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The Jewish Community of Salonika
Alexandrian Jews who arrived in 140 BCE were among the first Jews to settle in Salonika. After the splitting up of the Roman Empire in 395 CE, Salonika became the second most important town after Constantinople in the Byzantine Empire. The Byzantine emperors in their efforts to "Christianize" their subjects were hostile to the Jews of Salonika. In spite of the hardships they suffered during the Byzantine period, they were merchants, engaging especially in the silk trade. The oldest Synagogues of Salonika, "Etz ha-Chayim" and "Etz ha-Da'at", which existed until the beginning of the 20th century, date back to the Byzantine period. During the second half of the 14th century Salonika attracted Jews from all over the world; the first immigrants were Hungarian Jews who arrived in 1376. In 1430, Salonika was occupied by the Turks. At approximately the same time waves of Jewish immigrants started to arrive. In 1470, Bavarian Jews arrived in Salonika and formed the Ashkenazi community. During the 15th and 16th centuries many Jewish exiles from Spain, Portugal, Italy, Sicily, France, and refugees from North Africa, settled in Salonika. Once in Salonika, they founded separate synagogues and named them for their native countries. Marranos who were expelled from Portugal arrived in Salonika. In 1514, the Rabbis of Salonika issued a special Haskamah regarding the Marranos as Jews as far as marriage and divorce were concerned. It is estimated that by 1553 there were 20,000 Jews in Salonika. The Jewish immigrants maintained their relations with their coreligionists and colleagues in their countries of origin and therefore had a relative advantage in international trade. The Jews of Salonika also engaged in crafts. The organization of Jewish life in Salonika was quite unique. There were about 30 independent congregations, who sometimes associated themselves as a voluntary body that took care of the common interests of the congregations. The Takkanot issued by this body were to be accepted by every congregation. The heads of each community were called Parnasim, Memunim, Nivrarim and Anshei Ma'amad, and were elected by all the members of each congregation. A committee elected by the Parnasim of each congregation decided what proportion of taxes each congregation had to pay to the Turkish authorities. During the 16th century there were many important rabbis whose influence spread beyond Salonika and even beyond the Ottoman Empire. Among them was Isaac Adarbi, the author of "Divrei Rivot and Divrei Shalom", Moses Almosnino, and Samuel Di Medina ("Rashdam"). Salonika was also renowned as a center of Kabbalah. In addition to the rabbinical schools in Salonika in the 16th century, there was a Bet Midrash for secular studies where medicine, natural sciences, astronomy, and other subjects were taught. In the beginning of the 17th century the town suffered once again from the plague and from fires. By the middle of the century, about 30,000 Jews lived in Salonika, which represented half of the total population of the town. The end of the century was marked by a deterioration of commercial activities which resulted from the decline of the Ottoman Empire. However, Salonika remained a center of religious studies and Halakhah. The famous halakhic authority, Rabbi Chayim Shabbetai (d. 1647), author of the "Torat Ha-chayyim", lived in the town during the first half of the 17th century; other important religious authorities included Aaron Cohen Perachyah, the author of "Parach Matteh Aharon", and David Conforte, author of "Kore Ha-dorot". The most influential event for the Jewish community in the 17th century was the appearance of the pseudo-messiah Shabbetai Tzevi in 1657. In the beginning he was very warmly accepted, but when he declared that he was the true messiah, he was expelled by the most important Rabbis of the town. Later he converted to Islam, and 13 years after his death, in 1683, a group of believers - some 300 Jewish families - also converted to Islam. This sect was called the Doenmeh (in Turkish "Apostates") and their religious center was in Salonika, from which they spread to Constantinople and other places. In 1680, the 30 congregations merged into one Community, with a supreme Council composed of three Rabbis and seven dignitaries. Another important step was the reorganization of all the rabbinical courts into three bodies. The Batei Din were famous for their justice and integrity and many Muslims and Greeks preferred to settle the disputes they had with Jews in these courts instead of using the Turkish Courts. In 1720-30 Portuguese Marranos, called "Francos", emigrated to Salonika. Most of them were well-educated and among them were merchants and bankers. In the beginning, they refused to pay taxes to the Jewish community. Towards the second half of the 19th century, European culture and technology had reached also Salonika. In 1873, the "Alliance Israelite Universelle" established a School in the city, and additional schools along western standards were also built. In 1886, the Bank of Salonika was founded. As a result of this Westernization, Liberalism became paramount among the Jews of Salonika. The "Chevrat Kadimah" for the spreading of the Hebrew language was founded in 1899, and Isaac Epstein was brought to Salonika to teach Hebrew. In 1887, the Rabbinical Triumvirate was dismissed and Jacob Kovo was appointed to the post of Chakham Bashi (Chief Rabbi). In 1900, there were approximately 80,000 Jews in Salonika (out of a total population of 173,000).
In 1908, when the young Turks rose against the Ottoman Sultan Abdul Hamid II, many Jews joined their forces. One of the first actions of the young Turks when they rose to power was the mobilization of all non-Muslims into the Turkish Army. As a result, many young Jews left Salonika and emigrated to the United States. At the same time the first Zionist organizations, Agudath Bnei Zion and Maccabi, appeared in Salonika. The young Turks' revolution marked a new "Golden" era for the Jews of Salonika. Jews were represented in every profession. When the Greek army entered the town in 1912, King George declared that Jews and all other minorities were to have the same rights as the Greek population. In 1917, a great fire destroyed most of the town, leaving some 50,000 Jews homeless. In 1922, a law was enacted which forced all the inhabitants of Salonika to refrain from working on Sundays, thus causing another wave of emigration. Some Jews went to Palestine, while most emigrated to Paris where they founded an important community. In 1935, there were nearly 60,000 Jews in Salonika. On the eve of World War II, 55,250 Jews lived in Salonika. The Holocaust period The Germans entered Salonika on April 9, 1941. Two days later, the "Messsagero", the sole surviving Judeo-Spanish daily paper, was suppressed. All Jews were ordered to give up their radios. The Germans ultimately agreed to exempt the Jews from forced labor in return for a ransom of two and a half billion Drachmae, equivalent to about 40,000 US Gold Dollars. In the following months there were more and more expropriations and seizures of Jewish businesses, warehouses, and property. This culminated when, in December 1942, the ancient cemetery, containing nearly 500,000 graves and dating back certainly to the 15th century, was expropriated and thus became a quarry for the entire town. Shortly after the German occupation, the libraries and synagogues of Salonika were raided and their treasures seized, packed, and dispatched to Frankfort, where a Jewish Research Library was being set up for antisemitic purposes. In 1943, a commission headed by Dieter Wisliceny and Alois Brunner arrived in Salonika to implement the racial laws. Two days later an order was issued, imposing the supreme indignities that had already become the rule elsewhere in Nazi-dominated Europe. All Jews were henceforth to wear a special distinguishing yellow badge, and their shops and offices had to be similarly marked. No Jew was allowed on the streets after nightfall; no Jew was allowed to use the telephone and no Jew could ride on the tramway. Camouflaging their intent, the authorities maintained the pretext that the new system would facilitate the reorganization of the community on quasi-autonomous lines. But the real object of the new measures gradually emerged. Jews were isolated in ghettos and all their possessions were carefully checked and registered. On the morning of March 14, 1943, Jews were instructed to assemble in the local synagogue, where they were informed by Rabbi Koretz that they will be deported to Poland, where they would find a new home, among their own people. Some Polish paper money was distributed to the victims, in order to disguise the real purpose of their trip. Day by day, these scenes repeated themselves, group after group being dispatched to Auschwitz and Birkenau, where the Jews of Salonika were exterminated. All together, 43,850 Jews, 95% of the Jewish population, had been deported from Salonika in these few months. In October 1944, Salonika was recaptured by the Greek and Allied forces. Two thousand Jews settled in Salonika after the War. The number of Jews fell from about 2000 in 1946 to about 1500 in 1971 as a result of emigration to Israel and to other countries. There was an organized community, but only two synagogues were in use. The Jewish organizations were unified by the “Central Board of Jewish Communities in Greece” in Athens. In 1997, 1,000 Jews lived in Salonika and a small Jewish school was operated by the community. RELATED SITES:The Virtual Jewish History Tour - Greece
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