bordò; es, Burdeos) is a port city on the river Garonne in the Gironde department, Southwestern France. It is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the prefect ...
.
This phenomenon led to a progressive estrangement of the Ottoman Sephardim from the West. Although the Jews had brought many new European technologies, including that of
printing
Printing is a process for mass reproducing text and images using a master form or template. The earliest non-paper products involving printing include cylinder seals and objects such as the Cyrus Cylinder and the Cylinders of Nabonidus. The ...
, they became less and less competitive against other ethno-religious groups. The earlier well-known Jewish doctors and translators were gradually replaced by their Christian counterparts, mostly Armenians and Greeks. In the world of trading, the Jews were supplanted by Western Christians, who were protected by the western powers through their consular bodies.
Salonika lost its pre-eminence following the phasing out of Venice, its commercial partner, and the rising power of the port of Smyrna.
Moreover, the Jews, like other
dhimmis, had to suffer the consequences of successive defeats of the Empire by the West. The city, strategically placed on a road travelled by armies, often saw retaliation by janissaries against "infidels."
Throughout the 17th century, there was migration of Jews from Salonika to Constantinople, Palestine, and especially
Izmir. The Jewish community of Smyrna became composed of Salonikan émigrés.
Plague, along with other epidemics such as cholera, which arrived in Salonika in 1823, also contributed to the weakening of Salonika and its Jewish community.
Western products, which began to appear in the East in large quantities in the early-to-mid-19th century, was a severe blow to the Salonikan economy, including the Jewish textile industry. The state eventually even began supplying janissaries with "
Provencal clothing", which sold in low-priced lots, in preference to Salonican wools, whose quality had continued to deteriorate.
Short of cash, the Jews were forced into paying the grand vizier more than half of their taxes in the form of promissory notes. Textile production declined rapidly and then stopped with the abolition of the body of janissaries in 1826.
Taxation
Ottoman Jews
By the time the Ottoman Empire rose to power in the 14th and 15th centuries, there had been Jewish communities established throughout the region. The Ottoman Empire lasted from the early 14th century until the end of World War I and covered par ...
were obliged to pay special "
Jewish tax
The or (Latin for "Jewish tax") was a tax imposed on Jews in the Roman Empire after the destruction of Jerusalem and its Temple in AD 70. Revenues were directed to the Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus in Rome.
The tax measure improved Ro ...
es" to the Ottoman authorities. These taxes included the ''
Cizye
Jizya ( ar, جِزْيَة / ) is a per capita yearly taxation historically levied in the form of financial charge on dhimmis, that is, permanent non-Muslim subjects of a state governed by Islamic law. The jizya tax has been understood in Isl ...
'', the ''
İspençe
İspençe was a land tax levied on non-Muslims in the Ottoman Empire.
İspençe was a land-tax on non-Muslims in parts of the Ottoman Empire; its counterpart, for Muslim taxpayers, was the resm-i çift - which was set at slightly lower rate. The ...
'', the ''
Haraç
Haraç ( hy, խարջ, kharj, mk, арач, arač, gr, χαράτσι, charatsi, sh-Cyrl-Latn, харач, harač) was a land tax levied on non-Muslims in the Ottoman Empire.
''Haraç'' was developed from an earlier form of land taxation, '' ...
'', and the ''
Rav akçesi'' ("rabbi tax"). Sometimes, local rulers would also levy taxes for themselves, in addition to the taxes sent to the central authorities in
Constantinople
la, Constantinopolis ota, قسطنطينيه
, alternate_name = Byzantion (earlier Greek name), Nova Roma ("New Rome"), Miklagard/Miklagarth (Old Norse), Tsargrad ( Slavic), Qustantiniya ( Arabic), Basileuousa ("Queen of Cities"), Megalopolis ( ...
.
Later Ottoman era
![Brockhaus and Efron Jewish Encyclopedia e13 783-0](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a3/Brockhaus_and_Efron_Jewish_Encyclopedia_e13_783-0.jpg)
Jewish Salonikans had long benefited from the contribution of each of the ideas and knowledge of the various waves of Sephardic immigration, but this human contribution more or less dried up by the 17th century, and sank into a pattern of significant decline.
The
yeshivot
A yeshiva (; he, ישיבה, , sitting; pl. , or ) is a traditional Jewish education, Jewish educational institution focused on the study of Rabbinic literature, primarily the Talmud and halacha (Jewish law), while Torah and Jewish p ...
were always busy teaching, but their output was very formalistic. They published books on religion, but these had little original thought. A witness reported that "outside it is always endless matters of worship and commercial law that absorb their attention and bear the brunt of their studies and their research. Their works are generally a restatement of their predecessors' writings."
From the 15th century, a messianic current had developed in the Sephardic world; the
Redemption, marking the end of the world, which seemed imminent. This idea was fueled both by the economic decline of Salonika and the continued growth in
Kabbalistic studies based on the
Zohar booming in Salonican ''yeshivot''. The
end of time was announced successively in 1540 and 1568 and again in 1648 and 1666.
It is in this context that there arrived a young and brilliant Rabbi who had been expelled from nearby Smyrna:
Sabbatai Zevi
Sabbatai Zevi (; August 1, 1626 – c. September 17, 1676), also spelled Shabbetai Ẓevi, Shabbeṯāy Ṣeḇī, Shabsai Tzvi, Sabbatai Zvi, and ''Sabetay Sevi'' in Turkish, was a Jewish mystic and ordained rabbi from Smyrna (now İzmir, Turk ...
. Banned from this city in 1651 after proclaiming himself the messiah,
[''Encyclopedic Dictionary of Judaism'', Éditions du Cerf, Paris, 1993, article Sabbataï Tsevi] he came to Salonika, where his reputation as a scholar and Kabbalist grew very quickly.
[Gilles Veinstein, ''Salonique 1850–1918, la "ville des Juifs" et le réveil des Balkans'', p. 58–62.] The greatest numbers to follow him were members of the Shalom Synagogue, often former
marranos
Marranos were Spanish and Portuguese Jews living in the Iberian Peninsula who converted or were forced to convert to Christianity during the Middle Ages, but continued to practice Judaism in secrecy.
The term specifically refers to the cha ...
.
After several years of caution, he again caused a scandal when, during a solemn banquet in the courtyard of the Shalom Synagogue, he pronounced the
Tetragrammaton
The Tetragrammaton (; ), or Tetragram, is the four-letter Hebrew theonym (transliterated as YHWH), the name of God in the Hebrew Bible. The four letters, written and read from right to left (in Hebrew), are ''yodh'', '' he'', '' waw'', and ...
, ineffable in Jewish tradition, and introduced himself as the
Messiah son of King David.
The federal rabbinical council then drove him from the city, but Sabbatai Zevi went to disseminate his doctrine in other cities around the Sephardic world. His passage divided, as it did everywhere, Thessaloniki's Jewish community, and this situation caused so much turmoil that Sabbatai Zevi was summoned and imprisoned by the sultan. There, rather than prove his supernatural powers, he relented under fire, and instead converted to
Islam. The dramatic turn of events was interpreted in various ways by his followers, the
Sabbateans
The Sabbateans (or Sabbatians) were a variety of Jews, Jewish followers, disciples, and believers in Sabbatai Zevi (1626–1676),
a Sephardi Jews, Sephardic Jewish rabbi and Kabbalah, Kabbalist who was List of Jewish messiah claimants, proclai ...
. Some saw this as a sign and converted themselves, while others rejected his doctrine and returned to Judaism. Some, though, remained publicly faithful to Judaism while continuing to secretly follow the teachings of Sabbatai Zevi.
In Salonika, there were 300 families among the richest who decided in 1686 to embrace Islam before the rabbinical authorities could react, their conversion already having been happily accepted by the Ottoman authorities.
Therefore, those that the Turks gave the surname "
Dönme," ("renegades") themselves divided into three groups: Izmirlis, Kuniosos and Yacoubi,
[Francis Georgeon, ''Salonique 1850–1918, la "ville des Juifs" et le réveil des Balkans'', p. 115–118.] forming a new component of the Salonikan ethno-religious mosaic. Although they chose conversion, they did not assimilate with the Turks, practicing strict
endogamy
Endogamy is the practice of marrying within a specific social group, religious denomination, caste, or ethnic group, rejecting those from others as unsuitable for marriage or other close personal relationships.
Endogamy is common in many cultu ...
, living in separate quarters, building their own mosques and maintaining a specific liturgy in their language.
They participated in the 19th century in the spread of modernist ideas in the empire.
Then, as Turks, the Donme emigrated from the city following the assumption of power by the Greeks.
Modern times
![Salonica Jewish Fire Department May 11 1911 Fire Chief Selomo Barzion](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4e/Salonica_Jewish_Fire_Department_May_11_1911_Fire_Chief_Selomo_Barzion.jpg)
From the second half of the 19th century, the Jews of Salonika had a new revival. ''Frankos'', French and Italian Jews from
Livorno, were especially influential in introducing new methods of education and developing new schools and intellectual environment for the Jewish population. Such Western modernists introduced new techniques and ideas to the Balkans from the industrialized world.
Religion
A prime factor in the development of Salonika into an economic center was its complex rabbinical authority. This stemmed from, according to K.E. Fleming, the rabbis' openness and tolerance of different groups of people.
This is especially true of ''conversos,'' or Jews whose families converted to Christianity whilst living in Spain or Portugal in order to avoid persecution or potential expulsion. A common practice among conversos who wished to live in Salonika was the practice of ''Teshuvah''. This was the concept of Jews returning to Judaism after previously converting, or after an ancestor converted.
According to Fleming, the number of conversos returning to the faith whilst also immigrating to Salonika, made for a dynamic rabbinic establishment.
In many cases, the process of reconverting back to Judaism was automatic and it required no extended arbitration by the rabbis. The ''kehalim''—or congregations of Salonika—wanted to make sure that the process of ''Teshuvah'' was as smooth as possible for the participants.
The process had gone on for centuries before the modern era. Multiple responsums document the ''Teshuvah'' proceedings. In one instance, a converso man claimed that he was Jewish in his father's side and was accepted back into the Jewish faith.
This willingness to accept those back into the faith, made Salonika into an economic powerhouse, much to the ire of Greece. By the late 1800s, Salonika had grown to be much larger and more prosperous than Athens, and a target of Greek conquest.
Industrialization
From the 1880s the city began to industrialize, within the Ottoman Empire whose larger economy was declining. The entrepreneurs in Thessaloniki were mostly Jewish, unlike in other major Ottoman cities, where industrialization was led by other ethno-religious groups. The Italian Allatini brothers led Jewish entrepreneurship, establishing
milling and other food industries,
brickmaking, and processing plants for
tobacco
Tobacco is the common name of several plants in the genus '' Nicotiana'' of the family Solanaceae, and the general term for any product prepared from the cured leaves of these plants. More than 70 species of tobacco are known, but the ...
. Several traders supported the introduction of a large textile-production industry, superseding the weaving of cloth in a system of artisanal production.
With industrialization, many Salonikans of all faiths became factory workers, part of a new proletariat. Given their population in the city, a large Jewish working class developed. Employers hired labor without regard for religion or ethnicity, unlike the common practice in other parts of the Ottoman Empire. In the city, workers movements developed crossing ethnic lines; in later years, the labor movements here became marked by issues of nationalism and identity.
Haskalah
![Israelitas espagnoles vendedores de naranjas y semillas en Salonica](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/25/Israelitas_espagnoles_vendedores_de_naranjas_y_semillas_en_Salonica.jpg)
The
Haskalah
The ''Haskalah'', often termed Jewish Enlightenment ( he, השכלה; literally, "wisdom", "erudition" or "education"), was an intellectual movement among the Jews of Central and Eastern Europe, with a certain influence on those in Western Euro ...
, the movement of thought inspired by the Jewish
Enlightenment, touched the Ottoman world at the end of the 19th century, after its spread among Jewish populations of Western and Eastern Europe. These western groups helped stimulate the city's economic revival.
The ''
maskilim
The ''Haskalah'', often termed Jewish Enlightenment ( he, השכלה; literally, "wisdom", "erudition" or "education"), was an intellectual movement among the Jews of Central and Eastern Europe, with a certain influence on those in Western Euro ...
'' and
Moses Allatini
Moses hbo, מֹשֶׁה, Mōše; also known as Moshe or Moshe Rabbeinu (Mishnaic Hebrew: מֹשֶׁה רַבֵּינוּ, ); syr, ܡܘܫܐ, Mūše; ar, موسى, Mūsā; grc, Mωϋσῆς, Mōÿsēs () is considered the most important Prop ...
from
Livorno, Italy, brought new educational style. In 1856, with the help of the
Rothschilds, he founded a school, having gained consent of rabbis whom he had won over with major donations to charities. The Lippman School was a model institution headed by Professor Lippman, a progressive rabbi from
Strasbourg.
After five years, the school closed its doors and Lippman was pressured by the rabbinat, who disagreed with the school's innovative education methods. He trained numerous pupils who took over thereafter.
By 1862, Allatini led his brother Solomon Fernandez to found an Italian school, thanks to a donation by the Kingdom of Italy.
French attempts to introduce the educational network of the ''
Alliance Israélite Universelle
The Alliance Israélite Universelle (AIU; he, כל ישראל חברים; ) is a Paris-based international Jewish organization founded in 1860 with the purpose of safeguarding human rights for Jews around the world. It promotes the ideals of Jew ...
'' (IAU) failed against resistance by the rabbis, who did not want a Jewish school under the patronage of the French embassy. But the need for schools was so urgent that supporters were finally successful in 1874. Allatini became a member of the central committee of the IAU in Paris and its patron in Thessaloniki.
In 1912, nine new IAU schools IAU served the education of both boys and girls from kindergarten to high school; at the same time, the rabbinical seminaries were in decline. As a result, the
French language became more widely used within the Jewish community of Salonika.
These schools had instruction in both manual and intellectual training. They produced a generation familiar with the developments of the modern world, and able to enter the workforce of a company in the process of industrialization.
Political and social activism
![Workers March in Salonica 1908 - 1909](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5e/Workers_March_in_Salonica_1908_-_1909.jpg)
The Jewish community was pioneer in the establishment of the first newspapers in the city. Some of them included:
La Epoca
''La Epoca'' was a liberal weekly newspaper that operated in Guatemala for four months in 1988. In June, its offices were firebombed, and its senior staff fled the country. The office of ''La Epoca'' was destroyed by Guatemalan government backed ...
(1875), El Avenir, La Nation, La Liberdad, La Tribuna Libera, La Solidaridad Obradera, and after 1912, Avanti, La Nueva Epoca, El Liberal, El Consejero, El Combate, El Martillo, Pro Israel, La Esperanza, Accion, El Tiempo, El Macabeo, El Popular, El Professional, Messagero and many more.
The eruption of modernity was also expressed by the growing influence of new political ideas from Western Europe. The
Young Turk revolution
The Young Turk Revolution (July 1908) was a constitutionalist revolution in the Ottoman Empire. The Committee of Union and Progress (CUP), an organization of the Young Turks movement, forced Sultan Abdul Hamid II to restore the Ottoman Consti ...
of 1908 with its bases in Salonika proclaimed a
constitutional monarchy
A constitutional monarchy, parliamentary monarchy, or democratic monarchy is a form of monarchy in which the monarch exercises their authority in accordance with a constitution and is not alone in decision making. Constitutional monarchies dif ...
. The Jews did not remain indifferent to the enormous social and political change of the era, and were active most often in the social rather than national sphere. As the city began to take in the broader modern influences of the early 20th century, the movement of workers to organize and engage in social struggles for the improvement of working conditions began to spread. An attempt at union of different nationalities within a single labor movement took place with the formation of the
Socialist Workers' Federation
The Socialist Workers' Federation (french: Fédération Socialiste Ouvrière, lad, Federacion Socialista Laboradera, tr, Selanik Sosyalist İşçi Federasyonu), was a socialist organisation in the Salonica Vilayet of the Ottoman Empire (present- ...
led by
Avraam Benaroya, a Jew from Bulgaria, who started publication of a quadrilingual ''Journal of the worker'' aired in Ladino (''Journal del Labourador''), Ottoman Turkish (''Amele Gazetesi''), Bulgarian and Greek. However, the Balkan context was conducive to division, and affected the movement; after the departure of Bulgarian element, the Federation was heavily composed of Jews.
The Zionist movement thus faced competition for Jewish backing from the Socialist Workers' Federation, which was very antizionist. Unable to operate in the working class, Zionism in Salonika turned to the smaller group of the middle classes and intellectuals.
Greek administration
Salonika, Greek city
![Thessalonikki, Greece Street Scene 45](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3f/Thessalonikki%2C_Greece_Street_Scene_45.jpg)
In 1912, following the
First Balkan War
The First Balkan War ( sr, Први балкански рат, ''Prvi balkanski rat''; bg, Балканска война; el, Αʹ Βαλκανικός πόλεμος; tr, Birinci Balkan Savaşı) lasted from October 1912 to May 1913 and invo ...
, the Greeks took control of Salonika and eventually integrated the city in their territory. This change of sovereignty was not at first well received by the Jews, who feared that the annexation would lead to difficulties, a concern reinforced by Bulgarian propaganda, and by the
Serbia
Serbia (, ; Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia (Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Basin and the Balkans. It shares land borders with Hungar ...
ns, who wanted Austrian Jews to join their cause.
[ Rena Molho, ''Salonique 1850–1918, la "ville des Juifs" et le réveil des Balkans'', p. 68–78.] Some Jews fought for the internationalization of the city under the protection of the great European powers, but their proposal received little attention, Europe having accepted the ''fait accompli''. The Greek administration nevertheless took some measures to promote the integration of Jews
such as permitting them to work on Sundays and allowing them to observe
Shabbat. The economy benefitted from the annexation, which opened to Salonika the doors of markets in northern Greece and
Serbia
Serbia (, ; Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia (Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Basin and the Balkans. It shares land borders with Hungar ...
(with which Greece was in alliance), and by the influx of
Entente troops following the outbreak of
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
. The Greek government was positive towards the development of Zionism and the establishment of a Jewish home in Palestine, which converged with the Greek desire to dismember the Ottoman Empire. The city received the visit of Zionist leaders
David Ben-Gurion
David Ben-Gurion ( ; he, דָּוִד בֶּן-גּוּרִיּוֹן ; born David Grün; 16 October 1886 – 1 December 1973) was the primary national founder of the State of Israel and the first prime minister of Israel. Adopting the nam ...
,
Yitzhak Ben-Zvi
Yitzhak Ben-Zvi ( he, יִצְחָק בֶּן־צְבִי ''Yitshak Ben-Tsvi''; 24 November 188423 April 1963) was a historian, Labor Zionist leader and the longest-serving President of Israel.
Biography
Born in Poltava in the Russian Empir ...
and
Ze'ev Jabotinsky
Ze'ev Jabotinsky ( he, זְאֵב זַ׳בּוֹטִינְסְקִי, ''Ze'ev Zhabotinski'';, ''Wolf Zhabotinski'' 17 October 1880 – 3 August 1940), born Vladimir Yevgenyevich Zhabotinsky, was a Russian Jewish Revisionist Zionist leade ...
, who saw in Salonika a Jewish model that should inspire their future state.
At the same time, some among the local population at the time did not share their government's view. A witness, Jean Leune, correspondent for ''L'Illustration'' during the Balkan wars and then an army officer from the East, says:
Fire of 1917 and inter-communal tensions
![Pogrom-salonika](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/26/Pogrom-salonika.jpg)
The
Great Thessaloniki Fire of 1917
250px, The fire as seen from the quay in 1917.
250px, The fire as seen from the Thermaic Gulf.
The Great Thessaloniki Fire of 1917 ( el, Μεγάλη Πυρκαγιά της Θεσσαλονίκης, 1917) destroyed two thirds of the city of T ...
was a disaster for the community. The Jewish community was concentrated in the lower part of town and was thus the one most affected: the fire destroyed the seat of the Grand
Rabbi
A rabbi () is a spiritual leader or religious teacher in Judaism. One becomes a rabbi by being ordained by another rabbi – known as ''semikha'' – following a course of study of Jewish history and texts such as the Talmud. The basic form of ...
nate and its archives, as well as 16 of 33 synagogues in the city. 52,000 Jews were left homeless. One effect of the great fire was that nearly half of the city's Jewish homes and livelihoods were destroyed, leading to massive Jewish emigration. Many went to Palestine, others to Paris, while others found their way to the United States.
Opting for a different course from the reconstruction that had taken place after the fire of 1890, the Greek administration decided on a modern urban redevelopment plan by the Frenchman
Ernest Hebrard. Therefore, it expropriated all land from residents, giving them nevertheless a
right of first refusal
Right of first refusal (ROFR or RFR) is a contractual right that gives its holder the option to enter a business transaction with the owner of something, according to specified terms, before the owner is entitled to enter into that transactio ...
on new housing reconstructed according to a new plan. It was, however, the Greeks who mostly populated the new neighborhoods, while Jews often chose to resettle the city's new suburbs.
Although the first anniversary of the
Balfour Declaration was celebrated with a splendor unmatched in Europe, the decline had begun. The influx of tens of thousands of
Greek refugees
Greek refugees is a collective term used to refer to the more than one million Greek Orthodox natives of Asia Minor, Thrace and the Black Sea areas who fled during the Greek genocide (1914-1923) and Greece's later defeat in the Greco-Turkish War ...
from
Asia Minor
Anatolia, tr, Anadolu Yarımadası), and the Anatolian plateau, also known as Asia Minor, is a large peninsula in Western Asia and the westernmost protrusion of the Asian continent. It constitutes the major part of modern-day Turkey. The re ...
, and the departure of
Dönme Jews and Muslims from the region as a result of the
Greco-Turkish War (1919–1922) and the
Treaty of Lausanne (1923), significantly changed the ethnic composition of the city. The Jews ceased to constitute an absolute majority and, on the eve of the Second World War, they accounted for just 40% of the population.
During the period, a segment of the population began to demonstrate a less conciliatory policy towards the Jews. The Jewish population reacted by siding with the Greek monarchists during the Greek
National Schism
The National Schism ( el, Εθνικός Διχασμός, Ethnikós Dichasmós), also sometimes called The Great Division, was a series of disagreements between King Constantine I and Prime Minister Eleftherios Venizelos regarding the foreig ...
(opposing
Eleftherios Venizelos, who had the overwhelming support of refugees and the lower income classes). This would set the stage for a 20-year period during which the relationship of the Jews with the Greek state and people would oscillate as Greek politics changed.
In 1922, work was banned on Sunday (forcing Jews to either work on
Shabbat or lose income), posters in foreign languages were prohibited, and the authority of rabbinical courts to rule on commercial cases was taken away.
As in countries such as
Hungary
Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the ...
and
Romania
Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Moldova to the east, and ...
, a significant current of antisemitism grew in
inner Salonika, but "never reached the level of violence in these two countries".
It was very much driven by Greek arrivals from
Asia Minor
Anatolia, tr, Anadolu Yarımadası), and the Anatolian plateau, also known as Asia Minor, is a large peninsula in Western Asia and the westernmost protrusion of the Asian continent. It constitutes the major part of modern-day Turkey. The re ...
, mostly poor and in direct competition with Jews for housing and work.
This current of sentiment was, nevertheless, relayed by the ''
Makedonia'' daily, which was close to Venizelos' Liberal Party, and the
National Union of Greece
The National Union of Greece ( el, Εθνική Ένωσις Ελλάδος, Ethniki Enosis Ellados or EEE) was an anti-Semitic nationalist party established in Thessaloniki, Greece, in 1927.
Registered as a mutual aid society, the EEE was fou ...
(''Ethniki Enosis Ellados'', EEE) ultra-nationalist organization
accusing the Jewish population of not wanting to blend in with the Greek nation, and viewing the development of
Communism
Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a ...
and
Zionism
Zionism ( he, צִיּוֹנוּת ''Tsiyyonut'' after '' Zion'') is a nationalist movement that espouses the establishment of, and support for a homeland for the Jewish people centered in the area roughly corresponding to what is known in Je ...
in the community with suspicion. Venizelist Greek governments themselves largely adopted an ambivalent attitude, pursuing a policy of engagement while not distancing themselves unequivocally from the current of antisemitism.
In 1931, an antisemitic riot, led by
National Union of Greece
The National Union of Greece ( el, Εθνική Ένωσις Ελλάδος, Ethniki Enosis Ellados or EEE) was an anti-Semitic nationalist party established in Thessaloniki, Greece, in 1927.
Registered as a mutual aid society, the EEE was fou ...
, took place in Camp Campbell, where a Jewish neighborhood was completely burned, leaving 500 families homeless and one Jewish resident dead.
Under Metaxas
![Accion 10 May 1938](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d9/Accion_10_May_1938.jpg)
The seizure of power by dictator
Ioannis Metaxas
Ioannis Metaxas (; el, Ιωάννης Μεταξάς; 12th April 187129th January 1941) was a Greek military officer and politician who served as the Prime Minister of Greece from 1936 until his death in 1941. He governed constitutionally for t ...
in 1936 had a significant bearing on the pattern of Greek–Jewish relations in Thessaloniki. Metaxas' regime was not antisemitic; it perceived the
Venizelists and the
Communists
Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...
as its political enemies, and
Bulgaria
Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedo ...
as its major foreign enemy. This endeared Metaxas to two influential Jewish groups: the upper/middle classes, which felt threatened by organized labor and the socialist movement, and Jewish refugees who had fled Bulgaria and the
Bitola region during the Balkan Wars. Antisemitic organizations and publications were banned
[ Aristotle A. Kallis, ''The Jewish Community of Salonica Under Siege: The Antisemitic Violence of the Summer of 1931'', Oxford University Press, 2006] and support for the regime was sufficiently strong for a Jewish charter of the regime-sponsored
National Organisation of Youth (EON) to be formed. This reinforced the trend of national self-identification as Greeks among the Jews of Salonika, who had been Greek citizens since 1913. Even in the concentration camps, Greek Jews never ceased to affirm their sense of belonging to the Greek nation.
[Erika Perahia Zemour, ''Judaism lost and found'' Salonica, Pardès No. 28, Paris, 2000, pp. 153–154]
At the same time, the working-class poor of the Jewish community had joined forces with their Christian counterparts in the labor movement that developed in the 1930s, often the target of suppression during Metaxas' regime.
Avraam Benaroya was a leading figure in the Greek Socialist Movement, not only among Jews, but on a national level. Thus the forces of the period had worked to bridge the gaps between Christians and Jews, while creating new tensions among the different socioeconomic groups within the city and the country as a whole.
Emigration
Emigration of Jews from the city began when the
Young Turks pushed through the universal
conscription of all Ottoman subjects into the military irrespective of religion, a trend that continued to grow after the annexation of the city by Greece. Damage from the Thessaloniki fire, poor economic conditions, rise in antisemitism among a segment of the population, and the development of Zionism all motivated the departure of part of the city's Jewish population, mainly for
Western Europe
Western Europe is the western region of Europe. The region's countries and territories vary depending on context.
The concept of "the West" appeared in Europe in juxtaposition to "the East" and originally applied to the ancient Mediterranean ...
,
South America
South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the sout ...
and
Palestine. The Jewish population decreased from 93,000 people to 53,000 on the eve of the war. There were some notable successes among the community's diaspora.
Isaac Carasso
Isaac Carasso (1874 – 19 April 1939) was a member of the prominent Sephardic Jewish Carasso (Karasu) family of Ottoman Salonica (modern Thessaloniki, Greece). After emigrating to Barcelona, he started a yogurt factory which later became Grou ...
, reaching
Barcelona
Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...
, founded the
Danone
Danone S.A. () is a French multinational food-products corporation based in Paris. It was founded in Barcelona, Spain. It is listed on Euronext Paris where it is a component of the CAC 40 stock market index. Some of the company's products are ...
company.
Mordechai Mano became in Israel one of the pioneers in the maritime industry and Israeli economy in general.
[Mano Maritime Ltd. - Company Profile]
Dun's 100 ranking: Dun & Bradstreet Maurice Abravanel
Maurice Abravanel (January 6, 1903 – September 22, 1993) was an American classical music conductor. He is remembered as the conductor of the Utah Symphony Orchestra for over 30 years.
Life
Abravanel was born in Salonika, Rumelia Eyalet, Otto ...
went to Switzerland with his family and then to the United States where he became a famous
conductor. A future grandparent of the
French President
The president of France, officially the president of the French Republic (french: Président de la République française), is the executive head of state of France, and the commander-in-chief of the French Armed Forces. As the presidency is ...
Nicolas Sarkozy emigrated to France. In the interwar years, some Jewish families were to be found in the
9th arrondissement of
Paris, France
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. Si ...
; The seat of their association was located on the Rue La Fayette. In Palestine, the Recanati family established one of the most important banks of Israel, the ''Eretz Yisrael Discount Bank'', which later became the
Israel Discount Bank
Israel Discount Bank, Ltd. is a retail bank, commercial bank, private bank and financial services company headquartered in Tel Aviv with 112 branches throughout Israel.
Discount Bank is a public company traded on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange und ...
.
Second World War
Battle of Greece
On 28 October 1940, Italian forces invaded Greece following the refusal of the Greek dictator
Ioannis Metaxas
Ioannis Metaxas (; el, Ιωάννης Μεταξάς; 12th April 187129th January 1941) was a Greek military officer and politician who served as the Prime Minister of Greece from 1936 until his death in 1941. He governed constitutionally for t ...
to accept the ultimatum given by the Italians. In the resulting
Greco-Italian War
The Greco-Italian War (Greek: Ελληνοϊταλικός Πόλεμος, ''Ellinoïtalikós Pólemos''), also called the Italo-Greek War, Italian Campaign in Greece, and the War of '40 in Greece, took place between the kingdoms of Italy and G ...
and the subsequent
German invasion German invasion may refer to:
Pre-1900s
* German invasion of Hungary (1063)
World War I
* German invasion of Belgium (1914)
* German invasion of Luxembourg (1914)
World War II
* Invasion of Poland
* German invasion of Belgium (1940)
* G ...
, many of Thessaloniki's Jews took part. 12,898 men enlisted in the Greek army;
[Yitschak Kerem, ''Le Monde sépharade'', Volume I, p. 924–933] 4,000 participated in the campaigns in Albania and Macedonia; 513 fought against the Germans and, in total, 613 Jews were killed, including 174 from Salonika. The 50th Brigade of Macedonia was nicknamed "Cohen Battalion", reflecting the preponderance of Jews in its composition.
After the defeat of Greece, many Jewish soldiers suffered frostbite while returning home on foot.
Occupation
![Triple Occupation of Greece](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a0/Triple_Occupation_of_Greece.png)
Central Macedonia, including Thessaloniki, was occupied by the Germans, who entered the city on 9 April 1941. Antisemitic measures were only gradually introduced.
Max Merten, the German civil administrator for the city, continued to repeat that the
Nuremberg Laws
The Nuremberg Laws (german: link=no, Nürnberger Gesetze, ) were antisemitic and racist laws that were enacted in Nazi Germany on 15 September 1935, at a special meeting of the Reichstag convened during the annual Nuremberg Rally of ...
would not apply to Salonika.
[ Rena Molho, '' The policy of Germany against the Jews of Greece: the extermination of the Jewish community of Salonika (1941–1944)'', review of the history of the Holocaust published by the Center for Contemporary Jewish Documentation, Paris, 2006; n ° 185, p. 355–378] The Jewish press was quickly banned, while two pro-Nazi Greek dailies, ''Nea Evropi'' ("New Europe") and ''Apogevmatini'' ("Evening Press"), appeared. Some homes and community buildings were requisitioned by the occupying forces, including the Baron Hirsch Hospital. In late April, signs prohibiting Jews entry to cafés appeared. Jews were forced to turn in their radios.
The Grand Rabbi of Salonika,
Zvi Koretz, was arrested by the
Gestapo
The (), abbreviated Gestapo (; ), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe.
The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of Prussia into one orga ...
on 17 May 1941 and sent to a
Nazi concentration camp near
Vienna
en, Viennese
, iso_code = AT-9
, registration_plate = W
, postal_code_type = Postal code
, postal_code =
, timezone = CET
, utc_offset = +1
, timezone_DST ...
, from where he returned in late January 1942 to resume his position as rabbi.
[historical and cultural context. The coexistence between Jews and Greeks.'' By Jean-conference Carasso](_blank)
/ref> In June 1941, commissioner Alfred Rosenberg
Alfred Ernst Rosenberg ( – 16 October 1946) was a Baltic German Nazi theorist and ideologue. Rosenberg was first introduced to Adolf Hitler by Dietrich Eckart and he held several important posts in the Nazi government. He was the head o ...
arrived. He plundered Jewish archives, sending tons of documents to his pet project, the Institute for Study of the Jewish Question
The Institute for the Study of the Jewish Question (german: Institut zum Studium der Judenfrage) was founded in 1934 and was affiliated with the Reich Ministry of Propaganda under Joseph Goebbels. In 1939 the institution was called "Anti-Semitic ...
in Frankfurt.
Along with the other Greek urban communities, the Jews suffered a severe famine in the winter of 1941–42. The Nazi regime had not attached any importance to the Greek economy, food production or distribution. It is estimated that in 1941–1942 sixty Jews of the city died every day from hunger.
For a year, no further antisemitic action was taken. The momentary reprieve gave the Jews a temporary sense of security.
On July 11, 1942, known as the "Black Shabbat," all the men of the community aged 18 to 45 years were rounded up in Eleftherias Square (Freedom Square) in the city center. Throughout the afternoon, they were forced to do humiliating physical exercises at gunpoint. Four thousand of them were ordered to construct a road for the Germans, linking Thessaloniki to Kateríni and Larissa, a region rife with malaria
Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease that affects humans and other animals. Malaria causes symptoms that typically include fever, tiredness, vomiting, and headaches. In severe cases, it can cause jaundice, seizures, coma, or death. S ...
.
In less than ten weeks, 12% of them died of exhaustion and disease. In the meantime, the Thessalonikan community, with the help of Athens, managed to gather two billion drachmas towards the sum of 3.5 billion drachmas demanded by the Germans to ransom the forced laborers. The Germans agreed to release them for the lesser sum but, in return, demanded that the Greek authorities abandon the Jewish cemetery of Salonica
The Jewish cemetery of Salonica was established in the late fifteenth century by Sephardic Jews fleeing the expulsion of Jews from Spain, covered around and contained almost 500,000 burials. The cemetery's expropriation was envisioned in the urba ...
, containing 300,000 to 500,000 graves. Its size and location, they claimed, had long hampered urban growth.
The Jews transferred land in the periphery on which there were two graves. The municipal authorities, decrying the slow pace of the transfer, took matters into their own hands. Five hundred Greek workers, paid by the municipality, began with the destruction of tombs.[ Michael Molho, "El cementerio judío of Salónica" Sefarad, 9:1 (1949) p. 124–128] The cemetery was soon transformed into a vast quarry where Greeks and Germans sought gravestones for use as construction materials. Today this site is occupied by Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
Aristotle (; grc-gre, Ἀριστοτέλης ''Aristotélēs'', ; 384–322 BC) was a Greek philosopher and polymath during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. Taught by Plato, he was the founder of the Peripatetic school of phil ...
[web / thejews / pages / pages / necrop / necrop.htm Document](_blank)
Jewish Museum of Thessaloniki and other buildings.
It is estimated that from the beginning of the occupation to the end of deportations, 3,000–5,000 Jews managed to escape from Salonika, finding temporary refuge in the Italian zone. A recent study by the Jewish Museum of Greece
The Jewish Museum of Greece ( el, Εβραϊκό Μουσείο της Ελλάδος) is a museum in Athens, Greece. It was established by Nicholas Stavroulakis in 1977 to preserve the material culture of the Greek Jews.Plaut, Joshua Eli, Gree ...
found that 250 Jews of Thessaloniki took part in national resistance movements such as the Greek People's Liberation Army
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
, the National Liberation Front, and British-loyal units of the Greek Army.
Destruction of the Jews of Salonika
Salonika's 54,000 Jews were shipped to the Nazi extermination camp
Nazi Germany used six extermination camps (german: Vernichtungslager), also called death camps (), or killing centers (), in Central Europe during World War II to systematically murder over 2.7 million peoplemostly Jewsin the Holocaust. The v ...
s. More than 90% of the total Jewish population of the city were murdered during the war. Only the Polish Jews experienced a greater level of destruction.
Deportation
To carry out this operation, the Nazi authorities dispatched two specialists in the field, Alois Brunner
Alois Brunner (8 April 1912 – December 2001) was an Austrian (SS) SS-Hauptsturmführer who played a significant role in the implementation of the Holocaust through rounding up and deporting Jews in occupied Austria, Greece, Macedonia, France, ...
and Dieter Wisliceny, who arrived on February 6, 1943. They immediately applied the Nuremberg laws
The Nuremberg Laws (german: link=no, Nürnberger Gesetze, ) were antisemitic and racist laws that were enacted in Nazi Germany on 15 September 1935, at a special meeting of the Reichstag convened during the annual Nuremberg Rally of ...
in all their rigor, imposing the display of the yellow badge
Yellow badges (or yellow patches), also referred to as Jewish badges (german: Judenstern, lit=Jew's star), are badges that Jews were ordered to wear at various times during the Middle Ages by some caliphates, at various times during the Medieva ...
and drastically restricting the Jews' freedom of movement. Toward the end of February 1943, they were rounded up in three ghetto
A ghetto, often called ''the'' ghetto, is a part of a city in which members of a minority group live, especially as a result of political, social, legal, environmental or economic pressure. Ghettos are often known for being more impoverished t ...
s (Kalamaria, Singrou and Vardar / Agia Paraskevi) and then transferred to a transit camp, called the Baron Hirsch ghetto
The history of the Jews of Thessaloniki reaches back two thousand years. The city of Thessaloniki (also known as Salonika) housed a major Jewish community, mostly Eastern Sephardim, until the middle of the Second World War. Sephardic Jews immig ...
or camp, which was adjacent to a train station. There, the death trains were waiting. To accomplish their mission, the SS relied on a Jewish police created for the occasion, led by Vital Hasson, which was the source of numerous abuses against the rest of the Jews.
The first convoy departed on March 15. Each train carried 1000–4000 Jews across the whole of central Europe
Central Europe is an area of Europe between Western Europe and Eastern Europe, based on a common historical, social and cultural identity. The Thirty Years' War (1618–1648) between Catholicism and Protestantism significantly shaped the a ...
, mainly to Auschwitz. A total of 48,974 Greek Jews, most from Salonika, would eventually be sent to the camp, where nearly all perished. A convoy of 4,000 Jews also left for Treblinka
Treblinka () was an extermination camp, built and operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland during World War II. It was in a forest north-east of Warsaw, south of the village of Treblinka in what is now the Masovian Voivodeship. The cam ...
. The Jewish population of Salonika was so large that the deportation took several months until it was completed, which occurred on August 7 with the deportation of Chief Rabbi Zvi Koretz and other notables to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp
Bergen-Belsen , or Belsen, was a Nazi concentration camp in what is today Lower Saxony in northern Germany, southwest of the town of Bergen near Celle. Originally established as a prisoner of war camp, in 1943, parts of it became a concentra ...
, under relatively good conditions. In the same convoy were 367 Jews protected by their Spanish nationality, who had a unique destiny: they were transferred from Bergen-Belsen to Barcelona
Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...
, and then Morocco
Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria t ...
, with some finally reaching the British Mandate of Palestine British Mandate of Palestine or Palestine Mandate most often refers to:
* Mandate for Palestine: a League of Nations mandate under which the British controlled an area which included Mandatory Palestine and the Emirate of Transjordan.
* Mandatory P ...
.[Greece_in_the_WW2.html Refujiados of Gresia i Rodes in Maroko durante la II Gerra Mundiala](_blank)
by Yitshak Gershon, Aki Yerushalayim
''Aki Yerushalayim'' (; meaning 'Here Jerusalem') is an Israeli magazine in Judaeo-Spanish (Ladino) published in print two to three times a year between 1979 and 2016, and exclusively online since 2019.
History
''Aki Yerushalayim'' began releas ...
, 1995, pp. 42–45.
Factors explaining the effectiveness of the deportations
Much of the discussion about the reasons for the high percentage of Jewish losses in Thessaloniki have been advanced in contrast to the case of Athens, where a large proportion of Jews managed to escape death. However, this only gives a partial picture as other Jewish communities in Greece with different characteristics, such as Ioannina, Corfu and Rhodes
Rhodes (; el, Ρόδος , translit=Ródos ) is the largest and the historical capital of the Dodecanese islands of Greece. Administratively, the island forms a separate municipality within the Rhodes regional unit, which is part of the S ...
, also experienced very heavy losses.
An often quoted reason focuses on the attitude of the Judenrat
A ''Judenrat'' (, "Jewish council") was a World War II administrative agency imposed by Nazi Germany on Jewish communities across occupied Europe, principally within the Nazi ghettos. The Germans required Jews to form a ''Judenrat'' in every c ...
, and of its leader in the period prior to the deportations, the chief rabbi Zvi Koretz, has been heavily criticized. He was accused of having responded passively to the Nazis and downplayed the fears of Jews when their transfer to Poland was ordered. As an Austrian citizen and therefore a native German speaker, he was thought to be well-informed.[Minna Rozen, "Jews and Greeks Remember Their Past: The Political Career of Tzevi Koretz (193343)", ''Jewish Social Studies'', Volume 12, Number 1, Fall 2005 ( New Series), pp. 111–166] Koretz has also been accused of having knowingly collaborated with the occupiers. However, several new studies tend to diminish his role in the deportations.
Another factor was the solidarity shown by the families who refused to be separated. This desire undermined individual initiatives. Some older Jews also had difficulty remaining in hiding because of their lack of knowledge of the Greek language, which had only become the city's dominant language after annexation by Greece in 1913. Additionally, the large size of the Jewish population rendered impossible the tactic of blending into the Greek Orthodox population, as in Athens.
Again in contrast to Athens, there was also a latent antisemitism among a segment of the Greek population, in particular among the refugees from Asia Minor. When these immigrants arrived en masse in Salonika, they were excluded from the economic system. Consequently, some of these outcasts watched the Jewish population with hostility. The Jewish people were more economically integrated and therefore better off, which the immigrants equated with the former Ottoman power.
A reason that is a lot more plausible is the lack of solidarity from the city's Greek Christian population. Rabbi Molho spoke of only a handful of Greek Christians who saved Jews in Thessaloniki. It is reported that just 10 Jewish families found shelter in the city. This attitude of the local population, which included the Church, the city authorities and the professional associations, has been noted by several historians in the recent years. The resistance was also not very well developed at the time, and few Jews could realistically make the journey to the mountains.
Nevertheless, Yad Vashem
Yad Vashem ( he, יָד וַשֵׁם; literally, "a memorial and a name") is Israel's official memorial to the victims of the Holocaust. It is dedicated to preserving the memory of the Jews who were murdered; honoring Jews who fought against th ...
has identified 265 Greek righteous among the nations
Righteous Among the Nations ( he, חֲסִידֵי אֻמּוֹת הָעוֹלָם, ; "righteous (plural) of the world's nations") is an honorific used by the State of Israel to describe non-Jews who risked their lives during the Holocaust to sa ...
, the same proportion as among the French population.
In the camps
At Birkenau, about 37,000 Salonicans were gassed immediately, especially women, children and the elderly. Nearly a quarter of all 400 experiments perpetrated on the Jews were on Greek Jews, especially those from Salonika. These experiments included emasculation and implantation of cervical cancer in women. Most of the twins died following atrocious crimes. Others from the community last worked in the camps. In the years 1943–1944, they accounted for a significant proportion of the workforce of Birkenau, making up to 11,000 of the labourers. Because of their unfamiliarity with Yiddish
Yiddish (, or , ''yidish'' or ''idish'', , ; , ''Yidish-Taytsh'', ) is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated during the 9th century in Central Europe, providing the nascent Ashkenazi community with a ve ...
, Jews from Greece were sent to clean up the rubble of the Warsaw Ghetto
The Warsaw Ghetto (german: Warschauer Ghetto, officially , "Jewish Residential District in Warsaw"; pl, getto warszawskie) was the largest of the Nazi ghettos during World War II and the Holocaust. It was established in November 1940 by the G ...
in August 1943 in order to build a Warsaw concentration camp
The Warsaw concentration camp (; see other names) was a German concentration camp in occupied Poland during World War II, formed on the base of the now-nonexistent Gęsiówka prison, in what is today the Warsaw neighbourhood of Muranów. I ...
. Among the 1,000 Salonican Jews employed on the task, a group of twenty managed to escape from the ghetto and join the Polish resistance, the '' Armia Krajowa'', which organized the Warsaw Uprising
The Warsaw Uprising ( pl, powstanie warszawskie; german: Warschauer Aufstand) was a major World War II operation by the Polish underground resistance to liberate Warsaw from German occupation. It occurred in the summer of 1944, and it was led ...
.
Many Jews from Salonika were also integrated into the Sonderkommandos. On 7 October 1944, they attacked German forces with other Greek Jews, in an uprising planned in advance, storming the crematoria and killing about twenty guards. A bomb was thrown into the furnace of the crematorium III, destroying the building. Before being massacred by the Germans, insurgents sang a song of the Greek partisan movement and the Greek National Anthem.
In his book ''If This Is a Man
''If This Is a Man'' ( it, Se questo è un uomo ; United States title: ''Survival in Auschwitz'') is a memoir by Italian Jewish writer Primo Levi, first published in 1947. It describes his arrest as a member of the Italian anti-fascist resis ...
'', one of the most famous works of literature of the Holocaust, Primo Levi
Primo Michele Levi (; 31 July 1919 – 11 April 1987) was an Italian chemist, partisan, writer, and Jewish Holocaust survivor. He was the author of several books, collections of short stories, essays, poems and one novel. His best-known works ...
describes the group thus: "those Greeks, motionless and silent as the Sphinx, crouched on the ground behind their thick pot of soup".[Primo Levi, ''If This Is a Man'', Julliard, 2007, pp. 121–122 (Chapter: Because of good and evil)] Those members of the community still alive during 1944 made a strong impression on the author. He noted: "Despite their low numbers their contribution to the overall appearance of the camp and the international jargon is spoken is of prime importance". He described a strong patriotic sense among them, writing that their ability to survive in the camps was partly explained by "they are among the cohesive of the national groups, and from this point of view the most advanced".
Post World War II
File:Saloniki Holocaust memorial.jpg, Holocaust memorial in Thessaloniki
File:Jewish museum thessaloniki sign.jpg, Jewish Museum of Thessaloniki
The Jewish Museum of Thessaloniki ( el, Εβραϊκό Μουσείο Θεσσαλονίκης, lad, Museo Djidio De Salonik) is a museum in Thessaloniki, Central Macedonia, Greece presenting the history of Sephardic Jews and Jewish life in ...
File:Monastir Synagogue.JPG, Monastir Synagogue
File:Saloniki Jewish school entrance.jpg, Jewish school entrance
File:Saloniki Holocaust memorial in the cemetery.jpg, Holocaust memorial in the New Jewish Cemetery
At the end of the Second World War, a violent civil war
A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country).
The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...
broke out in Greece. It lasted until 1949, with forces in Athens supported by the British opposition to the powerful Communist ELAS. Some of the Jews of Thessaloniki who had escaped deportation took part in it, either on the government or on the opposition side.[Retorno del Inferno](_blank)
Braha Rivlin, ''Aki Yerushalayim
''Aki Yerushalayim'' (; meaning 'Here Jerusalem') is an Israeli magazine in Judaeo-Spanish (Ladino) published in print two to three times a year between 1979 and 2016, and exclusively online since 2019.
History
''Aki Yerushalayim'' began releas ...
'', No. 49–50, 1995. Among those who fought in the ELAS many were victims, like other supporters, of the repression that fell on the country after the government had regained control of the situation.
Among the few survivors of the camps, some chose to return to Greece and others emigrated to Western Europe, America or the Palestine Mandate. They were all faced with great difficulties in surviving, as both Greece and all Europe were in a chaotic state in the immediate aftermath of war. They also suffered discrimination from some Ashkenazi survivors who cast doubt on their Jewishness.
The return to Thessaloniki was a shock. Returnees were often the sole survivors from their families. They returned to find their homes occupied by Christian families who had purchased them from the Germans. Initially, they were housed in synagogues. A Jewish Committee was formed to identify the number of survivors, and obtained a list from the Bank of Greece of 1,800 houses that had been sold to Christians. The new owners were reluctant to surrender their new dwellings, saying they had legally purchased the houses and that they too had suffered from war. When the war ended, the communist ELAS, which at the time controlled the city, favored the immediate return of Jewish property to its rightful owners.[Mark Mazower, ''Salonica city of ghosts'', p. 422–425.] Four months later, when the new British-supported right wing government in Athens came to power in Thessaloniki instead, restitution was cumulatively halted. Not only was the government faced with a major housing crisis due to the influx of refugees caused by war, but a number of individuals who had been enriched during the war were also influential in the new right wing administration, with the government's view favouring strengthening all anticommunist ties by adopting a more conciliatory approach to any former collaborators. The Jewish Agency
The Jewish Agency for Israel ( he, הסוכנות היהודית לארץ ישראל, translit=HaSochnut HaYehudit L'Eretz Yisra'el) formerly known as The Jewish Agency for Palestine, is the largest Jewish non-profit organization in the world. ...
denounced such policies of the postwar administration, and pleaded for the cause of the '' Aliyah'' Jews. The World Jewish Congress
The World Jewish Congress (WJC) was founded in Geneva, Switzerland in August 1936 as an international federation of Jewish communities and organizations. According to its mission statement, the World Jewish Congress' main purpose is to act as ...
also aided the Jews of the city; some of the Jews saved from deportation by Greeks chose to convert to Orthodoxy. Some isolated survivors of the camps made the same choice. There were also several marriages among the post-war survivors. One survivor testified:
I returned to a Salonika destroyed. I was hoping to find my adopted brother, but rumor told that he had died of malaria in Lublin. I already knew that my parents had been burned on their first day at the extermination camp of Auschwitz. I was alone. Other prisoners who were with me had nobody either. These days, I am with a young man that I had known in Brussels
Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...
. We do not separate from each other. We were both survivors of the camps. Shortly after, we married, two refugees who had nothing, there was not even a rabbi to give us the blessing. The director of one of the Jewish schools served as a rabbi and we married, and so I started a new life.
1,783 survivors were listed in the 1951 census.
A monument in Thessaloniki to the tragedy of the deportation was erected in 1997.[Mark Mazower, ''Salonica city of ghosts'' p. 437–438.]
In 1998, King Juan Carlos I of Spain
Juan Carlos I (;,
* ca, Joan Carles I,
* gl, Xoán Carlos I, Juan Carlos Alfonso Víctor María de Borbón y Borbón-Dos Sicilias, born 5 January 1938) is a member of the Spanish royal family who reigned as King of Spain from 22 Novem ...
went to the city, where he paid tribute to the Sephardic Jews. The visit followed one he had undertaken at the synagogue of Madrid
Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the Largest cities of the Europ ...
in 1992 to commemorate the expulsion of 1492, at which he condemned the decree of expulsion from Spain.
Following the requests of Professors at the Aristotle University, a memorial to the Jewish cemetery lying beneath the foundations of the institution was unveiled in 2014.
Today, around 1,300 Jews live in Thessaloniki, making it the second largest Jewish community in Greece after Athens.
Israel
Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...
i singer Yehuda Poliker recorded a song about the deported Jews of Thessaloniki, called 'Wait for me Thessaloniki'.
The community of Thessaloniki accused Germany to repay the manumission payments that the Jews of Greece paid to rescue their family members, after the Nazis demanded this money. Nevertheless, the Nazis did not let them free. The European Court of Justice dismissed this petition.
The Jewish community of Thessaloniki demands from the Deutsche Bahn (the German railway) which is the successor of the Deutsche Reichsbahn
The ''Deutsche Reichsbahn'', also known as the German National Railway, the German State Railway, German Reich Railway, and the German Imperial Railway, was the German national railway system created after the end of World War I from the regiona ...
to reimburse to heirs of Greek Holocaust victims of Thessaloniki for train fares that they were forced to pay for their deportation from Thessaloniki to Auschwitz and Treblinka between March and August 1943.
The Jewish community of Greece makes great efforts to establish a Holocaust Museum in Thessaloniki. A permanent pavilion about the Holocaust of Greek Jews in KZ Auschwitz shall be installed.
A Delegation and the President of the Jewish communities of Greece met in November 2016 with Greek politicians and asked them for support in their demand to get back the community archives of the Jewish community of Thessaloniki from Moscow
Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 millio ...
.
Diaspora
Today, there are communities of Salonican Jews found in the United States and Israel that preserve the customs of the Jews of Salonika.
Israel
File:Salonica memorial.jpg, Salonica Holocaust memorial, Holon cemetery, Israel
File:Thessaloniki's community Synagogue in Shapira neighborhood.jpg, Thessaloniki's Jewish community Synagogue, Shapira neighborhood, Tel Aviv. Founded in 1936
File:PikiWiki Israel 5505 Landscapes of Israel - Mini Israel.JPG, Hechal Yehuda Synagogue
The Hechal Yehuda Synagogue ( he, בית הכנסת היכל יהודה, ''Beit haKnesset Hekhal, Hechal Yehuda''), also commonly known as the Recanati synagogue ( he, בית הכנסת רקנטי, ''Beit haKnesset Recanati''), is one of approxim ...
. Completed in 1980
Hechal Yehuda Synagogue
The Hechal Yehuda Synagogue ( he, בית הכנסת היכל יהודה, ''Beit haKnesset Hekhal, Hechal Yehuda''), also commonly known as the Recanati synagogue ( he, בית הכנסת רקנטי, ''Beit haKnesset Recanati''), is one of approxim ...
was founded by Jews from Salonika in Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv-Yafo ( he, תֵּל־אָבִיב-יָפוֹ, translit=Tēl-ʾĀvīv-Yāfō ; ar, تَلّ أَبِيب – يَافَا, translit=Tall ʾAbīb-Yāfā, links=no), often referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the ...
. It maintains the customs of Salonikan music and prayer.
United States
Congregation Etz Ahaim, a Sephardic congregation, was founded in 1921 by Jews from Salonika in New Brunswick, New Jersey. It is now located in Highland Park, New Jersey
Highland Park is a borough in Middlesex County, New Jersey, United States in the New York City metropolitan area. The borough is located on the northern banks of the Raritan River, in the Raritan Valley region. As of the 2020 United States Cens ...
. The reader chants the Aramaic
The Aramaic languages, short Aramaic ( syc, ܐܪܡܝܐ, Arāmāyā; oar, 𐤀𐤓𐤌𐤉𐤀; arc, 𐡀𐡓𐡌𐡉𐡀; tmr, אֲרָמִית), are a language family containing many varieties (languages and dialects) that originated in ...
prayer ''B'rich Shemei'' in Ladino before taking out the Torah
The Torah (; hbo, ''Tōrā'', "Instruction", "Teaching" or "Law") is the compilation of the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, namely the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. In that sense, Torah means the ...
on Shabbat; it is known as ''Bendicho su Nombre'' in Ladino. Additionally, at the end of Shabbat services, the entire congregation sings the well-known Hebrew
Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...
hymn ''Ein Keloheinu'' as ''Non Como Muestro Dio'' in Ladino.
Actress and singer Lea Michele was featured in an episode of the show ''Who Do You Think You Are'', where she learned about her Salonican Jewish ancestry. Her family, now living in the United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
, is part of the diaspora of Salonican Jews.
United Kingdom
Prior to World War I Jews from Salonika and Istanbul arrived in London. They settled in west London opening a synagogue in Holland Park in 1928. The community still uses Ladino prayers although very few still speak the language. Over the years they adopted the customs and music of the local Spanish and Portuguese community but on the High Holidays have largely preserved the tunes and liturgy of their forefathers.
Culture
Language
Generally, Jews who emigrated adopted the language of their new country, but this was not true of the Sepharadim of the Ottoman Empire, who arrived en masse, and retained the use of their language. The Jews of Salonika thus are known to have used Spanish, the Judeo-Spanish (''djudezmo''), that is neither more nor less than a dialect of Spanish having evolved independently since the 15th century. They prayed and studied in Hebrew
Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...
and Aramaic
The Aramaic languages, short Aramaic ( syc, ܐܪܡܝܐ, Arāmāyā; oar, 𐤀𐤓𐤌𐤉𐤀; arc, 𐡀𐡓𐡌𐡉𐡀; tmr, אֲרָמִית), are a language family containing many varieties (languages and dialects) that originated in ...
and used, as do all other Sephardic communities, what Haïm Vidal Sephiha called the language "layer", Ladino, which consisted of a Hebrew translation of texts into a Spanish respecting a Hebrew word order and syntax.[ Haim Vidal Séphiha, ''Salonique 1850–1918, la "ville des Juifs" et le réveil des Balkans'', p. 79–95.] These two languages, djudezmo and Ladino, were written in Hebrew characters as well as Latin characters. In addition to these languages that had evolved in exile, the Jews of Salonika sometimes spoke Turkish, the language of the Ottoman Empire, written in Arabic characters. The haskala
The ''Haskalah'', often termed Jewish Enlightenment ( he, השכלה; literally, "wisdom", "erudition" or "education"), was an intellectual movement among the Jews of Central and Eastern Europe, with a certain influence on those in Western Euro ...
taught by the French Jews has, in turn, encouraged teaching the French language in Alliance Israélite Universelle
The Alliance Israélite Universelle (AIU; he, כל ישראל חברים; ) is a Paris-based international Jewish organization founded in 1860 with the purpose of safeguarding human rights for Jews around the world. It promotes the ideals of Jew ...
schools. Italian is also taught to a lesser extent. After the Greeks took Salonika in 1912, Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
was taught at school and has been spoken by several generations of Jewish Salonicans. Today it is the language that predominates among Thessalonian Jews.
Modern Salonican ''djudezmo'' now include phrases from various other immigrant groups including Italian. French phrases have also become popular to the point that Prof. Haïm-Vidal Séphiha speaks of "judéo-fragnol."
Some Jewish family surnames of the past or present include: Allatini, Arouch, Carasso, Cohen, Florentin, Kapon, Levy, Mallah, Modiano, Nahmias, Salem, Saltiel, Sason, Zacharia, while of Spanish
Spanish might refer to:
* Items from or related to Spain:
**Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain
**Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries
**Spanish cuisine
Other places
* Spanish, Ontario, Can ...
origin are the: Algaba, Benrubi, Beraha, Buenaventura, Cuenca, Curiel, Errera, Molcho, Navarro, Saporta, Saragussi, Ventura etc.
Music
The Jews of the city, and especially the Sephardis, had a long and notable musical tradition with its roots in the medieval Andalusia
Andalusia (, ; es, Andalucía ) is the southernmost autonomous community in Peninsular Spain. It is the most populous and the second-largest autonomous community in the country. It is officially recognised as a "historical nationality". The t ...
. Nowadays, artists like Françoise Atlan
Françoise Atlan ( in Hebrew, in Arabic) is a French singer and ethnomusicologist, born in a Sephardic Jewish family in Narbonne, France on 27 July 1964. Her father was a lawyer and native of Béjaïa, Algeria, and her mother was a pianist and a ...
, Yasmin Levy
Yasmin Levy ( he, יסמין לוי; born December 23, 1975) is an Israeli singer-songwriter of Judeo-Spanish music.
Biography
Yasmin Levy was born on December 23, 1975, in Baka, Jerusalem. She is of Sephardic Jewish descent. Her parents were A ...
, David Saltiel and Savina Yannatou make efforts for its revival.
Cuisine
The sociologist Edgar Morin
Edgar Morin (; ; born Edgar Nahoum; 8 July 1921) is a French philosopher and sociologist of the theory of information who has been recognized for his work on complexity and "complex thought" ( pensée complexe), and for his scholarly contributio ...
said that the core of every culture is its cuisine, and that this applies especially to the Jews of Salonika, the community from which he descends.[Méri Badi, ''Salonique 1850–1918, la "ville des Juifs" et le réveil des Balkans'', p. 96–101.]
The cuisine of the Jews of the city was a variant of the Judeo-Spanish cuisine, which is itself influenced by the large ensemble of Mediterranean cuisine. It was influenced by the Jewish dietary rules of kashrut, which include prohibitions on the consumption of pork
Pork is the culinary name for the meat of the domestic pig (''Sus domesticus''). It is the most commonly consumed meat worldwide, with evidence of pig husbandry dating back to 5000 BCE.
Pork is eaten both freshly cooked and preserved; ...
and mixtures of dairy and meat products, and religious holidays that require the preparation of special dishes. However, its key feature was its Iberian influence. Fish
Fish are aquatic, craniate, gill-bearing animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish as well as various extinct related groups. Approximately 95% of ...
, abundant in this port city, was consumed in large quantities and in all forms: fried, baked ("''al orno''"), marinated or braised ("''abafado''"), and was often accompanied by complex sauces. Seen as a symbol of fertility, fish was used in a marriage rite called ''dia del peche'' ("day of fish") on the last day of wedding ceremonies, in which the bride stepped over a large dish of fish that was then consumed by the guests. Vegetables accompanied all the dishes, especially onions; garlic was on hand but was not used, since the Ashkenazic synagogues were major consumers of garlic and had been given the nickname "''El kal del ajo''," "the garlic synagogue." Greek yogurt
Strained yogurt, Greek yogurt, yogurt cheese, sack yogurt, or kerned yogurt is yogurt that has been strained to remove most of its whey, resulting in a thicker consistency than normal unstrained yogurt, while still preserving the distinctive so ...
, widely consumed in the Balkans and Anatolia
Anatolia, tr, Anadolu Yarımadası), and the Anatolian plateau, also known as Asia Minor, is a large peninsula in Western Asia and the westernmost protrusion of the Asian continent. It constitutes the major part of modern-day Turkey. The ...
, was also appreciated, as well as cream and '' Pan di Spagna''.
In anticipation of Shabbat, ''hamin
Cholent and other Sabbath stews ( yi, טשאָלנט, tsholnt ''or'' tshulnt) are traditional Jewish stews. It is usually simmered overnight for 10–12 hours or more, and eaten for lunch on Shabbat (the Sabbath). Shabbat stews were develope ...
'' was prepared. A Judeo-Spanish variant of the Ashkenazi cholent
Cholent and other Sabbath stews ( yi, טשאָלנט, tsholnt ''or'' tshulnt) are traditional Jewish stews. It is usually simmered overnight for 10–12 hours or more, and eaten for lunch on Shabbat (the Sabbath). Shabbat stews were develope ...
and the North African dafina, ''chamin'' was a meat stew with vegetables (wheat, chickpeas, white beans) that were let simmer until the Saturday midday meal. In preparation for Passover
Passover, also called Pesach (; ), is a major Jewish holiday that celebrates the Biblical story of the Israelites escape from slavery in Egypt, which occurs on the 15th day of the Hebrew month of Nisan, the first month of Aviv, or spring. ...
, housewives filled locked chests with sweets, figs and dates stuffed with almonds, marzipan and the popular ''chape blanche'' (white jam), which consisted of sugar water and lemon. Wine was reserved for religious rituals, but Sephardim, like their Greek and Muslim neighbors, were major consumers of raki. They also favored sugary drinks made of prune, cherry and apricot syrup, which they drank at the end of the large festive meal.
Notable Thessalonian Jews
* Aaron Abiob, rabbi
*Alberto Abravanel
Alberto is the Romance languages, Romance version of the Latinized form (''Albertus'') of Germanic languages, Germanic ''Albert (given name), Albert''. It is used in Italian language, Italian, Portuguese language, Portuguese and Spanish language, ...
, father of Silvio Santos
Senor Abravanel, known professionally as Silvio Santos (Portuguese: /ˈsiwvju ˈsɐ̃tus/) (born December 12, 1930), is a Brazilian entrepreneur, media tycoon and television host. He is the owner of holdings that include SBT, the second largest ...
and descendant of Isaac Abarbanel
Isaac ben Judah Abarbanel ( he, יצחק בן יהודה אברבנאל; 1437–1508), commonly referred to as Abarbanel (), also spelled Abravanel, Avravanel, or Abrabanel, was a Portuguese Jewish statesman, philosopher, Bible commentato ...
*Maurice Abravanel
Maurice Abravanel (January 6, 1903 – September 22, 1993) was an American classical music conductor. He is remembered as the conductor of the Utah Symphony Orchestra for over 30 years.
Life
Abravanel was born in Salonika, Rumelia Eyalet, Otto ...
, conductor of classical music
* Shlomo Halevi Alkabetz, rabbi
*Moses Allatini
Moses hbo, מֹשֶׁה, Mōše; also known as Moshe or Moshe Rabbeinu (Mishnaic Hebrew: מֹשֶׁה רַבֵּינוּ, ); syr, ܡܘܫܐ, Mūše; ar, موسى, Mūsā; grc, Mωϋσῆς, Mōÿsēs () is considered the most important Prop ...
, founder of Allatini (company) {{refimprove, date=July 2014
Allatini is the name of a historic flour milling company, founded in 1858 by Moses Allatini and his brother, in Thessaloniki, Greece.
The company had two industry sectors; ceramic production in Charilaou and flour mi ...
/Allatini Mills
The Allatini Mills is a large former industrial area in the city of Thessaloniki, Greece near Kalamaria district.
The name comes from the famous Allatini flourmills founded by the Allatini family in the late 19th century.
Moses Allatini operated ...
* Moses Almosnino, rabbi
*Saul Amarel Saul Amarel (1928 – December 18, 2002) was a professor of computer science at Rutgers University, and best known for his pioneering work in artificial intelligence (AI). He also had a career as a scientist, engineer, and teacher. He was a contribu ...
, pioneer of artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence (AI) is intelligence—perceiving, synthesizing, and inferring information—demonstrated by machines, as opposed to intelligence displayed by animals and humans. Example tasks in which this is done include speech r ...
* Salamo Arouch, boxer of Maccabi Thessaloniki
Maccabi Thessaloniki is a multi-sport club in the city of Thessaloniki, historically representing the Jewish community of the city. It maintains or maintained departments of football, basketball, volleyball, athletics, Olympic weightlifting, tab ...
and Aris Thessaloniki
Athlitikos Syllogos Aris Thessalonikis, means Athletic Club Aris Thessaloniki
...
*Isaac Benrubi Isaak Benrubi (24 May 1876 in Thessaloniki – October 19 1943 in Geneva) was a philosopher from the Ottoman city of Thessaloniki, he opposed the conventional character of the act of knowing in "subject" and "object" to the reality that is intereste ...
, philosopher
*Albert Bourla
Albert Bourla ( el, Άλμπερτ Μπουρλά; born ) is a Greek-American veterinarian and the chairman and chief executive officer of Pfizer, an American pharmaceutical company. He joined the company in 1993 and has held several executive ro ...
, CEO of Pfizer
Pfizer Inc. ( ) is an American multinational pharmaceutical and biotechnology corporation headquartered on 42nd Street in Manhattan, New York City. The company was established in 1849 in New York by two German entrepreneurs, Charles Pfizer ...
*Isaac Carasso
Isaac Carasso (1874 – 19 April 1939) was a member of the prominent Sephardic Jewish Carasso (Karasu) family of Ottoman Salonica (modern Thessaloniki, Greece). After emigrating to Barcelona, he started a yogurt factory which later became Grou ...
, started a yogurt factory which later became Groupe Danone
A group is a military unit or a military formation that is most often associated with military aviation.
Air and aviation groups
The terms group and wing differ significantly from one country to another, as well as between different branches o ...
*Daniel Carasso Daniel Carasso (December 16, 1905 – May 17, 2009) was a French American member of the prominent Sephardic Jewish Carasso family and the son of Isaac Carasso, founder of the (now) multinational Danone.
Biography
Carasso, son of Isaac Carasso, wa ...
* Alberto Couriel, socialist politician and Member of the Hellenic Parliament with Federation
A federation (also known as a federal state) is a political entity characterized by a union of partially self-governing provinces, states, or other regions under a central federal government ( federalism). In a federation, the self-govern ...
* Alberto Errera, Greek Army officer, ELAS
The Greek People's Liberation Army ( el, Ελληνικός Λαϊκός Απελευθερωτικός Στρατός (ΕΛΑΣ), ''Ellinikós Laïkós Apeleftherotikós Stratós'' (ELAS) was the military arm of the left-wing National Liberat ...
fighter, Holocaust victim
*Allegra Gategno
Allegra may refer to:
People
* Allegra (given name), people with the given name Allegra
* Antonio Allegra (1905–1969), Italian organist and lyricist
* Chad Allegra (born 1980), American professional wrestler better known as Karl Anderson
* Fr ...
, prewar woman sprinter of G.S. Iraklis Thessaloniki
*Stella Haskil
Stella or STELLA may refer to:
Art, entertainment, and media Comedy
*Stella (comedy group), a comedy troupe consisting of Michael Showalter, Michael Ian Black and David Wain
Characters
*Stella (given name), including a list of characters with th ...
(Gechaskél), rebetiko
Rebetiko ( el, ρεμπέτικο, ), plural rebetika ( ), occasionally transliterated as rembetiko or rebetico, is a term used today to designate originally disparate kinds of urban Greek music which have come to be grouped together since the s ...
singer
*Moshe Ha-Elion
Moshe Ha-Elion (26 February 1925 – 1 November 2022), also written Moshe Haelion, Moshe 'Ha-Elion, Moshé Ha-Elion, Moshé 'Ha-Elion, Moshé Haelyon, was a Holocaust survivor and writer. He survived Auschwitz, the death march, MauthausenMelk an ...
, Holocaust survivor and writer
* Moshe Levy, chemist
*Samuel de Medina Rabbi Samuel ben Moses de Medina (abbreviated RaShDaM, or ''Maharashdam''; 1505 – October 12, 1589), was a Talmudist and author from Thessaloniki. He was principal of the Talmudic college of that city, which produced a great number of promine ...
, rabbi, talmudist and author
* David ben Judah Messer Leon, rabbi and physician
* Mordechai Mano, businessman and member of the Mano shipping family
*Eli Modiano
Eli most commonly refers to:
* Eli (name), a given name, nickname and surname
* Eli (biblical figure)
Eli or ELI may also refer to:
Film
* ''Eli'' (2015 film), a Tamil film
* ''Eli'' (2019 film), an American horror film
Music
* ''Eli'' (Jan ...
, architect
*Jacob Modiano
Jacob (; ; ar, يَعْقُوب, Yaʿqūb; gr, Ἰακώβ, Iakṓb), later given the name Israel, is regarded as a patriarch of the Israelites and is an important figure in Abrahamic religions, such as Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Ja ...
, banker
*Saul David Modiano
Saul (; he, , ; , ; ) was, according to the Hebrew Bible, the first monarch of the United Kingdom of Israel. His reign, traditionally placed in the late 11th century BCE, supposedly marked the transition of Israel and Judah from a scattered t ...
, founder of Modiano company
* Alberto Nahmias, football player
* David Pardo, Dutch rabbi, born in Salonika
* Joseph Pardo, rabbi
* Avraham Rakanti, politician and journalist
* Leon Yehuda Recanati, banker, founder of the Israel Discount Bank
Israel Discount Bank, Ltd. is a retail bank, commercial bank, private bank and financial services company headquartered in Tel Aviv with 112 branches throughout Israel.
Discount Bank is a public company traded on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange und ...
*Raphaël Salem
Raphaël Salem (Greek: Ραφαέλ Σαλέμ; November 7, 1898 in Salonika, Ottoman Empire (now Thessaloniki, Greece) – June 20, 1963 in Paris, France) was a Greek mathematician after whom are named the Salem numbers and Salem–Spencer sets ...
, mathematician
* Hayyim Shabbethai, Chief Rabbi of Thessaloniki
*Solomon Sirilio
Solomon Sirilio ( he, סיריליאו also שלמה סריליו) (1485–1554), the son of Joseph Sirilio, was a rabbi and author of one of the first commentaries made on the Jerusalem Talmud (''Seder Zeraim'').
Background
Solomon Sirilio was ...
, rabbi and Talmud commentator
* Hayyim Saruq, trader and diplomat
*Joseph Taitazak Joseph ben Solomon Ṭaiṭazaḳ (), also referred to by the acronym ''MahaRITaTS'', was a talmudic authority and kabalist who lived at Salonica in the 15th and 16th centuries. He was a member of the Taitazak family.
With his father and brother ...
, talmudist
* Baruch Uziel, Israeli politician
* Robi-Rafael Varsano, Holocaust survivor who, after WWII, detected Max Merten, military administration counselor of Nazi Germany in Thessaloniki
* Shlomo Venezia (1923-2012), Holocaust survivor
* Morris Venezia, alias Maurice Venezia, (1921-2013), Holocaust survivor
See also
* Sephardi Jews
Sephardic (or Sephardi) Jews (, ; lad, Djudíos Sefardíes), also ''Sepharadim'' , Modern Hebrew: ''Sfaradim'', Tiberian: Səp̄āraddîm, also , ''Ye'hude Sepharad'', lit. "The Jews of Spain", es, Judíos sefardíes (or ), pt, Judeus sefa ...
* Romaniote Jews
The Romaniote Jews or the Romaniotes ( el, Ῥωμανιῶτες, ''Rhomaniótes''; he, רומניוטים, Romanyotim) are a Greek-speaking ethnic Jewish community native to the Eastern Mediterranean. They are one of the oldest Jewish comm ...
* Holocaust Museum of Greece
* History of Thessaloniki
The history of the city of Thessaloniki is a long one, dating back to the ancient Greeks (Macedonians). Today with the opening of borders in Southeastern Europe it is currently experiencing a strong revival, serving as the prime port for the nort ...
* History of the Jews in Greece
The history of the Jews in Greece can be traced back to at least the fourth century BCE. The oldest and the most characteristic Jewish group that has inhabited Greece are the Romaniotes, also known as "Greek Jews." The term "Greek Jew" is pred ...
* History of the Jews in Turkey
The history of the Jews in Turkey ( tr, Türkiye Yahudileri or ; he, יהודים טורקים, Yehudim Turkim; lad, Djudios Turkos) covers the 2400 years that Jews have lived in what is now Turkey. There have been Jewish communities in An ...
* Guelfo Zamboni
Guelfo Zamboni (1896–1994) was an Italians, Italian diplomat who saved hundreds of Jews during the Holocaust.
Early life
Guelfo Zamboni was born in Santa Sofia, Italy, Santa Sofia, then part of Tuscany on 22 October 1896. The last of eight s ...
(1897 – 1994)
* Maccabi Thessaloniki
Maccabi Thessaloniki is a multi-sport club in the city of Thessaloniki, historically representing the Jewish community of the city. It maintains or maintained departments of football, basketball, volleyball, athletics, Olympic weightlifting, tab ...
Bibliography
* Giorgios Antoniou, A. Dirk Moses (2018). ''The Holocaust in Greece''. Cambridge University. .
*
*
*
Further reading
* Μεσσίνας, Ηλίας. (1997). ''Οι Συναγωγές της Θεσσαλονίκης και της Βέροιας''. Εκδόσεις Γαβριηλίδης. .
* Messinas, Elias. (2022). ''The Synagogues of Greece: A Study of Synagogues in Macedonia and Thrace: With Architectural Drawings of all Synagogues of Greece''. KDP, 41-92 and 181-189.
* Naar, Devin E. (2016), ''Jewish Salonica: Between the Ottoman Empire and Modern Greece''. Stanford University Press. .
*
External links
Video
''A community exterminated, the deportation of Jews from Salonika,'' conference by Jean Carasso, founder of the Sephardic Letter, FSJU-Culture department-Paris, 2006.
Article
of Jewish Encyclopedia
2009 Documentary Film
: ''Salonica''
References
{{Ethnic groups in Greece
Thessaloniki
Thessaloniki (; el, Θεσσαλονίκη, , also known as Thessalonica (), Saloniki, or Salonica (), is the second-largest city in Greece, with over one million inhabitants in its metropolitan area, and the capital of the geographic region of ...
Thessaloniki
Thessaloniki (; el, Θεσσαλονίκη, , also known as Thessalonica (), Saloniki, or Salonica (), is the second-largest city in Greece, with over one million inhabitants in its metropolitan area, and the capital of the geographic region of ...
Thessaloniki
Thessaloniki (; el, Θεσσαλονίκη, , also known as Thessalonica (), Saloniki, or Salonica (), is the second-largest city in Greece, with over one million inhabitants in its metropolitan area, and the capital of the geographic region of ...
Jews
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
Jews
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
Thessaloniki
Thessaloniki (; el, Θεσσαλονίκη, , also known as Thessalonica (), Saloniki, or Salonica (), is the second-largest city in Greece, with over one million inhabitants in its metropolitan area, and the capital of the geographic region of ...
Thessaloniki
Thessaloniki (; el, Θεσσαλονίκη, , also known as Thessalonica (), Saloniki, or Salonica (), is the second-largest city in Greece, with over one million inhabitants in its metropolitan area, and the capital of the geographic region of ...