The Jews of Greece and Thessaloniki

Thessaloniki, or Salonika, was for several centuries one of the great centers of Mediterranean Judaism, to the point of being called "the mother of Israel." After the expulsion from Spain in 1492, the city welcomed numerous Sephardim who formed there a large community, long the majority or a very significant presence in the urban population, and largely Judeo-Spanish-speaking. Salonika radiated through its commerce, its crafts — notably textiles — and its intellectual and rabbinic activity. The passage of the city to Greek sovereignty in 1912, followed by a great fire in 1917, weakened the community. The deportation of 1943 to the Nazi extermination camps annihilated virtually the entirety of the Jews of Thessaloniki, bringing to an end centuries of presence.

Sources & resources

• Encyclopaedia Judaica — 2e éd., Keter/Macmillan
• Jewish Virtual Library ↗