History of the Jews in Thessaloniki

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.

One sign of the influence of Salonikan Jews on trading is in the 1556 boycott of the port of Ancona, Papal States, in response to the auto-da-fé issued by Paul IV against 25 marranos.

[15] 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.

[16] 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, ineffable in Jewish tradition, and introduced himself as the Messiah son of King David.

[16] Therefore, those that the Turks gave the surname "Dönme," ("renegades") themselves divided into three groups: Izmirlis, Kuniosos and Yacoubi,[18] forming a new component of the Salonikan ethno-religious mosaic.

Although they chose conversion, they did not assimilate with the Turks, practicing strict endogamy, living in separate quarters, building their own mosques and maintaining a specific liturgy in their language.

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.

[19] 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.

[20] 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 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.

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.

The influx of tens of thousands of Greek refugees from Asia Minor, 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.

[citation needed] Antisemitic organizations and publications were banned[26] and support for the regime was sufficiently strong for a Jewish charter of the regime-sponsored National Organisation of Youth (EON) to be formed.

[27] 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.

12,898 men enlisted in the Greek army;[32] 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.

To accomplish their mission, the SS relied on the Jewish Ghetto Police created for the occasion, led by Vital Hasson, which was the source of numerous abuses against the rest of the Jews.

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, and then Morocco, with some finally reaching the British Mandate of Palestine.

[32][39] 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.

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.

[50] 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".

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".

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.

Additionally, at the end of Shabbat services, the entire congregation sings the well-known Hebrew hymn Ein Keloheinu as Non Como Muestro Dio in Ladino.

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.

"[73] 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.

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.

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.

A Judeo-Spanish variant of the Ashkenazi cholent 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, 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.