History of the Jews in Thessaloniki
The history of the Jews of Thessaloniki reaches back two thousand years. The city of
The community experienced a "golden age" in the 16th century, when they developed a strong culture in the city. Like other groups in Ottoman Greece, 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. In the 1920s, a century after Greece achieved independence from the Ottoman Empire (the city was captured from the Ottoman Empire by Greece in late 1912), it allowed Jews to be full citizens of the country.
During
Early settlement
Some scholars believed that
In 1170,
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 to relocate there, which they made the new capital of the Empire.[4] At the time, few Jews were left in Salonika; none were recorded in the Ottoman census of 1478.[3]
Arrival of Sephardic Jews
In 1492, the joint
The first Sephardim came in 1492 from
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.[4]
Name of synagogue | Date of construction | Name of synagogue | Date of construction | Name of synagogue | Date of construction |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Ets ha Hayim | 1st century | Apulia | 1502 | Yahia | 1560 |
Ashkenaz or Varnak | 1376 | Lisbon Yashan | 1510 | Sicilia Hadash | 1562 |
Mayorka | 1391 | Talmud Torah Hagadol | 1520 | Beit Aron | 1575 |
Provincia | 1394 | Portugal | 1525 | Italia Hadash | 1582 |
Italia Yashan | 1423 | Evora | 1535 | Mayorka Sheni | 16th century |
Guerush Sfarad | 1492 | Estrug | 1535 | Katallan Hadash | 16th century |
Kastilla | 1492–3 | Lisbon Hadash | 1536 | Italia Sheni | 1606 |
Aragon | 1492–3 | Otranto | 1537 | Shalom | 1606 |
Katallan Yashan | 1492 | Ishmael | 1537 | Har Gavoa | 1663 |
Kalabria Yashan | 1497 | Tcina | 1545 | Mograbis | 17th century[7] |
Sicilia Yashan | 1497 | Nevei Tsedek | 1550 | ||
Monastirlis | 1927 |
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. It hosted hundreds of students.[8] In addition to Jewish studies, it taught humanities, Latin and Arabic, as well as medicine, the natural sciences and astronomy.[9] 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 and Venice.[8] The success of its educational institutions was such that there was no illiteracy among the Jews of Salonika.[9]
Economic activities
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 (
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.[11]
The Jewish speciality was spinning 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.[12] Salonikan sheets, blankets and carpets acquired a high profile and were exported throughout the empire from Istanbul to Alexandria through Smyrna. The industry spread to all localities close to the Thermaic Gulf.
This same activity became a matter of state when the Ottoman Sultan,
Economic decline
The increase in the number of Janissaries contributed to an increase in clothing orders putting Jews in a very difficult situation.[citation needed] 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. 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.[14]
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, Amsterdam and Bordeaux. 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, 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.[14]
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 İzmir. 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.[14]
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.[14]
Taxation
Later Ottoman era
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.[15] The yeshivot 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."[15]
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:
Modern times
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.[18] 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.[18] According to Fleming, the number of conversos returning to the faith whilst also immigrating to Salonika, made for a dynamic rabbinic establishment.[18] 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.[18] 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.[18] 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.[18]
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. 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.[citation needed] In the city, workers movements developed crossing ethnic lines;[citation needed] in later years, the labor movements here became marked by issues of nationalism and identity.[citation needed]
Haskalah
The Haskalah, 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
By 1862, Allatini led his brother Solomon Fernandez to found an Italian school, thanks to a donation by the Kingdom of Italy.[19] French attempts to introduce the educational network of the Alliance Israélite Universelle (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.[19] 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.[19] 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
The Jewish community was pioneer in the establishment of the first newspapers in the city. Some of them included: La Epoca (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.[20]
The eruption of modernity was also expressed by the growing influence of new political ideas from Western Europe. The
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.[21]
Greek administration
Salonika, Greek city
In 1912, following the First Balkan War, 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 Serbians, who wanted Austrian Jews to join their cause.[19] 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.[22] The Greek administration nevertheless took some measures to promote the integration of Jews[19] 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 (with which Greece was in alliance), and by the influx of Entente troops following the outbreak of World War I. 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, Yitzhak Ben-Zvi and Ze'ev Jabotinsky, who saw in Salonika a Jewish model that should inspire their future state.[19]
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:
Faced with the countless shops and stores run by the Jews, until then the leaders in local commerce, Greek merchants set shop on the sidewalk, making access to the shop's doors impossible. The new police smiled ... and Jews, being boycotted, closed shop one after another.[23]
Fire of 1917 and inter-communal tensions
The Great Thessaloniki Fire of 1917 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 Rabbinate 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
Although the first anniversary of the
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 (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
Under Metaxas
The seizure of power by dictator
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
Second World War
Battle of Greece
On 28 October 1940, Italian forces invaded Greece following the refusal of the Greek dictator
Occupation
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 would not apply to Salonika.[32] 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,
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.[31]
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
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, containing 300,000[34] to 500,000[35] 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.[35] The cemetery was soon transformed into a vast quarry where Greeks and Germans sought gravestones for use as construction materials.[35] Today this site is occupied by Aristotle University of Thessaloniki[34] 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
Destruction of the Jews of Salonika
Salonika's 54,000 Jews were shipped to the Nazi extermination camps. 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.[31]
Deportation
To carry out this operation, the Nazi authorities dispatched two specialists in the field,
The first convoy departed on March 15. Each train carried 1000–4000 Jews across the whole of
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, also experienced very heavy losses.
An often quoted reason focuses on the attitude of the Judenrat, 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.[39] Koretz has also been accused of having knowingly collaborated with the occupiers.[39] However, several new studies tend to diminish his role in the deportations.[39][40][41]
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.[33]
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.[42] It is reported that just 10 Jewish families found shelter in the city.[43] 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.[44][45][46][47] The resistance was also not very well developed at the time, and few Jews could realistically make the journey to the mountains.
Nevertheless,
In the camps
At
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.[49]
In his book If This Is a Man, one of the most famous works of literature of the Holocaust, Primo Levi describes the group thus: "those Greeks, motionless and silent as the Sphinx, crouched on the ground behind their thick pot of soup".[50] 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
-
Menorah in flames, Holocaust memorial in Thessaloniki
-
Interior of Yad LeZikaron Synagogue. The synagogue was opened in 1984, dedicated to the memory of the victims of the Holocaust
-
Jewish school entrance
-
Holocaust memorial in the New Jewish Cemetery
At the end of the Second World War, a violent civil war 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.[51] 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.[51]
Among the few survivors of the camps, some chose to return to Greece and others emigrated to Western Europe, America or the Palestine Mandate.[51] 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.[51]
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. 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. 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.[51]
1,783 survivors were listed in the 1951 census.
A monument in Thessaloniki to the tragedy of the deportation, Menorah in flames, was erected in 1997.[53]
In 1998, King
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.[55]
Today, around 1,300 Jews live in Thessaloniki,[56] making it the second largest Jewish community in Greece after Athens.
Israeli 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 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.[57][58]
The Jewish community of Greece made great efforts to establish a
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
-
Salonica Holocaust memorial, Holon cemetery, Israel
-
Synagogue prayer in memory of the Jews of Salonika, Shapira neighborhood, Tel Aviv. Founded in 1936
-
Hechal Yehuda Synagogue. Completed in 1980. Model at Mini Israel.
Hechal Yehuda Synagogue was founded by Jews from Salonika in Tel Aviv. It maintains the customs of Salonikan music and prayer.
United States
Congregation Etz Ahaim,
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.[62] Her family, now living in the United States, 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 also used Judeo-Catalan, in the case of the Katalanim.[63][64][65] Given that the Sephardic communities were larger in population than the Katalanim, despite retaining particularities, over the centuries, the latter were diluted in the former, including the language.
Judeo-Catalan is difficult to trace, but it can be said that in 1526 the majzor of Yamim Noraim, known as Majzor le-núsaj Bartselona minhag Catalunya,[66] was published for the first time, of which it is known that the printing ended on the eve of Yom Kippur in the year 5287.[67] The katalanim published several reprints of the majzor in the 19th century. In 1863 they printed an edition entitled Majzor le-Rosh ha-Shaná ve-Yom ha-Kippurim ke-minhag qahal qadosh Qatalà yashán ve-jadash asher be-irenu zot Saloniqi.[68] This edition was published by Yitsjaq Amariliyo. In 1869 the Majzor ke-minhag qahal qadosh Qatalán yashán ve-jadash was printed, the editors were: Moshé Yaaqov Ayash and Rabbi Janoj Pipano, and those who carried out the printing were: David, called Bejor Yosef Arditi, Seadi Avraham Shealt. The majzor was published under the title Majzor le-Rosh ha-Shana kefí minhag Sefarad ba-qehilot ha-qedoshot Saloniqi, and includes the prayers of the Aragon community and the Qatalán yashán ve-jadash communities. The Catalan Jewish community of Salonica existed as such until the Holocaust.[69] In 1927 the community published a numbered three-volume edition of the majzor entitled Majzor le-Yamim Noraim kefí minhag q[ahal] q[adosh] Qatalán, ha-yadua be-shem núsaj Bartselona minhag Qatalunya.[70] In the second volume Tefilat Yaaqov, there is a long historical introduction about the Catalan Jewish community and the edition of the majzor written in Judeo-Spanish.
Anyway, they prayed and studied in
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."[71]
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 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
Cuisine
The sociologist Edgar Morin 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.[72]
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 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, 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.[72] 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, widely consumed in the Balkans and Anatolia, was also appreciated, as well as cream and Pan di Spagna.
In anticipation of Shabbat,
Notable Thessalonian Jews
- Aaron Abiob, rabbi
- Alberto Abravanel, father of Senor Abravanel (aka Silvio Santos) and descendant of Isaac Abarbanel
- Maurice Abravanel, conductor of classical music
- Shlomo Halevi Alkabetz, rabbi
- Moïse Allatini , founder of Allatini (company)/Allatini Mills
- Charles Allatini, banker and trader
- Auschwitz
- Moses Almosnino, rabbi
- Saul Amarel, pioneer of artificial intelligence
- Salamo Arouch, boxer of Maccabi Thessaloniki and Aris Thessaloniki
- Hank Azaria, American actor
- Isaac Benrubi, philosopher
- Albert Bourla, CEO of Pfizer
- Groupe Danone
- Daniel Carasso
- Alberto Couriel, socialist politician and Member of the Hellenic Parliament with Federation
- ELASfighter, Holocaust victim
- Zionistmovement in Thessaloniki
- Salomon Jacob Florentin , contractor and entrepreneur who founded the Florentin neighborhood in Tel Aviv
- Allegra Gategno, prewar woman sprinter of G.S. Iraklis Thessaloniki
- Auschwitz
- Stella Haskil (Gechaskél), rebetiko singer
- Moshe Ha-Elion, Holocaust survivor and writer
- Moshe Levy, chemist
- Samuel de Medina, rabbi, talmudist and author
- David ben Judah Messer Leon, rabbi and physician
- Mordechai Mano, businessman and member of the Mano shipping family
- Eli Modiano , architect
- Jacob Modiano, banker
- Saul David Modiano , founder of Modiano company
- Saul Isaac Modiano , banker and philanthropist
- Isaac Pasha Molho, Sultan Abdul Hamid II's doctor and vice admiral of the Ottoman navy
- Alberto Nahmias, football player
- Jacques Nissim Pasha , military doctor and division general of the Ottoman army
- 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
- Raphael Recanati, businessman, banker, and philanthropist. Founder and chairman of the Overseas Shipholding Group
- Raphaël Salem, mathematician
- Hayyim Shabbethai, Chief Rabbi of Thessaloniki
- Solomon Sirilio, rabbi and Talmud commentator
- Hayyim Saruq, trader and diplomat
- Joseph Taitazak, 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
- Romaniote Jews
- Holocaust Museum of Greece
- History of Thessaloniki
- History of the Jews in Greece
- History of the Jews in Turkey
- Guelfo Zamboni (1897–1994)
- Maccabi Thessaloniki
- Florentin, Tel Aviv
Bibliography
- Giorgios Antoniou, A. Dirk Moses (2018). The Holocaust in Greece. Cambridge University. ISBN 978-1-108-47467-2.
- ISBN 978-2-86260-356-8.)
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link - ISBN 978-2-02-090439-1.
- ISBN 978-0-375-41298-1.
Further reading
- Μεσσίνας, Ηλίας. (1997). Οι Συναγωγές της Θεσσαλονίκης και της Βέροιας. Εκδόσεις Γαβριηλίδης. ISBN 960-336-010-4.
- 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. ISBN 979-8-8069-0288-8
- ISBN 978-0-8047-9887-7.
- Saltiel, Leon, ed. (2021). Do Not Forget Me: Three Jewish Mothers Write to Their Sons from the Thessaloniki Ghetto. Berghahn Books. ISBN 978-1-80073-107-3.
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.
- Jewish Museum of Thessaloniki
- Article of Jewish Encyclopedia
- 2009 Documentary Film Archived 2016-03-03 at the Wayback Machine: Salonica
References
- ^ "NH Taylor (2002) "Who persecuted the Thessalonian Christians?", Hervormde Teologiese Studies (HTS) 58(2), pp 789-793".
- ^ A. Vacalopoulos, A History of Thessaloniki, p. 9
- ^ a b c d Gilles Veinstein, Salonique 1850–1918, la "ville des Juifs" et le réveil des Balkans, pp. 42–45
- ^ a b c Bernard Lewis, Islam, Gallimard, 2005, pp. 563–567.
- ^ Rosamond McKitterick, Christopher Allmand, The New Cambridge Medieval History, p. 779 –
- ^ "The Jewish Community of Salonika". Beit Hatfutsot Open Databases Project. The Museum of the Jewish People at Beit Hatfutsot.
- ^ List extracted from Rena Molho, Salonique 1850–1918, la "ville des Juifs" et le réveil des Balkans, p. 67
- ^ a b Moshe Amar, Le Monde sépharade, Volume II, Seuil, 2006, p. 284
- ^ a b c Jacob Barnaï, The Jews Spain: story of a diaspora, 1492–1992, Liana Levi, 1998, p. 394–408.
- ^ Gilles Veinstein, Salonique 1850–1918, la "ville des Juifs" et le réveil des Balkans, p. 51.
- ^ Haïm Bentov, Le Monde sépharade, p. 720.
- ^ a b c Gilles Veinstein, Salonique 1850–1918, la "ville des Juifs" et le réveil des Balkans, p. 52–54.
- ^ Mazower, Mark (2004). Salonica, City of Ghosts: Christians, Muslims and Jews 1430-1950. p. 105.
- ^ a b c d Gilles Veinstein, Salonique 1850–1918, la "ville des Juifs" et le réveil des Balkans, pp. 54–58.
- ^ a b c d e f g Gilles Veinstein, Salonique 1850–1918, la "ville des Juifs" et le réveil des Balkans, p. 58–62.
- ^ a b Encyclopedic Dictionary of Judaism, Éditions du Cerf, Paris, 1993, article Sabbataï Tsevi
- ^ a b c Francis Georgeon, Salonique 1850–1918, la "ville des Juifs" et le réveil des Balkans, p. 115–118.
- ^ OCLC 503640777.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Rena Molho, Salonique 1850–1918, la "ville des Juifs" et le réveil des Balkans, p. 68–78.
- ^ "Εφημερίδες". www.jmth.gr.
- ^ Esther Benbassa, "Zionism in the Ottoman Empire at the 'dawn of XX'". In the twentieth century, No. 24, October 1989, p. 74.
- ^ Mark Mazower, Salonica city of ghosts, p. 281.
- ISBN 978-2-218-06269-8
- ^ Régis Darques, Salonique au XXe siècle, de la cité ottomane à la métropole grecque [Salonica in the 20th century, from the Ottoman city to the Greek metropolis], p. 150.
- ^ a b c d e Aristotle A. Kallis, The Jewish Community of Salonica Under Siege: The Antisemitic Violence of the Summer of 1931, Oxford University Press, 2006
- ^ Erika Perahia Zemour, Judaism lost and found Salonica, Pardès No. 28, Paris, 2000, pp. 153–154
- ^ Régis Darques, Salonique au XXe siècle, de la cité ottomane à la métropole grecque p. 78–79.
- ^ Mano Maritime Ltd. - Company Profile Archived 2012-04-07 at the Wayback Machine Dun's 100 ranking: Dun & Bradstreet
- ^ Annie Benveniste, Le Bosphore à la Roquette : la communauté judéo-espagnole à Paris, 1914–1940, L'Harmattan, Paris, 2000, p. 81.
- ^ Biography of Leon Recanati on the website of Tel Aviv University Archived 2007-11-11 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Yitschak Kerem, Le Monde sépharade, Volume I, p. 924–933
- ^ a b c d 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
- ^ a b c The historical and cultural context. The coexistence between Jews and Greeks. By Jean-conference Carasso
- ^ a b web / thejews / pages / pages / necrop / necrop.htm Document Jewish Museum of Thessaloniki
- ^ a b c (in Spanish) Michael Molho, "El cementerio judío of Salónica" Sefarad, 9:1 (1949) p. 124–128
- ^ Jewish Museum of Thessaloniki: The Book, 2017
- ^ "The JUST Act Report: Greece". U.S. Department of State. Retrieved 17 March 2022.
- ^ Greece_in_the_WW2.html Refujiados of Gresia i Rodes in Maroko durante la II Gerra Mundiala by Yitshak Gershon, Aki Yerushalayim, 1995, pp. 42–45.
- ^ a b c 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
- ^ Μύθοι και πραγματικότητα για την εξόντωση των Εβραίων της Θεσσαλονίκης .. cohen.gr (in Greek). Retrieved 2017-02-24.
- ^ ".:BiblioNet : Η διάσωση / Λάμψα, Καρίνα". www.biblionet.gr. Retrieved 2017-02-24.
- ^ Μόλχο, Μίκαελ (1976). In Memoriam, Αφιέρωμα εις μνήμην των Iσραηλιτών θυμάτων του Ναζισμού εν Ελλάδι. Θεσσαλονίκη: Ισραηλιτική Κοινότητα Θεσσαλονίκης. pp. 149–50.
- ^ Μόλχο, Μίκαελ (1976). In Memoriam, Αφιέρωμα εις μνήμην των Iσραηλιτών θυμάτων του Ναζισμού εν Ελλάδι. Θεσσαλονίκη: Ισραηλιτική Κοινότητα Θεσσαλονίκης. p. 128.
- ISSN 8756-6583.
- ^ Αντωνίου, Γιώργος; Δορδανάς, Στράτος; Ζάικος, Νίκος; Μαραντζίδης, Νίκος (2011). Το Ολοκαύτωμα στα Βαλκάνια. Θεσσαλονίκη: Επίκεντρο.
- ^ Saltiel, Leon. "Professional Solidarity and the Holocaust: The Case of Thessaloniki". Yearbook of the Center for Research on Antisemitism, Technical University Berlin, 2015.
- ^ Saltiel, Leon (2020). "The Holocaust in Thessaloniki: Reactions to the Anti-Jewish Persecution, 1942–1943". Routledge. Retrieved 2020-05-15.
- ^ (in Spanish) Testimony Archived 2007-10-11 at the Wayback Machine a survivor salonicien of the Holocaust on the site FundacionMemoria del holocausto
- ^ Yitschak Kerem, Forgotten heroes: Greek Jewry in the holocaust, in Mr Mor (ed.), Crisis and Reaction: The Hero in Jewish History, Omaha, Creighton University Press, 1995, p. 229–238.
- ^ Primo Levi, If This Is a Man, Julliard, 2007, pp. 121–122 (Chapter: Because of good and evil)
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Retorno del Inferno Archived 2007-08-10 at the Wayback Machine Braha Rivlin, Aki Yerushalayim, No. 49–50, 1995.
- ^ a b Mark Mazower, Salonica city of ghosts, p. 422–425.
- ^ Mark Mazower, Salonica city of ghosts p. 437–438.
- ^ (in Spanish) Article of El Mundo May 29, 1998.
- ^ "Greek university unveils memorial on site of destroyed Jewish cemetery". 10 November 2014.
- ^ Régis Darques, Salonica to XX e, the city Ottoman to the Greek mainland, p. 63.
- ^ One way tickets Thessaloniki – Auschwitz Archived 2017-02-08 at the Wayback Machine, June 2015
- ^ Zug der Erinnerung/Thessaloniki Zug der Erinnerung (nongovernmental organisation "Train of Commemoration").
- ^ Makris, A. (22 December 2013). "Holocaust Museum to Be Build [sic] in Greece - GreekReporter.com".
- ^ ΠΟΛΙΤΙΚΕΣ ΣΥΝΑΝΤΗΣΕΙΣ ΓΙΑ ΤΑ ΘΕΜΑΤΑ ΤΟΥ ΕΛΛΗΝΙΚΟΥ ΕΒΡΑΪΣΜΟΥ, Retrieved 05. December 2016
- ^ "Congregation Etz Ahaim - Sephardic". Congregation Etz Ahaim - Sephardic.
- ^ Alhadeff, Ty (21 April 2016). "UW Sephardic Studies Professor Featured in Emmy-Nominated TV Series".
- ISBN 8484153096.
- ISBN 0-7914-1401-9.
- ^ "Quan a l'Imperi otomà es parlava català". El Nacional. 2022.
- ^ Majzor segons el ritus de Barcelona i la costum de Catalunya.
- ^ A les respostes de rabí Xelomó ben Avraham ha-Kohén (Maharxakh) s'hi menciona el «maḥzor le-yamim noraïm be-nússaḥ qahal qadoix Qatalan».
- ^ Majzor de Rosh ha-Shaná y Yom Kippur según la costumbre de la comunidad santa Catalán antiguo y nuevo de nuestra ciudad de Salónica.
- ^ Yitsḥaq Xemuel Immanuel, Guedolé Saloniqi le-dorotam, Tel Aviv: 1936 (inclou llistes amb els cognoms de les comunitats Qatalan yaixan i Qatalan ḥadaix).
- ^ Primer volumen: «Tefilat Shemuel. Majzor le-Rosh ha-Shaná»; segundo volumen: «Tefilat Yaaqov. Majzor le-Shajarit ve-Musaf Yom Kippur»; tercer volumen: «Tefilat Seadi. Majzor leil Kippur u-Minjá u-neilá».
- ^ a b Haim Vidal Séphiha, Salonique 1850–1918, la "ville des Juifs" et le réveil des Balkans, p. 79–95.
- ^ a b c Méri Badi, Salonique 1850–1918, la "ville des Juifs" et le réveil des Balkans, p. 96–101.