Reflections
The Jewish community of Salonika
The city of Salonika is one of the major and most ancient cities in Greece. It is a port city, situated on the coast of the Aegean Sea, and is one of the most important ports in Greece and indeed in the whole of Europe. For many years the city had a distinctly Jewish feel to it, in the merit of the glorious Jewish community residing there, whose roots stretched back over two millennia.
Motty Meringer 18/09/2009 10:00
The Jewish community of Salonika was founded during the period of Roman rule over Greece, shortly before the destruction of the Second Beis HaMikdash. Under Roman rule, the Jews lived in relative peace and tranquillity, and they were granted autonomy in religious and communal matters. When Christianity started to spread at the start of the Byzantine period, this spelled a turning point for the lives of the Jews, who were now subject to the Byzantine rulers – persecutions and pogroms started to occur, with greater or lesser frequency and intensity depending on the particular whims of the current ruler. Despite the turn for the worse in the situation of the Jews, the community in Salonika continued to grow in size, chiefly due to the migration of Jews from western Europe, who were fleeing from their home towns because of riots and pogroms that were taking place there during the various Crusades. This migration led to a sizeable increase in the Ashkenazic population of Salonika, which was the larger community of the city until the time of the Spanish Expulsion.
From the fourteenth century CE, Spanish Jews began arriving in Salonika, owing mainly to the decrees of 5151. During this period, many riots took place directed against the Jews of Spain, and there arose the new phenomenon of Anusim’ (forced ones) – Jews who had outwardly converted to Christianity but secretly maintained their observance of Torah. Many Jews escaped from Spain during this time, and a large portion of them settled in Salonika. Around a hundred years later, in the year 5252, the decree of expulsion of Spanish Jewry was passed, causing another wave of Spanish Jews to arrive in Salonika. In the year 5253 the Jews of Sicily were expelled, and many of them too headed for Salonika – and then, just four years later, the Jews of Portugal were also banished from their homeland.
Together with the Spanish Jews who arrived in Salonika, many Spanish Anusim also arrived, those who desired to return to open practice of their faith. Among the rabbonim of the city, a disagreement arose as to the precise status of these Anusim – whether or not they were to be defined as apostates. After an extended debate, the rabbonim ruled in accordance with the famous psak of the Rambam in his ‘Igeres haShmad’ (letter relating to forced conversion), which he had authored in response to the plight of the Jews of Morocco approximately a hundred years previously. This ruling stated that the Anusim were to be regarded as kosher Jews in every aspect.
These migratory waves led to the flourishing of the community in Salonika. It was precisely in the midst of this period that the regime that ruled over the city changed; the Venetian Republic that had ruled until then was dismembered and in its place the Ottoman Empire took power. The Ottomans treated the Jews more equally than had their former rulers; now their status was raised to that of all other non-Muslim nationalities. This development was an additional factor encouraging Jews migrating from other lands to choose Salonika as their new place of residence.
At the conclusion of all these waves of migration, the Jews emerged as a majority of the inhabitants of Salonika. Out of approximately 24,000 residents, there were more than 13,000 Jews. The Jews during this period were divided between three main kehillos. The largest one was the Sephardi kehillah, that had swelled its ranks considerably following the Spanish expulsion. Then there was the Ashkenazi kehillah, and also a ‘Roman’ kehillah, consisting of the original Jews of Salonika whose presence in the city dated back to Roman times. Each kehillah had its own Torah institutions and other organisations for tzedakah and communal assistance, which were run independently of the institutions of the other Jewish kehillos. Despite this strict demarcation, when it came to dealing with the gentile rulers, the Jews united under one general organisation known as the ‘Ma’amad Ha’Ir’ (Town Council) which represented all the various kehillos together.
During this period when the Jews were still thriving in Salonika, there emerged many great Torah leaders from the ranks of the Jews living there, including Rabi Shmuel da Modina ztz”l (the Rashdam) and Rabi Moshe Almoshnino ztz”l. Many talmidei chachomim arrived in Salonika in order to learn Torah from the great scholars there, and Salonika was transformed into the Torah centre of Europe.
In the mid-seventeenth century CE a false Messiah arose in Salonika – Shabtai Tzvi yimach shemo. In Salonika itself he succeeded in attracting a huge following of believers in him, who were entirely dedicated to following in his ways. Indeed, they copied his behaviours and practices to an incredible extent, even when his actions were in contravention of halachah – in which cases the followers would justify his, and their, behaviour by various contrived means. Shabtai Tzvi then held a ‘wedding’ ceremony in Salonika, at which he placed a Sefer Torah in place of the kallah, with himself as chassan – but this act led to an outbreak of protest against him, and he was eventually banished from the city.
A number of years later Shabtai Tzvi married the daughter of Yosef Filosof from Salonika, who was one of his most dedicated followers. After his conversion to Islam and his death, in the year 5436, those who still believed in him established a cult in Salonika called the ‘Dunma’ cult. Those who joined this cult became a form of ‘Anusim out of choice’, since on the surface they had converted to Islam, but beneath this façade, they adhered to a strange mix of Judaism and idol worship. This cult continued to exist in Salonika alongside the regular kehillos for another two hundred years, but over time, they were gradually absorbed into the Muslim population and it became impossible to distinguish between them. Today there are a few remnants of this strange cult, living in Turkey.
At the end of the seventeenth century CE the three kehillos that had existed in Salonika until that point combined into one, and one Beis Din dealt with all necessary matters. The community continued to flourish, and at the beginning of the twentieth century CE Jews constituted sixty percent of the city’s population. There were more than thirty synagogues and fifty batei medrash – and also around ten yeshivos. The Jewish community of Salonika was one of the largest in the world at that time, and the city was known as ‘the Jerusalem of the Balkans’. The Jewish character of the city was so pronounced that on Shabbosim and Yomim Tovim there was a total cessation of work in the city, excepting the port, which was one of the most important ports in the entire region.
In the year 5673 there were many battles fought as well as much rioting in the Balkans region, at the conclusion of which the city of Salonika passed from Ottoman to Greek hands. This transfer had a negative impact on the Jews of the city, from an economic as well as spiritual standpoint. The Greek conquerors wanted to see Salonika transformed into a wholly Greek city as soon as possible, and with this in mind they placed great restrictions on Jewish commerce, in order to give preference to Greek workers and artisans. In addition, the new rulers passed a law establishing the day of rest as Sunday, and did not allow Jews to rest on Shabbos. Even self-employed workers suffered from this new edict, since they were now forced to cease work for two days of the week, leading to a great loss of income. Another blow to the Jewish community was the interference of the Greek authorities in the Jewish education system; the Greeks demanded that the hours dedicated to Torah study be reduced, in favour of vocational training.
Another new phenomenon that arose as a result of the Greek conquest of Salonika was the arrival of anti-Semitism. Until that point, the Jews of the city had lived in relative peace and security in comparison to their brethren in other regions of the world, but now they found themselves the victims of riots and persecution at the hands of their Christian neighbours, who would even enter the synagogues and desecrate the holy seforim they found there.
In the year 5677 the community suffered a heavy blow when three quarters of the old city of Salonika burned to the ground in a huge fire. This was the area where most of the city’s Jews were concentrated. Out of the thirty-seven synagogues in the city, thirty-four were destroyed, along with more than four hundred sifrei Torah. Many communal institutions also burned down, as well as private homes and businesses .And, if this was not a sufficient blow, the Greek government then decided to confiscate the entire area affected by the blaze which resulted in many Jews being left entirely destitute. After all these events, the rabbonim of the city attempted to set the kehillah back on its feet, but the distinctly Jewish character of the city never returned after all it suffered during these few years.
In the period between the two World Wars, many Jews left Salonika. The exodus had begun in the wake of the great fire, after which many Jews found themselves without a source of livelihood, and it increased during the Thirties when many Greek refugees flooded into the city and established there a fascist regime which persecuted the Jews. During this decade more than twenty thousand Jews from Salonika ascended to Eretz Yisrael, mainly settling in Tel Aviv and Netanya. These Jews contributed greatly to the establishment of the maritime industry in the Holy Land, and many of them worked in the ports of Haifa and Tel Aviv.
During the Second World War, Germany conquered Greece and Nazi soldiers entered the city of Salonika on the 12th of Nissan in the year 5701. During the first year of the occupation there was little persecution of Jews – this only began during the following summer. On the 26th of Tammuz 5702, a German edict was proclaimed, demanding that all the Jews assemble in the main town square. Almost twenty thousand Jews obeyed this order of the Nazis, only to find themselves forced to dance there to the accompaniment of the raucous laughter of the evil Nazis who looked on with amusement and glee. After this event, the Nazis began to decree racial laws on the Jews, and the situation continued in this way until the winter of 5703, when the notorious Nazi murderer Dieter Wisliczeny yimach shemo arrived in Salonika, who had been charged with carrying out the extermination of the Jews of the city. On the 20th of Adar Rishon in 5703 the Nuremberg Laws were applied to the Jews of Salonika, and in addition to these, Jews were forbidden to be members of artisans’ guilds and to use public transportation, and were also restricted in a number of other ways – furthermore, they were obliged to wear a yellow patch on their clothing.
Of the once-glorious Jewish community of Salonika that had numbered more than 56,000 souls prior to the Holocaust, only around two thousand remained after the war, most of whom ascended to Eretz Yisrael. In Salonika itself only a tiny Jewish community remained, a pathetic reminder of what had once been. A physical testament to the Jewish community of the city stands in the town square – a stone monument – but the true spiritual identity of the Jews of Salonika continues to exist in the words of the seforim authored by their rabbonim through the ages, whose lips continue to move together with those of the Jews still learning their holy words.
From the fourteenth century CE, Spanish Jews began arriving in Salonika, owing mainly to the decrees of 5151. During this period, many riots took place directed against the Jews of Spain, and there arose the new phenomenon of Anusim’ (forced ones) – Jews who had outwardly converted to Christianity but secretly maintained their observance of Torah. Many Jews escaped from Spain during this time, and a large portion of them settled in Salonika. Around a hundred years later, in the year 5252, the decree of expulsion of Spanish Jewry was passed, causing another wave of Spanish Jews to arrive in Salonika. In the year 5253 the Jews of Sicily were expelled, and many of them too headed for Salonika – and then, just four years later, the Jews of Portugal were also banished from their homeland.
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| K'hal Shalom Shul-the oldest in Greece [צלם] |
These migratory waves led to the flourishing of the community in Salonika. It was precisely in the midst of this period that the regime that ruled over the city changed; the Venetian Republic that had ruled until then was dismembered and in its place the Ottoman Empire took power. The Ottomans treated the Jews more equally than had their former rulers; now their status was raised to that of all other non-Muslim nationalities. This development was an additional factor encouraging Jews migrating from other lands to choose Salonika as their new place of residence.
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| Jewish Cemetary from the 19th Century [צלם] |
At the conclusion of all these waves of migration, the Jews emerged as a majority of the inhabitants of Salonika. Out of approximately 24,000 residents, there were more than 13,000 Jews. The Jews during this period were divided between three main kehillos. The largest one was the Sephardi kehillah, that had swelled its ranks considerably following the Spanish expulsion. Then there was the Ashkenazi kehillah, and also a ‘Roman’ kehillah, consisting of the original Jews of Salonika whose presence in the city dated back to Roman times. Each kehillah had its own Torah institutions and other organisations for tzedakah and communal assistance, which were run independently of the institutions of the other Jewish kehillos. Despite this strict demarcation, when it came to dealing with the gentile rulers, the Jews united under one general organisation known as the ‘Ma’amad Ha’Ir’ (Town Council) which represented all the various kehillos together.
During this period when the Jews were still thriving in Salonika, there emerged many great Torah leaders from the ranks of the Jews living there, including Rabi Shmuel da Modina ztz”l (the Rashdam) and Rabi Moshe Almoshnino ztz”l. Many talmidei chachomim arrived in Salonika in order to learn Torah from the great scholars there, and Salonika was transformed into the Torah centre of Europe.
In the mid-seventeenth century CE a false Messiah arose in Salonika – Shabtai Tzvi yimach shemo. In Salonika itself he succeeded in attracting a huge following of believers in him, who were entirely dedicated to following in his ways. Indeed, they copied his behaviours and practices to an incredible extent, even when his actions were in contravention of halachah – in which cases the followers would justify his, and their, behaviour by various contrived means. Shabtai Tzvi then held a ‘wedding’ ceremony in Salonika, at which he placed a Sefer Torah in place of the kallah, with himself as chassan – but this act led to an outbreak of protest against him, and he was eventually banished from the city.
A number of years later Shabtai Tzvi married the daughter of Yosef Filosof from Salonika, who was one of his most dedicated followers. After his conversion to Islam and his death, in the year 5436, those who still believed in him established a cult in Salonika called the ‘Dunma’ cult. Those who joined this cult became a form of ‘Anusim out of choice’, since on the surface they had converted to Islam, but beneath this façade, they adhered to a strange mix of Judaism and idol worship. This cult continued to exist in Salonika alongside the regular kehillos for another two hundred years, but over time, they were gradually absorbed into the Muslim population and it became impossible to distinguish between them. Today there are a few remnants of this strange cult, living in Turkey.
At the end of the seventeenth century CE the three kehillos that had existed in Salonika until that point combined into one, and one Beis Din dealt with all necessary matters. The community continued to flourish, and at the beginning of the twentieth century CE Jews constituted sixty percent of the city’s population. There were more than thirty synagogues and fifty batei medrash – and also around ten yeshivos. The Jewish community of Salonika was one of the largest in the world at that time, and the city was known as ‘the Jerusalem of the Balkans’. The Jewish character of the city was so pronounced that on Shabbosim and Yomim Tovim there was a total cessation of work in the city, excepting the port, which was one of the most important ports in the entire region.
In the year 5673 there were many battles fought as well as much rioting in the Balkans region, at the conclusion of which the city of Salonika passed from Ottoman to Greek hands. This transfer had a negative impact on the Jews of the city, from an economic as well as spiritual standpoint. The Greek conquerors wanted to see Salonika transformed into a wholly Greek city as soon as possible, and with this in mind they placed great restrictions on Jewish commerce, in order to give preference to Greek workers and artisans. In addition, the new rulers passed a law establishing the day of rest as Sunday, and did not allow Jews to rest on Shabbos. Even self-employed workers suffered from this new edict, since they were now forced to cease work for two days of the week, leading to a great loss of income. Another blow to the Jewish community was the interference of the Greek authorities in the Jewish education system; the Greeks demanded that the hours dedicated to Torah study be reduced, in favour of vocational training.
Another new phenomenon that arose as a result of the Greek conquest of Salonika was the arrival of anti-Semitism. Until that point, the Jews of the city had lived in relative peace and security in comparison to their brethren in other regions of the world, but now they found themselves the victims of riots and persecution at the hands of their Christian neighbours, who would even enter the synagogues and desecrate the holy seforim they found there.
In the year 5677 the community suffered a heavy blow when three quarters of the old city of Salonika burned to the ground in a huge fire. This was the area where most of the city’s Jews were concentrated. Out of the thirty-seven synagogues in the city, thirty-four were destroyed, along with more than four hundred sifrei Torah. Many communal institutions also burned down, as well as private homes and businesses .And, if this was not a sufficient blow, the Greek government then decided to confiscate the entire area affected by the blaze which resulted in many Jews being left entirely destitute. After all these events, the rabbonim of the city attempted to set the kehillah back on its feet, but the distinctly Jewish character of the city never returned after all it suffered during these few years.
In the period between the two World Wars, many Jews left Salonika. The exodus had begun in the wake of the great fire, after which many Jews found themselves without a source of livelihood, and it increased during the Thirties when many Greek refugees flooded into the city and established there a fascist regime which persecuted the Jews. During this decade more than twenty thousand Jews from Salonika ascended to Eretz Yisrael, mainly settling in Tel Aviv and Netanya. These Jews contributed greatly to the establishment of the maritime industry in the Holy Land, and many of them worked in the ports of Haifa and Tel Aviv.
During the Second World War, Germany conquered Greece and Nazi soldiers entered the city of Salonika on the 12th of Nissan in the year 5701. During the first year of the occupation there was little persecution of Jews – this only began during the following summer. On the 26th of Tammuz 5702, a German edict was proclaimed, demanding that all the Jews assemble in the main town square. Almost twenty thousand Jews obeyed this order of the Nazis, only to find themselves forced to dance there to the accompaniment of the raucous laughter of the evil Nazis who looked on with amusement and glee. After this event, the Nazis began to decree racial laws on the Jews, and the situation continued in this way until the winter of 5703, when the notorious Nazi murderer Dieter Wisliczeny yimach shemo arrived in Salonika, who had been charged with carrying out the extermination of the Jews of the city. On the 20th of Adar Rishon in 5703 the Nuremberg Laws were applied to the Jews of Salonika, and in addition to these, Jews were forbidden to be members of artisans’ guilds and to use public transportation, and were also restricted in a number of other ways – furthermore, they were obliged to wear a yellow patch on their clothing.
Holocaust Memorial for the 46,061 Solonikan Jews Killed in the Gas Chambers
[צלם]
Of the once-glorious Jewish community of Salonika that had numbered more than 56,000 souls prior to the Holocaust, only around two thousand remained after the war, most of whom ascended to Eretz Yisrael. In Salonika itself only a tiny Jewish community remained, a pathetic reminder of what had once been. A physical testament to the Jewish community of the city stands in the town square – a stone monument – but the true spiritual identity of the Jews of Salonika continues to exist in the words of the seforim authored by their rabbonim through the ages, whose lips continue to move together with those of the Jews still learning their holy words.
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