Salónica and Istanbul

Social, Political and Cultural Aspects of Jewish Life

Rena Molho

The Isis Press, Istanbul «taS PPeSS

2010 Gorgias Press LLC, 954 River Road, Piscataway, NJ, 08854, USA www.gorgiaspress.com Copyright © 2010 by The Isis Press, Istanbul Originally published in 2005 All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise without the prior written permission of The Isis Press, Istanbul. 2010

ISBN 978-1-61719-126-8

Printed in the United States of America

Dr. Rena Molho studied European history at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the Aristotelion University of and received her Ph.D with distinction from the University of Human Sciences of Strasbourg. She has taken part in many symposiums, television and radio programs, in and abroad and has published more than 30 studies in both Greek and foreign scientific books, encyclopaedias and journals. Her work focuses on the different expressions of Ottoman and Greek Jewish civilization and culture and more specifically that of the Jews of Salonica. Her research has been supported with grants by the Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture of New York and by the Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation in Los Angeles. In 1996 she became senior interviewer and coordinator in Greece for the Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation and has videotaped 70 holocaust Greek survivors' personal accounts. She is currently the coordinator for the Centropa organisation that is conducting a new series of audio interviews of Thessaloniki born survivers who after 1945 returned and settled in Greece Dr. R. Molho has taught the history of Jewish presence in Greece in seminars organized by the International Study Groups, and since 1991 she is co-founder of the Society for the Study of Greek Jewry. Since 1999-2000, she is visiting professor at in Athens, the first Greek academic institution to include the course of Jewish History in its curriculumn in Greece until today[2005]. Her book The Jews of Thessaloniki, 1856-1919: A Unique Community received the Athens Academy Award in December 2000 and in 2001 it was published in Greek by Themelio publishing house. It is since a university handbook distributed to Greek students of Jewish History. This book is now being translated and will be published in Turkish. To my Father and my dearest friends, Moira Paterson, Christine Frat, Izo Abram, Gerard Galtier, Chana Ruda-Carlebach and Samy Taboh, who have never let me down.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Foreword 9

Part I: HISTORICAL OVERVIEW 1. Les Juifs en Grèce au XXème siècle 17 2. The Jewish Presence in Salonica 37 3. Germany's Policy Against the Jews of Greece: The Annihilation of the Jewish Community of Thessaloniki, 1941- 1944 49

PART II: SOCIAL AND INSTITUTIONAL ORGANISATION 4. Etat de la recherche 73 5. Le renouveau de la communauté juive de Salonique entre 1856 et 1919 85 6. Les Juifs d'Istanbul avant et après les Tanzimat 99 7. Jewish Working-Class Neighborhoods Established in Salonica Following the 1890 and 1917 Fires 107 8. Education in the Jewish Community of Salonica in the Beginning of the Twentieth Century 127 9. Female Jewish Education in Salonica at the End of the 19th Century 139 10. Le Cercle de Salonique 1873-1958 : Club des Saloniciens .. 151

PART III: THE POLITICAL ROLE OF THE JEWS FROM 1908 TO 1936 11. The Zionist Movement in Salonica up to the A'Panhellenic Zionist Congress 165 12. The Jewish Community of Salonica and Its Incorporation into the Greek State 1912-1919 187 13. Salonique après 1912. Les propagandes étrangères et la communauté juive 203 14. Popular Antisemitism and State Policy in Salonica during the City's Annexation to Greece, 1912-1919 217 15. La législation anti-juive de Venizélos entre les deux guerres ou comment la République peut venir au secours de l'antisémitisme 229 8 SALONICA AND ISTANBUL

PART IV: JUDEO-SPANISH LANGUAGE AND CULTURE 16. The Judeo-Spanish, a Mediterranean Language in Daily Use in 20th Century Salonica 243 17. Le théâtre judéo-espagnol à Salonique: une source de l'histoire sociale des Juifs locaux 263 18. Judeo-Spanish Theatre Plays on the Themes of Tradition and Change in the Early Twentieth Century, 275

CHRONOLOGY 285 BIBLIOGRAPHY 289