learning the beautiful language of homer

Jewish History 16: 235–262, 2002.c© 2002 Kluwer Academic Publishers. Printed in the Netherlands.

235

“Learning the beautiful language of Homer:” ∗

Judeo-Spanish speaking Jews and the Greek language andculture between the Wars

EYAL GINIO†

The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel

Abstract. The incorporation of Salonica into Greece following the Balkan Warscaused major changes in the lives of the local Jewish community. Once a religiousminority in a multi-ethnic and multi-religious state, the Jews now found themselvesa minority in a national state. Amidst this climate, the language question became acritical issue for Greek Jewry, particularly after the overwhelmingly Judeo-Spanishcommunity of Salonica was required to adopt Greek. This article explores debatesabout language choice and acculturation that were published in Judeo-Spanish andconsumed by readers, mainly in Salonica. It suggests that the community’s edu-cational system played a central role in the acculturation process. By dedicating alarge share of the curricula to instruction of Greek and to teaching Greek history andgeography, it was believed, the younger generation could be acquainted with Greekculture and thus able to participate fully in Greek public life. The older generationeducated under Ottoman rule and fully ignorant of Greek language presented an-other challenge for those seeking linguistic assimilation. They had to be approachedthrough Judeo-Spanish writing. The translations of Greek books and lectures givenin Judeo-Spanish on Greek civilization were believed to enable them the absorptionof Greek civilization. Even as sources such as this were published, the wide-spreaduse of Judeo-Spanish as a means of acculturation was believed to be temporary. Asthe language was not considered by anyone to serve as a national language, it wasdoomed to disappear even prior to the Holocaust, which eventually put an end tothe thriving community of Salonica.

∗ This is a paraphrase of a declaration given in an apologetic article that waspublished in the Jewish daily El Pwevlo to refute Greek allegations about the Jews’reluctance to assimilate into Greek society and to further encourage the absorptionof Greek culture and language among the local Jews. See Shim´on Burla, “Los Gid¯yos de Saloniko y La Greca,” El Pwevlo, 13.3.1925.

† In the preparation of this article I used the collection of the Yad Ben-Zvi libraryin Jerusalem. I would like to acknowledge my gratitude to the library’s staff forassisting me with my research. I am especially indebted to Mr. Dov Hakohen, whois currently compiling a general annotated bibliography of all known Judeo-Spanishpublications, for his invaluable help and advice. I would also like to thank theHarry S. Truman Research Institute for the Advancement of Peace, at the HebrewUniversity of Jerusalem, for providing me with financial assistance in support of thisresearch.

236 EYAL GINIO

During the summer of 1933, my father Gabriel Ginio, then a child offive, travelled with his parents and his elder brother from Palestine tovisit their relatives in Salonica. Their first-ever encounter with thatbranch of the family may serve as insight into the profound changesof identity experienced by Sephardi communities during the inter-warperiod. The languages used at the family reunion clearly exemplify thisswift shift of identities. The generation of the parents, if we can recon-struct the encounter, probably found common subjects and commonlanguages quite easily. Although born in two different and relativelydistant Ottoman cities – Jerusalem and Salonica – their backgroundswere quite similar. They shared the cultural world of the OttomanSephardi communities. The surviving photos clearly show them at easewith one another. We can picture the conversation flowing easily, withnot even language posing any barrier. Most likely they began theiracquaintance in the French language: educated in the Alliance IsraeliteUniverselle establishments1 they were all fluent in French, which rep-resented for them the enlightened and redeeming culture of the West.While religious practice continued to play a major role in their everydaylives, they were all familiar with French ways. Their later correspon-dence in that language supports this hypothesis. However, when theconversation turned to be more familiar and informal, we can imaginethat they – probably the women first, and later the men – resortedincreasingly to their other common language: Judeo-Spanish. Whilethis language was no longer regarded as a respectful and modern meansof communication, it continued, nevertheless, to serve as a language ofintimate conversation.2

The children’s encounter, on the other hand, was totally different.My father clearly remembers that the communication with his newlydiscovered cousins was very awkward. While all the children had somepassive knowledge of Judeo-Spanish, it did not serve them as their firstlanguage. My father and his brother, both pupils of the fledgling Zionisteducational system in Palestine, spoke Hebrew among themselves andwith their parents. The Salonican children, my father recalls, spokemostly Greek. Their cultural world – if we can use this term for childrenof such a young age – was different as well. Remembering through theeyes of five-year-old, my father recounts that his Salonican cousins likedmost of all to dress up as Greek soldiers – a demonstration of Greekpatriotism that was quite alien to the young visitors from Palestine.

This family reunion demonstrates the linguistic and cultural shiftsthat Sephardi Jews underwent during the inter-war period. The storyof my father’s generation in Mandatory Palestine and their absorption

JUDEO-SPANISH SPEAKING JEWS 237

of the newly established national Hebrew culture has been thoroughlytold and researched.3 However, the story of his Salonican cousins, allof whom were sent to their deaths in the gas chambers of Auschwitzten years later, and their attempts to assimilate into Greek society andculture have only been partly told.4 Most of the existing literature onSalonican Jews deals with the Zionist and socialist activities in Sa-lonica between the wars.5 In this paper I would like to explore anotherangle of the Salonican Jews’ search for identity and future – theirattempt to absorb the Greek language and through this acquisitionof the state language, to safeguard their future in their native city.6

These attempts came to an abrupt end with the outbreak of WorldWar II and the almost total annihilation of Jewish Salonica. The onlysurviving printed materials are the first halting and incomplete stepsthat were taken to achieve this end. These steps were published mostlyin Judeo-Spanish and, to lesser extent, in French. While Judeo-Spanishwas often dismissed by its speakers as an anachronistic vestige of theirpast that must be replaced with a “modern” language, it still playedthe role of a primary linguistic vehicle to spread new ideas. Therefore,the researcher who attempts to explore the changing world of Sephardicommunities during the inter-war period still finds most of his sourceswritten in Judeo-Spanish.

These hesitating steps of acculturation consist, first of all, of discus-sions and articles in the flourishing local Jewish press, of Greek lessonsinserted into Jewish schools, of books and booklets that were translatedfrom Greek and others that presented Greek history and civilizationto their audience in the form of erudite academic lectures or popularnovels. They included sundry small advertisements for private lessonsof Greek, announcements of plays and films performed in Greek orthe composing of songs in Judeo-Spanish that followed popular Greektunes. This article deals with these pioneer steps embodied in schoolcurricula, literature, popular fiction and the press of Salonica during theinter-war period. It should be borne in mind, however, that the booksand journals that I was able to use in preparing this paper presentonly a fraction of the material published in Salonica by Jews duringthe inter-war period. They are merely a few vestiges of a flourishingintellectual and popular scene, as published in Salonica by Jews forJews and that somehow later reached Israel. We will never know aboutmany other publications that were lost during the Holocaust.

238 EYAL GINIO

The external pressure for linguistic change: The Greek stateand society

The Jewish discourse regarding the Greek language was not shaped ina political void; quite the contrary, the requirement to adapt Greekstemmed, first, from external and powerful pressure: the Greek au-thorities. Indeed, the unequivocal need to hastily adapt the Greeklanguage was very different from the previous vigorous language debatethat was held among Sephardi intellectuals during the last decades ofOttoman rule.7 The collapse of Ottoman rule over most of the BalkanPeninsula following the first Balkan War (October 1912–May 1913)explains this difference: it caused major changes, including linguistictransformations, in the lives of local Jewish communities; most of themconsisted of Judeo-Spanish speakers. From a religious minority in anall-inclusive multi-ethnic and multi-religious Ottoman state, the Jewsfound themselves as a minority in national states. They were required toadapt to the culture of their new states. The acquisition of the nationallanguage came to the fore and became the main demand.8 An illustra-tive example of this need, now required of the Jews in all Balkan states,is a dictionary of the Judeo-Spanish and Bulgarian languages publishedin 1913 by Albert Pipano in Sofia. The dictionary is accompanied bya practical phrase book. While the author instructed his readers howto say and pronounce in Bulgarian “en ke tyempo se kome en Sofia?”(“When do they eat in Sofia?”), he urged his potential audience –the Jews of Thrace and Macedonia, the so-called provinces of “newBulgaria” – to make an effort and to promptly acquire the languageof their new country. According to him, a major shift (trokamyentoradikal) in the lives of these Jewish communities was on the verge oftaking place. The Jews could no longer cling to their old language asthey used to do in the multi-ethnic and multi-linguistic Ottoman state.Now that they were incorporated into different nation states, they hadto adapt quickly to the new circumstances, if they wanted – he furthercontinued – to survive and to safeguard their economic position.9

The lot of the thriving community of Salonica was not different.The sudden and unexpected surrender of the 25,000-strong Ottomangarrison of Salonica stunned the Jewish community of the city. Only afew days before the capitulation, the Jewish press provided optimisticdetails about the determination of the Ottoman soldiers to defend thecity and regarding the imminent arrival of fresh reinforcements fromAnatolia that would replenish the local garrison and deter the Greeksand Bulgarians from capturing the city. In spite of that, the Greekarmy was able to capture Salonica, the major centre of Sephardi Jewry,


during the first weeks of the combats. The Greek units’ entry intothe city was accompanied by anti-Jewish actions.10 Yet, following theestablishment of a firm authority over the city, the Jews’ position in thecity temporarily ameliorated. A new policy was adopted to strengthenGreece’s ambition in Anatolia; Greece than endorsed an expansionistvision that heralded the civil mission of Greece in the Orient. Accord-ingly, Greece understood that the Western Powers’ attitude towardsGreece’s future possessions in Anatolia might be determined in accor-dance with the Greek approach to its minorities. Greece emphasizedits tolerance and acceptance of its varied religious minorities.11

This tolerant attitude was short-lived: following Greece’s hasty re-treat from Anatolia (September 1922) such considerations evaporated.The Greek state completely changed course and embarked on a policyof cultural homogeneity. This policy was facilitated by the departure ofmost of the non-Greek population and the parallel influx and settlementof Greek refugees from Anatolia in Macedonia following the Lausannetreaty (1923). Consequently, the population of recently acquired Mace-donia of which the Greek-speaking population had comprised less thanhalf in 1912, had by 1923 become overwhelmingly Greek.12

The “national catastrophe,” as the debacle in Anatolia would belater known, reversed the policies towards religious minorities and fur-thered the development of exclusionary discourse in Greece. The Sep-hardi Jews of Salonica became at this point the most visible “foreign”minority element in Greece. While their number was insignificant withregard to the general population (about 1%), in Salonica, the secondlargest city of Greece, they represented about one-quarter to one thirdof the population13 – clearly the only minority of any significance leftin the city. Their image was described in the contemporary literatureas the ultimate “others:” oriental foreigners and an unwelcome ves-tige of the Ottoman era, who were loath to assimilate by absorbingGreek culture.14 Moreover, the political strife that followed the militarydebacle in Anatolia further eroded the Jews’ position. The inter-warperiod was characterized by the bitter animosity between Venizelists(the supporters of Eleftherios Venizelos, 1864–1936) and royalists whoboth strove for power. Frequent violent changes of governments marredGreek politics during the inter-war period. The thriving press playeda major role in this political conflict; it served often as the battle-field between the opposing factions and as the main arena to inciteaction against real and virtual opponents.15 The Salonican Jews werea constant target of the Venizelist press. While most of the generalpopulation of Salonica, like all the population of the new territories and

240 EYAL GINIO

the refugees, were staunch supporters of Venizelos, the Jews sided withthe royalist party. Their position often was under threat on the groundsof their identification with the royalists. When the Venizelists were ableto seize political power, the Jews felt overwhelmingly menaced andattacked.16

Anti-Jewish slogans were not restricted to the Venizelist press. TheGreek authorities attempted during the 1920s and 1930s to turn thelocal Judeo-Spanish-speaking Jews into invisibles in their own city.The rebuilding of central Salonica, following the big fire of 1917, pro-vided the Greek authorities with a unique opportunity: the deliberateddestruction of the city’s “oriental” layout in favour of Western archi-tecture, and the adaptation of neo-Byzantine architectural patternsthat would reassert the direct link between the Byzantine city andthe contemporary one, totally changed the city’s appearance.17 Newlegislation was another mode of marginalizing the local Jews and theirdistinct culture and language: electoral colleges were created for theJews who, subsequently, could vote for a set number of Jewish candi-dates for the Greek parliament. The expropriation of the area hit bythe fire in return for undervalued bonds forced many Jews to leave thecentral parts of the city and to move to the suburbs; all shops had tobe closed on Sundays; and accounting books had to be kept in Greek.All these measures were designed to hellenize this major port-city. Thestate also intervened in the realm of education: the communal schoolsand the Alliance establishments had to include, in return for a regularstate subsidy, Greek lessons and the instruction in Greek of history,geography, and the natural sciences; finally, in 1934 all foreign schoolswere closed.18

Language was the key-issue. Fragiski Abatzopoulou remarks that forthe local Greek press, led by the anti-Jewish daily Makedonia, the worstaccusation attributed to the local Jewish community was their refusalto learn Greek.19 Makedonia’s iniquitous articles were often the leadingvoice attacking the local Jewish community and in inciting assaultson them.20 An illustrative example of the attitude of the local Greekpress is an article that was published in 1930 by Petros Spadonidis,a local schoolteacher who would soon become the first editor-in-chiefof the modernist literary magazine Makedonikes Imeres (“MacedonianDays”). In his article he declared himself aghast at the ubiquitous pres-ence of the Spanish language used by the Jews. People in the street, heclaimed, talk only about fechos (“business” in Judeo-Spanish).21 TheGreek authorities and Greek society demanded from the Jews a swift


and radical change of identity. Yet, they were loath to accord a decentamount of time for the fulfilment of this process.

Debating and spreading the assimilationist message:The Jewish press

How did the Jewish community respond to this unprecedented chal-lenge? Some of the responses are found in the local press, publishedmainly in Judeo-Spanish. When referring to Jewish press in Salonicaduring the inter-war period, it should be noted that this was a relativelynew phenomenon that emerged only in the second half of the 19thcentury. Its emergence was clearly connected to the formation of a newgeneration of Sephardi Jews who were educated in Western-affiliatedschools, mostly the Alliance. Indeed, the local Jewish press in Judeo-Spanish was one of the major fruits of these modernization attemptsthat took place around the turn of the century, and the main instru-ment to spread the new imported ideas.22 Michael Steinlauf concludesthat the Yiddish press in Poland “arose to meet the needs of a largeJewish readership little conversant with non-Jewish languages, but whodemanded the kind of window on the modern world which only a dailynewspaper could furnish.”23 The Judeo-Spanish press played a similarrole within the Sephardi communities of the Ottoman state.

The Judeo-Spanish press was undoubtedly one of the significantproducts of the new writing. It also served as the laboratory for linguis-tic innovations and borrowings and as the main arena for interchanginghot debates and suggesting new ideas and directions. Salonica playedan important role in these debates, as it was one of the major centres ofJewish press in the late Ottoman period.24 Between the wars the presscontinued to play a major role in the community’s life, as is clearlyshown by the large number and diversified character of the journals.25

The local Jewish press reveals a community in confusion and in-ternal conflict. As mentioned above, the notions of modernization andresurgence were not new in the local discourse. Neither was the needto reform the local vernacular unfamiliar. Yet, when the Greek armyentered Salonica, the local Jewish community appeared to be unable tocope with the new situation. For one thing, Greek was never countedamong the suggested languages that might serve the future genera-tions of what was perceived as “modernized Jews.” A Jewish journalistdescribed the Jews’ ignorance of Greek culture during that period asfollows: “we were ignorant of Greek customs, of Greek culture, of theGreeks’ race, of its past, its history, its language, its national ideal, its

242 EYAL GINIO

hope, its detestation.”26 The absorption of Greek culture had to beapplied virtually from scratch and required plenty of time.

Exacerbating the situation, the Jewish community did not speakin one voice during the 1910s, the ‘20s or the ‘30s. On the contrary,the community was engulfed in bitter debates concerning its identity.One voice can be found in a lecture given in 1917 by I. Alchech ySaporta, a Salonican Jew. He saw no future for the Jews in the Greekterritory. According to him, the Sephardi Jews, “Spaniards without afatherland,” should tie their future to their lost Spanish fatherland.Accordingly, his vision was proclaimed in Castilian Spanish.27 Anotherand opposing voice called in French for the full assimilation of the localJewish community. J. Saıas published in Paris in 1919 a manifestoin which he called on the Salonican Jews to assimilate completelyinto Greek culture. In his vision, this assimilation should be easy toachieve as the Jews are “very intelligent” and Greek legislation did notposses any minority-restrictive laws. According to him, the Jews of “OldGreece” proved the ability of the Jews to join the Greek civilization.He compared the future of the assimilated Jews to the lot of what heperceived as the future-assimilated Greeks who lived in Palestine andsurely would be part of the future “Jewish kingdom,” whose imminentestablishment had been recently proclaimed. For him, the acquisition ofthe Greek language was the key to full integration and assimilation.28

It is interesting to note that both contradicting opinions were pub-lished in Western languages, Spanish and French, and thus clearlydemonstrate the authors’ cultural affiliations. However, most of thedebates inside the Jewish community of Salonica were conducted duringthe 1920s-‘30s in the “old” language, Judeo-Spanish. It seems that formost Salonican Jews the future was not connected in these early yearsthat followed the city’s incorporation into Greece with immigrationor full assimilation. Their main ambition was to safeguard their ownfuture in their native city. This tendency explains the swift rise of Zion-ism among the Jews of Salonica during the inter-war period: Zionismwas meant to serve as a counter-ideology inside the Greek politicalarena. Unable to join Greek nationalism Zionism was understood as anideology that could unite the local Jewish population and strengthenits vitality and national identity in the face of local adversaries. Theirstruggle was meant to safeguard the Jewish presence in the city, notto reconstruct Eretz Israel.29 Esther Benbassa and Aron Rodrigue de-scribe Salonican Zionism as “Diaspora nationalism, more concernedwith local problems than with emigration [to Palestine].”30 The Zion-ists were not the only players in the community; the inter-war period


was marked by the debate between them and the “Moderates” (losmoderados) or the “Assimilationists” as their opponents preferred tolabel them. The main contested issue evolved around the Jews’ futureposition in Greece. Yet, the prevailing assumption was that Jews wouldalways live in Salonica. The major question was whether they shouldbe considered a national minority or merely a religious minority.31

The internal split inside the Jewish community of Salonica was oneaspect of Jewish life in inter-war Greece. Another division that had amajor linguistic aspect was the distinction between the Jews of “old”Greece and those who joined the Greek state only following the BalkanWars: the Jews of “new” Greece. When the Jews of Salonica confrontedthe issue of linguistic assimilation they had to cope with the precedenceand example of the mainly Greek-speaking Jews of old Greece. Thisrequirement had, first of all, administrative implications: the Almanacof Greek Jewry for the year 5683 [1922/23] spoke clearly about theurgent need to group together the Jews of “old” and “new” Greece inunited communal organizations. The book was intended, stated the au-thors, to facilitate their mutual acquaintance.32 Only in 1929 were theJews of Greece able to organize a conference of all their communities.The conference duly published a brochure that was written both inJudeo-Spanish and Greek.33 The presence of Greek-speaking Jews wassignificant with regard to the possible acculturation of the SalonicanJews; both Jews who were exponents of assimilation and Greeks whoadmonished the Salonican Jews for being stubborn in their wish toretain Judeo-Spanish alluded to the Jews of “old” Greece as a stimulat-ing precedent. A comparison between the adoptive and assimilationistJews of “Old” Greece and the Salonican community, which clung toso-called “petrified” traditions, was often raised.34 The communities of“old” Greece were always there to remind the Salonican Jews of thepossibility of absorbing the Greek language and culture.

The approach towards the Greek language, as presented in the Jew-ish press, clearly demonstrates the community’s determination to as-similate and integrate into the Greek state. Yet, the editorial articlesindicate that the meaning and implications of the assimilation were notyet clear, even for the writers. Would it require and imply, for example,the ultimate conversion to Christianity or at least the need to abandonJewish identity? What is the meaning of Judaism for a secular Jewwho lives in a nation-state? Nevertheless, all political fragments wereunited in their stand towards the Greek language: the Jews must learnthe language and be acquainted with the Greek culture. MasteringGreek was a condition for finding a decent job, for claiming citizen’s

244 EYAL GINIO

rights, for being able to fulfil one’s obligation towards his state, forexample, to serve in the army.35 Even the Zionist press did not frownon acculturation. On the contrary, Zionists supported and encouragedthe study of Greek in their various institutions. They advocated theacquiring of “the country’s language” (lıngua del paez ) as a prerequisiteto benefiting from all rights of Greek citizenship. It is true that insome of their publications, the Zionists emphasized the need to studymore hours of Hebrew and Jewish national history in schools and;accordingly, pronounced some reluctance regarding the hegemony ofthe Greek language inside the Jewish school, yet the need to masterGreek was also publicly proclaimed.36 This latter need was claimedfor two reasons: to be able to spread the Zionist dream to the Jews of“Old” Greece and to enable the Jews to enjoy full rights in Greece. TheGreek Zionists reiterated that Palestine would never be able to supportthe migration of all Diaspora Jews. Therefore, Jews will always live inthe Diaspora, including Greece.37 The Zionist press labelled the needto integrate into Greek society as politic and linguistic assimilation (laasimilasyon polıtika i lingwistika) without relinquishing the particularcharacteristics that make the Jews a national minority.38 To achievethis end among the older generation and among the working youth,mainly those who lived in the popular suburbs, the Zionists used theirinfrastructure of clubs to initiate and organize evening classes andconferences in Greek.39

Finally, the Jewish press endeavoured to demonstrate its loyaltyand the attachment of the Jewish population to the Greek fatherlandthrough publishing festive editions on Greek national days. A grow-ing tendency was to publish some sections of this special edition inGreek. Here, again, the explicit use of Greek was meant to herald andreaffirm the community’s commitment towards the Greek state andthe Greek language. El Mesajero published, for example, on 26 Octo-ber 1936 a celebratory edition marking the anniversary of the city’sliberation by the Greek army. Eminent members of the communitywere asked to contribute articles for the occasion. This was not all;the journal also published a page in Greek, including original articlesand articles translated from the Judeo-Spanish edition. All items weremeant to emphasize the good relations between the Greek and Jews,the Jews’ identification with their Greek fatherland and to glorify theGreek national leaders.40 The description of the Salonican Jews as“Greeks in soul and feelings” (Ellines tin Psihin kai ta aisthimata)clearly demonstrates the prevailing ambience adopted by the daily.41

In this case, we can assume that the special page was designated for an


external audience; it was meant to draw the attention of the generalpublic to the Jews’ loyalty towards the Greek government and state.However, this special edition was also designated to reach the growingyoung audience of Jews who in this stage mastered Greek throughtheir education in the communal schools during the inter-war period.These youngsters were the main targets and hope for acculturationthrough the Jewish educational infrastructure. Thanks to them, thefuture of Jewish-Greek relationship was depicted in the Jewish press inoptimistic terms; time was all that was needed. No magic wand couldpromptly do the cultural transfer, noted Shim´on Burla in El Pwevlo.42

He further argued in his polemic article that “by now many young Jews,who only few years ago did not know even one word in the beautifullanguage of Homer, are now enthusiastic readers of Greek periodicals;the newly married who spend their honey–moons in Europe now preferAthens as a destination; the Jews are more and more interested in thepolitical life of our country . . . .”43 For him, the acculturation of theyounger generation was clearly in sight. The community school weredesignated to accomplish this civilizing process.

Linguistic assimilation through education

The most efficient channel of acculturation was the educational systemthat catered for the new generation – the children who were bornafter Salonica’s incorporation into Greece. Undoubtedly, most of theattention was given to teaching Greek in the community’s schools. Thechief inspector of the community school system published in 1927 areport about the schools that were under his supervision. The sevenschools had a total of 3,405 pupils, aged from five to twelve or thirteen,(the community did not have a high school). In his detailed report, theinspector outlines the weekly division of hours in schools, according tothe language of instruction.44 The division is as follows in Table 1.

The linguistic priorities are evident. The community schools had tobuild their educational program between the two opposing and prevail-ing camps – the Zionists who advocated the instruction of Hebrew andJudaism, and the assimilationists, who altogether questioned the needto have separate Jewish schools in general and the study of Hebrew andJewish history in particular.45 As a compromise the children began thestudy of Hebrew and Greek simultaneously and very early, already inthe first year of their formal education (azılo). The study of Frenchwas postponed for older age, while the study of Judeo-Spanish wastotally marginalized. The inspector explains the need to study French,

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Table 1. Weekly division of hours, according to language of instruction

Class Hebrew Spanish46 Greek French Physical Drawing Total

education

First year of Azilo 14 14 28

Segunda 14 14 28

Prima 9 1 14 7 1 1 33

elementarya

Segunda 9 1 14 7 1 1 33

Tersya 8 1 14 8 1 1 33

Prima superyora 8 1 15 8 1 1 34

Segunda 8 16 8 1 1 34

though at a later stage, for two reasons: the already “traditional” statusof French as the main venue for the Sephardi Jews to the encounterWestern civilization and as the principle vehicle for their cultural trans-formation from Orientals into Westerners; the second reason was due tothe status of French as the lingua franca of international commerce.47

The children began their acquaintance with the Hebrew and Greeklanguages, the inspector further elaborated, through games, rhymes,and simple exercises. Later, they were introduced to the two differentalphabets; only then did they begin the thorough study of readingand writing of both languages. At the age of eleven they started, inaddition, to learn other subjects, such as general and local Geogra-phy and history.48 Greek language continued to feature as the majorsubject all along the curriculum. The chief inspector also mentions thepupils’ linguistic abilities at the end of each group of classes. He en-deavours to refute allegations made by “nozotros asimilad ores” (thosewho advocated an integral and swift assimilation) against the slowpace of learning Greek and the exaggerated place given to Hebrew inthe community schools. He boasts that the children can read Greekfluently and have no difficulty continuing their studies in the regularhigh schools and even to university level. His final aim, he proclaims, isthat the Jewish youngsters wil master and use the Greek language asthe Greeks themselves do, and that they will be well acquainted withGreek history and civilization.49

Indeed, acculturation was to be achieved, it was believed, throughthe teaching of Greek language and history to the Jewish youth atschools. In addition to attending frontal classes of Greek, the per-


forming of theatrical plays that were based on Greek history was alsointroduced into Jewish schools.50 An illuminating example is a playthat was staged by the pupils of Alchyh School for girls for the occasionof the Greek national day (26.3). The school administration chose tostage an adaptation of “El Horo de Zalongo” (“The Dance of Zalongo”).The play commemorates the bravery of the Christian women of Souliwho courageously revolted against the tyranny of the “blood–shedding”(sanginaryo) Ali Pasha from Ioannina.51 Katherine Fleming describesAli Pasha’s character as perceived among national cyircles in ModernGreece as “a paradigm of Turkish cruelty and rapacity, the quintessenceof barbarism, an Antichrist.”52 Probably the school could not havefound a better patriotic play to perform on Greece’s national day.

Can we assess the success of the Jewish education system to acquaintthe community’s youth with the Greek language? One indication of itssuccess is the gradual use of Greek inside the Jewish community and inthe scope of Jewish internal issues. The Zionist weekly La RenasensyaGud ıa (The Jewish Renaissance) began publishing, from 17 March1932, its last page in Greek under the identical translated Greek title:Evraıki Anayennisis. The journal’s announcement about this innova-tion is pertinent to our discussion: the editorial presents two aims forthe Greek edition – to have access to the Greek-speaking Jews of “Old”Greece, who remained ignorant of the Zionist enterprise since they didnot possess any organ in their language, and to reach the youth ofSalonica and other parts of Macedonia and Thrace who know Greekbut were unfamiliar with Judeo-Spanish.53 This testimony indicates thedegree of the linguistic transformation: to reach the young audience ofSalonican Jews, at least through written media, one had to use Greekwriting.

However, there was still the important audience of adults who wereeducated during Ottoman times. As mentioned above, some possibil-ities were to be found in the Jewish clubs, where adults could joinevening Greek courses. Another option was to acquaint them withGreek civilization through the translation of Greek works into Judeo-Spanish, still the prevailing language among the adults.

Reaching the adults: Translations from Greek toJudeo-Spanish

Jews were not only summoned to learn the Greek language. Graduallyincreasing efforts were made to acquaint the Jewish public with Greekcivilization and history as well. Translations from Greek were one chan-

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nel through which this was achieved. During the 1920s we can findtranslations that were envisioned as part of an educational mission –few high-quality masterpieces translated from Greek to Judeo-Spanish.Later, we find more and more translations of popular novels that at-tested to the fact that the Jewish lectures were increasingly aware ofGreek popular writing, yet they still preferred to read them in theirmother tongue.

The Judeo-Spanish press was instrumental in publishing the newlyemerging Judeo-Spanish secular literature. Translations, adaptationsand original works were published in series form in the journals or aschapbooks that were edited by the Jewish press. These translations, ormore correctly abridged adaptations,54 are a major source for exploringthe intellectual world of the translator and of his potential readers. OlgaBorovaia’s paper about the translation to Judeo-Spanish of Gulliver’sTravels impressively demonstrates the considerable insight that one canget through examining these translations.55

The novel was relatively a new genre in Judeo-Spanish, as in otherlanguages spoken by Ottomans. Like journalism, it was part of thegrowing Ottoman acquaintance with Western culture.56 Most of thetranslations to Judeo-Spanish were made during the last decades ofOttoman rule from or through Hebrew and French. Others were madefrom German, Italian, Greek, English, Turkish and Russian.57 Trans-lations from Greek, as the need to study Greek, were an innovationclearly connected to the Greek takeover of Salonica.

David Bunis, in his research on the languages of inter-war JewishSalonica, provides the list of translated works from Greek to Judeo-Spanish.58 The list provides us with about dozen translations. Amongthem we can find historical and popular novels and ideological socialistliterature. One source of encouragement for translations from Greek toJudeo-Spanish indeed stemmed from socialist circles. 59 The socialistsperceived the translations from Greek as a means to spread ideologicalpoints of view. Their aim was not to use these translations to acquainttheir Jewish audience with Greek culture per se, but to use Greeksocialist literature as another source for enriching the existing scentliterature in Judeo-Spanish. The acquaintance with Modern Greek lit-erature was perceived as a by-product. Abraham Ben-Arroya translatedin 1924 one of the most important “ideological” novels of Greek socialistliterature to appear in the early 20th century. The novel, Katadikos(The Condemned, first published in 1919), by Konstandinos Theotokis(1872–1923), was particularly admired by Greek writers of the 1930s.Its translation into Judeo-Spanish appeared under the identical title


Kondanado. The novel, according to Roderick Beaton, clearly demon-strates the author’s socialist commitment.60 Ben-Arroya presented theauthor as one of “the best modern Greek writers.” He describes theauthor’s writing as imbued with socialist ideals and with descriptionsof the lower and poor classes and the experiences of the peasants thatreflect the author’s affiliation to the Greek Socialist party. He stressesthe significance of the book for Greek literature and explains the need totranslate it to Judeo-Spanish on the grounds that the Jews do not readGreek and that the book was not translated to French. He adds that thebook is the second in a series called “biblyoteka Literarya” (“LiteraryLibrary”). Its aim is to provide the Jews with “serious” literature thatis not available in French. The translation, he further explains, wouldserve to demonstrate the possibilities of translating serious oeuvres intoJudeo-Spanish.61

Ben-Arroya’s translation had educational significance. He intendedto present Modern socialist Greek literature to the Judeo-Spanish audi-ence and to demonstrate the ability of Judeo-Spanish to serve as a lan-guage of modern literature. Other translations, by contrast, stemmedfrom their popularity in Greek. Popular historical novels were an im-portant literary genre that enjoyed popularity among Judeo-Spanishreaders. A recurring subject was the Jews’ experiences in MedievalSpain: their golden age and the persecutions that followed.62 Other nov-els dealt with general, Ottoman and Greek histories. Some were directlytranslated from Greek. One example is a novel that was probably trans-lated for its literal merit and success: “The She-Pope John” (I PapossaIoanna),63 was first published in 1866 by Emmanuel Roıdis (1836–1904). It is still regarded as “the only Greek novel of the Nineteenthcentury to have found a place, albeit a modest one, in the Europeancanon.” This novel tells the story of Pope John VIII who was, in fact,according to medieval tradition, a woman.64 The novel was translatedinto Judeo-Spanish under the title La Papaza Yoanna in 1927.65

Most other novels that were translated from Greek were popularnovels that were also widespread among Greek readers. The titles ofthese books allow us to assess their character: “Prohibited Pleasures”(Plazeres defendidos),66 “The Love Affaires of King Alexander” (Losamores del rey Aleksander),67 “A Victorious Love, or The Dream of aPoor Girl” (Amor viktoryozo o el dram de una povera nina).68 Otherpopular novels delineated the adventures of legendary bandits and out-laws who roamed the mountainous areas of Macedonia. One exampleis the translated novel “The Capitan Leonidas Babanis” (El kapitanLeonidas Babanis)69 John Koliopoulos mentions that during the 1920s,

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when bandits were no more than “outlaws, survivors of an era thathad come to an end” their adventures, at the same time, became asource for popular literature. These novels depict the bandits’ lives asa “nostalgic gesture” for a bygone world.70 The editors of the Judeo-Spanish adaptations of these Greek novels did not fail to mention theirgeneral popularity. They promised their readers stories that would tit-illate them with adventure, revenge, shadowy politics, and of coursepassionate love. These were popular Greek novels, hardly known inGreece now. Many of the novels became popular plays or were laterperformed in the shadow theatre.71 Their popularity among Judeo-Spanish readers in the late 1920s and ‘30s clearly demonstrates theirincreasing interest in the literal habits and tastes of their Greek neigh-bours. The main reason for these translations was not educational butrather acknowledgment of their popularity and their potential appealto large audiences, including the Jewish one. Similar stories about in-trigues and love affairs were translated during the same period fromother languages. It seems that a large and enthusiastic audience ofJudeo-Spanish readers was attracted to the adventures of the Ottomancourt; of specific interest was the court of Abdulhamid II (r. 1876–1909)and the mysterious life in his harem.72

The translation of popular books testifies to the increasing acquain-tance of the Jewish audience with popular trends in Greek readership.It can be assumed that their popularity prompted the translation toJudeo-Spanish. However, other books dealt with “higher” culture; theirproclaimed aim was to introduce Greek history to Jewish readers;while many of the popular books originated in series that were pub-lished by the local Jewish press. History books were often the fruits ofsemi–academic lectures.

“Two great and ancient civilizations:” Uniting the Jews’ andthe Greeks through history

The popular historiography written in Judeo-Spanish during the inter-war period about the ancient and recent history of Greece throws lightson another conduit of acculturation. The opening of the Hebrew univer-sity of Jerusalem on 1 April 1925 can serve as an illuminating exampleof the use of history for uniting Jews and Greeks. The inaugurationceremony was celebrated all over the Jewish Diaspora. Salonica hadits own share in the celebrations: meetings were held at the variousclubs, a film of the opening ceremonies was screened at a local cinema,enthusiastic speeches were given to cheering audiences, and the first


pages of most Jewish journals were devoted to the occasion. This wasone of the first occasions in which not only the new university, but alsothe whole Zionist enterprise in Palestine, were heralded and describedin depth to the local Jewish audience. One of the central events wasa meeting in which the community heads and eminent members ofthe local Greek community and regional administration took part. Thecentral speech was read by the local Zionist leader Moıs Uzilyo in Greek;a choice that was well observed by the local Jewish press. In his speech,Uzilyo elaborated on the importance of the Hebrew university to theJewish world; however, he did not fail to mention the participation ofthe University of Athens in the celebrations. This marked for him thecommon past and the likewise potential common destiny of Jews andGreeks – both boasted ancient civilizations that flourished in the Eastand both were designated to play a major and civilizing role in theregion again after long years of silence and submission.73

This interest in world history was certainly not new. Benbassa andRodrigue claim that the “infatuation with history,” clearly shown inthe translations of major historical works to Judeo-Spanish, demon-strate the growing openness of Sephardi Jewry to the outside world.74

Notwithstanding, Greek classical history had a particular appeal: theauthors put pain to demonstrate that Greek ancient achievements em-bodied the core and base of Western civilization. In that capacity,absorbing Greek civilization was presented not only as coming to termswith the state culture but also as discovering the roots of the enlight-ened West. But this was not all: studying Greek history and indicatinga common past and a similar historical role shared by Greeks and Jewswas meant to unite Jews and Greeks. Indicating the Jews’ role in Greekpolitics was a strategy for claiming a common present and future.

Not only was the classical heritage of Greece presented in detail, butso was the history of Byzantine and Modern Greece since its indepen-dence. Learning Greek history was an integral part of the acculturationprocess. The book of Joseph Nehama (1880–1971) is remarkable fromthis aspect. His book was the outcome of a conference organized in Feb-ruary 1937 by B’nai-Brith, an international Jewish social and culturalorganization.75 Nehama surveyed in his lecture the history of Byzan-tine, “the culmination of all ancient civilizations.” In the book thatfollowed he clearly attempts to acquaint his Jewish audience with Greekhistory and probably to boost his identification with the Greek state bydemonstrating the similarity between the historical experiences of Jewsand Greeks. Nehama outlines Byzantine history and heritage from theorigins of the Byzantine empire, through its different dynasties, cultural

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achievements, victories and military debacles, to its diplomacy, and itsfinal surrender to the Ottoman forces. The glory of Constantinopleand the continuity between Classical Greece, Byzantium and modernGreece are presented to the readers.76 He endeavoured to show howboth Jews and Greeks created civilizations on the Mediterranean shoresthat later influenced the whole world. The Hebrews contributed themoral ideas through monotheism, the ideas of a just God before whomall people are equal and who gave the world a religion of love, harmonyand solidarity. The Greeks gave the world philosophy, science, and thearts. The Jews, the Greeks and the Romans together created the basisfor a universal civilization.77 Later European civilizations, Nehama con-tinues, benefited from the Byzantine achievements. Furthermore, theOttomans (“the Turks” for Nehama) owed everything to Byzantine;without the Byzantine heritage they would have remained ignorantBarbarians.78 Both ancient Greece and Palestine succumbed to theRoman might – “Greece and Palestine, thus, disappeared from theworld map.”79 However, the Greeks and the Jews did not disappear;nowadays, he claims, both peoples survive as eternal flames and theycontinue to illuminate the world. Their universal messages will foreverexist.80

Apparently Nehama’s lecture was one in a series of five lecturesabout history given at the B’nai-B’rith club. Four of them were dedi-cated to “our beautiful country, Greece” and the fifth focused on thehistory of the Prophets. Merkado Kovo (1870–1940), as another exam-ple, gave there a lecture about Classical Greece in which he went intodetail about its remarkable cultural achievements. The introductionto his lecture can serve as additional insight into the purpose of thislecture series. Kovo explains the need to give popular lectures (ovrade vulgarizasyon) about Greek civilization on the grounds of the over-whelming ignorance of those above the age of forty, who grew up inthe Ottoman educational system, which did not cover Greek history.For him, the learning of past Greek achievements was a channel forunderstanding the origins of civilization, as well as for the love for thefatherland and freedom.81

Another history book, published in inter-war Salonica, dealt withthe more recent past – the Balkan Wars and the liberation of the city.Published in 1931 under the symbolic title, “The History of the Libera-tion of Salonica” (La liberasyon de Saloniko),82 its author retraced thepolitical and military developments that surrounded the capture of thecity. However, this description serves as the framework for exploring theJewish-Greek relations in Salonica. The author’s aim is explicitly stated


at the end of the book: to heal the wounds of the past and to reconstructthe mutual confidence between both communities. His thesis is simple:Jews and Greeks always lived in harmony and confidence under theTurks. However, the very recent events, starting with the Young Turksrevolution of 1908, hampered these relations and caused unprecedentedantagonism between the two communities. His book is built aroundboth apologetics and attempts to refute what he perceived as falseallegations. Thus, for example, the Jewish community’s reluctance todemonstrate its cheerfulness with the entry of the Greek army is justi-fied by the benevolence of the Ottoman authorities towards the Jews;the allegations of Jewish enmity towards the Greeks and their attemptsto deter the city’s annexation to Greece are fully described and thencontested. The author concludes with the wish that once all allegationsare laid bare and then explained or refuted, Jewish-Greek relations willimprove and return to their former good status. For him, the past is aclear indication for the potential future – Jews and Greek always livedtogether in harmony and they should do so again.

Political events that tormented the Greek arena during the inter-warperiod were the subject of a few books that were published in Judeo-Spanish. The authors depicted the incidents in a popular fashion thatincluded extracts from the Greek press and apparently imaginative di-alogs. The books interpreted the internal political situation for readerswho probably did not have full access to the Greek language; yet theywere not written from the point of view of a foreign bystander – theauthors inserted the Jewish attitudes and positions inside the politicalmaelstrom. They emphasized that the Greek Jews were an integral partof Greek politics; for the authors, the Jews were not only potentialvictims of Venizelits’ attacks, but they were also the supporters of amajor political trend inside Greek society. La Matansa delos 6 83 canserve as an illustrative example for this type of books. Named for oneof the major events of modern Greece – the execution of six membersof the Government following the debacle of Asia minor,84 the book alsodealt with the dethronement of king Konstantin, the katastrophia ofAsia Minor and the Venizelist revolution of 1923. Another example is abook that was published under the title, “Twelve days that tormentedGreece” (Doge dias ke estemperearon La Greca).85 The book describesthe attempt of the Venizelits to stage a military coup during the firstdays of March 1935.86 Published only three weeks following the events,the book is described as the “only authorized report” on the abortivecoup. It strives to explain the Jews’ negative attitude towards theuprising and projects them as a vital part of Greek politics.

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History books were part of the endeavour to integrate Jews intoGreek society. Their first and proclaimed mission was to acquaintJudeo-Spanish speakers with the history of their new fatherland. Thefocus in these quasi–academic lectures was on the classical and Byzan-tine past of Greece that assigned the country a prominent place inWestern civilization. The publishing of popular books that tackled withGreek politics was aimed to explore Greek current politics for the Jew-ish audience. It also demonstrated the role of the Jews as integral andlegitimate partners inside Greek politics. Another aim of the historybooks was to unite Jews and Greek through their similar history; bothpeoples, according to the authors, contributed enormously to Westerncivilizations, both were submitted to foreign domination that endedwith national renaissance, and both were destined to enjoy a fabulousfuture thanks to their civilizing mission in the East.

Conclusions

On 26 October 1939, nearly two months after the outbreak of WorldWar II, El Mesajero, the last journal to appear in Judeo-Spanish in theRashi script,87 published, as was its habit, an editorial article celebrat-ing the 27th anniversary of the city’s liberation by the Greek army. Asthe war was already well underway, the journal published only a shortand modest article. The rest of the first page was dedicated to the warand to speculations about the fate of the Jews living in Poland underNazi occupation. However, a small, yet remarkable, change occurredin the Journal’s parlance: the editor used the Greek name of the city,Thessaloniki, and not the Judeo-Spanish Saloniko or Salonique, in linewith the French usage. This alteration was apparently influenced by thedictatorial regime of General Ioannis Metaxas (r. 1936–1941) that wasestablished in 1936.88 The symbolic change should not be dismissed asmere semantic quibble; it seems that it alludes to a final reconcilia-tion and accommodation with the Greek state and its dominance overSalonica.89

Almost three decades of Greek dominance had transformed the Jew-ish community of Salonica and the other Judeo-Spanish speaking com-munities of “New” Greece. The learning and the subsequent masteringof the state language, states Jacob Katz, was a cardinal step in theemancipation of Jews in Western and Central Europe in the 19th cen-tury. Jews learned the language of their environment and graduallylost the Jewish languages of their ancestors.90 A similar phenomenonwas occurring in Salonica. Most of the local Jews preferred to stay in


their native city, and they clearly understood and accepted the needto absorb the state language. The Jewish educational system was fullyrecruited into this communal effort. Consequently, the decline of Judeo-Spanish and the gradual increase in the use of the Greek languageamong the younger generation were evident even before World WarII. Bracha Rivlin indicates that the daily circulation of Judeo-Spanishnewspapers decreased from 25,000 copies per day in 1932 to only 6,000in 1940.91 These numbers clearly demonstrate that during the inter-war period Jews became increasingly familiar with the Greek cultureand language.

World War II brought this process to a sudden and deadly end.By the outbreak of the war, the acculturation of the Salonican Jewshad not been completed. The imperfect knowledge of Greek amongthe adults is reckoned as one of the causes for the different lots of theJewish communities in Greece during the Holocaust – while only a tinyfragment of the Salonican community survived the Nazi occupation,the survival of Jews from some of the Greek-speaking communitiesof “Old” Greece like Athens, Volos, Larissa and other cities was re-markably higher. Probably the capability to find shelter and to fadeinto the general population depended on one’s knowledge of Greek.92

Notwithstanding, the relatively short inter-war period clearly demon-strates the determination of most Judeo-Spanish Jews to integrate intoGreek society. We can only presume that Judeo-Spanish, the languagethat served the Salonican Jews for so long, was doomed to disappear,93

as happened in communities that were not directly affected, or onlymarginally affected, by the Holocaust, such as those of Bulgaria, Turkeyor Israel.94

The unprecedented proliferation of secular writing in Judeo-Spanish,the traditional language of Sephardi Jews, as happened in Salonica dur-ing the last decades of Ottoman rule and during the inter-war period,was possible in a community that searched for cultural transformation.Its major advocates and users, Zionists and assimilationists, clearlyperceived it as the only practical means to spread new ideas and literarygenres previously unknown in the Sephardi cultural arena. However,Judeo-Spanish was clearly designated to serve only temporarily untilthe full adaptation of the “genuine” and more respectful language, onethat would better respond to the future needs of the Jewish public:Hebrew for the Zionists, and Greek for the assimilationists. The Judeo-Spanish role in the acculturation of the Salonican Jews was meant tobe short, maybe only for one generation. Already the new generation ofchildren, those born after the city’s incorporation into the Greek state

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and who were part of the Jewish community’s educational network inthe 1920s-‘30s, were counted on to master the Greek language. There-fore, the Judeo-Spanish writing of this period was chiefly aimed at theadults who were educated during Ottoman times.

In inter-war Greece Judeo-Spanish did not benefit from the sup-port of proponents and adherents who perceived it as a language thatcould serve the Jews in the future as a national language. Unlike thestout support given to Yiddish, for example, in inter-war Poland amongsome Jewish circles,95 no political group in Salonica championed Judeo-Spanish as a language that must be safeguarded due to its nationalsignificance. While Judeo-Spanish was still regarded as the primarylanguage for transmitting and spreading the new messages of accultur-ation, the essence of these messages also meant the imminent, and evennecessary death of this language.

Notes

1. On the Alliance Israelite and its educational network around the major centresof the Mediterranean, see Aron Rodrigue, French Jews, Turkish Jews: TheAlliance Israelite Universelle and the Politics of Jewish Schooling in Turkey1860–1925 (Bloomington, 1990); On the emancipation of Jews as a landmarkof its civilizing mission, see Georges Weill, “The Alliance Israelite Universelleand the Emancipation of the Jewish Communities of the Mediterranean,” TheJewish Journal of Sociology 24 (2) (1982), 117–134.

2. The ample use of Judeo-Spanish among the Salonican Jews is clearly shownin the Greek official census of 1928: out of 73,000 Jews living at that time inGreece, 62,000, most of them from Macedonia and Thrace, declared the Judeo-Spanish as their native language; only about 10,000 Jews, most of them from“Old” Greece (Greece in the boundaries of the pre-Balkan Wars), claimed Greekas their native language. See Bracha Rivlin, ed., Pinkas Hakehilot – Greece(Jerusalem, 1998), 17 [in Hebrew]. However, this paper argues that this linguis-tic phenomenon was on the verge of transformation thanks to the educationalsystem commitment to spread Greek among the younger generation.

3. See, as one example Yael Zerubavel, Recovered Roots: Collective Memory andthe Making of Israeli National Tradition (Chicago, 1995), esp. 79–83.

4. Bracha Rivlin, ed., Pinkas Hakehilot – Greece (Jerusalem, 1998) [in Hebrew], isthe major work that deals with the Jewish communities of Greece before andafter the Holocaust. It includes a detailed bibliography as well. See also R. Attal,Les Juifs dr Grece – Bibliographie. Additifs a la premiere edition (Jerusalem,1996).

5. See, for example the commemorative volume of Salonika, Mother City in Israel(Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, 1967) [in Hebrew].

6. Mark Levene argues that Zionism and assimilation were the two opposing ideolo-gies that prevailed among Jews in Central and Eastern Europe following WorldWar I and the resulting subsequent demise of the empires and the establishment


of nation-states. However, following World War II the assimilationist trends andits agenda were marginalized in Jewish historiography. The historiography of theJews in Greece can be seen as a similar case. See Mark Levene, War, Jews, andthe New Europe: The Diplomacy of Lucien Wolf 1914–1919 (Oxford, 1992), vii–xi. For an important and pioneering work regarding the increasing role of theGreek language among Salonican Jews, see David M. Bunis, Voices from JewishSalonika (Jerusalem and Thessaloniki, 1999), 104–110.

7. Sephardi Jews absorbed the notion of the stagnant Orient of which their ver-nacular of Judeo-Spanish was regarded as an integral part. They were taught tobelieve in the superiority of European, mainly French, culture. The moderniza-tion of Jewish life in the Orient meant for them also the modernization of theirown language. The spectrum of language modernization was vast, stretchingfrom minor alterations of the traditional vernacular of the Jews to the totalabandonment of Judeo-Spanish in favour of universal “Modern and respectedWestern language,” as French or Castilian Spanish were perceived. or to theadaptation of a national or state language, such as Hebrew, Turkish or Bul-garian. On the language debate, see David M. Bunis, “Modernization and theLanguage Question among Judezmo-Speaking Sephardim of the Ottoman Em-pire,” in Harvey E. Goldberg, ed., Sephardi and Middle Eastern Jewries: Historyand Culture in the Modern Era (Bloomington, 1996), 226–239.

8. See, as similar examples for Turkey: Aron Rodrigue, “From Millet to Minority:Turkish Jewry,” in Pierre Birnbaum and Ira Katznelson, eds., Paths of Eman-cipation: Jews, States, and Citizenship (Princeton, 1995); Eyal Ginio, “IstanbulJewry in Search of National Identity,” Contemporary Jewry 10 (1996), 115–137[in Hebrew].

9. Albert Pipano, Diksyonero Gudeo-Espanol-Bulgaro (Sofia, 1913).

10. Rena Molho, “Popular Antisemitism and State Policy in Salonika during theCity’s Annexation to Greece,” Jewish Social Studies 50 (3–4) (1988–1993), 253–264.

11. On Greece in Anatolia, see Michael L. Smith, Ionian Vision: Greece in AsiaMinor 1919–1922 (Ann Arbor, 1998 [1973]).

12. Peter Mackridge and Eleni Yannakakis, “Introduction,” in Peter Mackridge andEleni Yannakakis, eds., Ourselves and Others: The Development of a GreekMacedonian Culture Identity since 1912 (Oxford and New York, 1997), 4–7.

13. Rivlin, ed., Pinkas Hakehilot – Greece, 17–18.

14. Fragiski Abatzopoulou, “The Image of the Jew in the Literature of Salonica,”in Peter Mackridge and Eleni Yannakakis, eds., Ourselves and Others: TheDevelopment of a Greek Macedonian Culture Identity since 1912 (Oxford/NewYork, 1997), 217–224.

15. John Dimakis, “The Greek Press,” in John T. A. Koumoulides, ed., Greece inTransition (London, 1977), 223–229.

16. For a general description of Greek politics during the inter-war period, seeRichard Clogg, A Concise History of Greece (Cambridge, 1992), 100–120; MarkMazower, Inside Hitler’s Greece – The Experience of Occupation (new edition,New Haven/London, 2001), 11–14.

17. Alexandra Yerolympos, Urban Transformations in the Balkans (1820–1920)(Thessaloniki, 1996), 87–128; Regis Darques, Salonique au XXe siecle. De lacite ottomane a la metrople grecque (Paris, 2000).

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18. Esther Benbassa and Aron Rodrigue, Sephardy Jewry: A History of the Judeo-Spanish Community, 14th–20th Centuries (Berkeley/Los Angeles, 2000), 96–101.

19. Abatzopoulou, “The Image of the Jew,” 222.

20. See, for example, Makedonia’s role in inciting the notorious Campbell’s pogrom(June 1931) Bernard Pierron, Juifs et chretiens de la Grece moderne: histoiredes relations intercommunataires de 1821 a 1945 (Paris, 1996), 178–198.

21. Peter Mackridge, “Cultivating New Lands: The Consolidation of TerritorialGains in Greek Macedonia through Literature, 1912–1940,” in Peter Mackridgeand Eleni Yannakakis, eds., Ourselves and Others: The Development of a GreekMacedonian Culture Identity since 1912 (Oxford/New York, 1997), 179.

22. On the educational mission of the Judeo-Spanish press and its impact on thereaders, see Sarah Abrevaya-Stein, “Creating a Taste for the News: Historiciz-ing the Judo-Spanish Periodicals of the Ottoman Empire,” Jewish History 14(2000), 9–28.

23. Michael C. Steinlauf, “The Polish-Jewish Daily Press,” Polin: a Journal ofPolish-Jewish Studies 2 (1989), 220.

24. On the Jewish press of Salonica, see Manolis Kandilakis, Efimeridografia tisThessalonikis, Vol. 1 (Salonica, 1998), 357–398.

25. On the various Judeo-Spanish speaking journals that were published in theinter-war period, see M. D. Gaon, A Bibliography of the Judeo-Spanish (Ladino)Press, by Mosheh Katan, ed., (Tel Aviv, 1965).

26. Shim´on Burla, “Los Gidyos de Saloniko y La Greca,” El Pwevlo, 13.3.1925.

27. I. Alchech y Saporta, Los Espanoles sin Patria de Salonica (Madrid, 1917), 32.The book title clearly refers to Angel Pulido Fernandez, Espanoles sin patriay la raza sefardı that was published in 1905. See its facsimile edition: AngelPulido Fernandez, Espanoles sin patria y la raza sefardı (Granada, 1998).

28. J. Saıas, La Grece et les Israelites de Salonique (Paris, 1919). Joseph Reinach(1856–1921), a prominent French Jewish politician and the proprietor of theFrench journal La Republic, wrote the introduction to the book. There, hesummarized the author’s main arguments by quoting some passages from thebook. The following is clearly shows the author’s attitude: “Salonique n’est plusun canton perdu de la Judee: Salonique est une prefecture greque.” “Saloniquen’est plus un port Juif: Salonique est l’un des grands ports de la Grece et del’Hellenism.” On Joseph Reinach, see Pierre Birnbaum, “Between Social andPolitical Assimilation: Remarks on the History of Jews in France,” in PierreBirnbaum and Ira Katznelson, eds., Paths of Emancipation: Jews, States, andCitizenship (Princeton, 1995), 117–119.

29. Rena Molho, “The Jewish Community of Salonika and Its Incorporation intothe Greek State,” Middle Eastern Studies 24 (4) (1988), 291–403. Only duringthe 1930s, following the Campbell pogrom (June 1931), was a vast wave ofimmigration towards Palestine developed.

30. Esther Benbassa and Aron Rodrigue, Sephardi Jewry, 142.

31. On the debate, see Ioannis Skourtis, “The Zionists and their Jewish Opponentsin Thessaloniki between the Two World Wars,” in I. K. Hassiotis, ed., TheJewish Communities of Southeastern Europe (Thessaloniki, 1997), 517–525.

32. Yosef Vidal Andjel and A. Levy.Almanak Israelite 5683: Rekolyo de konosensyasliteraryas, istorıkas, ekonomıkas, gudias i generalas (Salonica, 5683


[1922/23]), 1. The incorporation of Salonica into the Greek kingdom createdambiguity about the right to lead the Jewish communities of Greece. While theJews of the capital, Athens, could claim the leadership thanks to their positionnear the centres of power, the Jews of Salonica could boast their seniority andpredominance as the traditional and sizable leading community of the Balkans.The encounter between the Greek-speaking Jews of “Old” Greece and the muchmore numerous Judeo-Spanish speaking Jews of the “new territories,” theirsubsequent interactions and the ensuing ramifications are subjects that stillneed exploring.

33. Judeo-Spanish title: Kwanto rendıdo de la konferensya de reprezentantes delas komunidades gudias De Greca tuvida el 15 Sivan 5689–23 Gunyo 1929 enSaloniko (Salonica, 1929).

34. See, for illustrative example, the interview with Venizelos who urged the “orien-tal” Jews of Salonica to imitate their brothers from “Old” Greece and to adoptthe Greek language and manners: Archive Israelite, 31.1.1929. Quoted in Rivlin,Pinkas Hakehilot – Greece, 18.

35. See, as examples “El ensenamyento del grego,” El Pwevlo, 30.3.25; “Por lakriasyon de eskolas grego-gudias,” El Tyempo (Salonica), 15.9.25.

36. See for example an article that was published by El Makabeo, the annual publi-cation of the Zionist society Theodor Hertzel in Salonica. It published in its issueof 5684 a call for the local Jewish community about the aims and directions thatthe Jewish community should adopt. Under the illustrative title of “formationof the Jews” the author did not neglect to mention the need to increase theplace of Hebrew on the expense of Greek inside the communal schools. See “Lamisyon de la komunita gudia,” El Makabeo – puvlikasyon anuala (Salonica,5684), 34–37.

37. “Ziyonismo o Asimilasyon.” La Renasensya Gudıa, 30.3.1934.

38. “Estamos por une aserkamyento grego gidyo,” La Renasensya Gudia, ?.9.1928.

39. Ibid.

40. See, for example the glorification of the incumbent leader Ionnis Metaxas: “OEthnikos Kivernitis,” El Mesajero, 26.10.1936.

41. “Ethiki Hara i Epeteios tis Apelefthroeos,” El Mesajero, 26.10.1936.

42. Shim´on Burla, “Los gidyos de Saloniko i La Greca,” El Pwevlo, 13.3.1925.

43. Ibid.

44. Z. Kon, Las Eskolas komunalas de Saloniko: lo ke eyas son lo ke devran ser(Salonica, 1927), 15.

45. Ibid, 8.

46. i.e., Judeo-Spanish.

47. Ibid, 20.

48. Ibid, 14–15.

49. Ibid, 19–20.

50. Theatrical plays – many of them performed by young amateurs, was anothercultural phenomenon of the Judeo-Spanish language during the last decades ofOttoman rule and the inter-war period. See Elena Romeo, “El Teatro entre losSefardıes Orientales,” Sefarad 29-30 (1969–1970), 1–26; Itzchak Kerem, “TheGreek–Jewish Theatre in Judeo-Spanish, ca. 1880–1940,” Journal of ModernGreek Studies 14 (1) (1996), 31–45.

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51. The play is described in “El Horo de Zangolo: Drama en 3 Aktes,” El Tyempo(Salonica), 29.3.1933. On the women’s dance of death and its place in the con-sciousness of Greek schoolchildren, see Andre Gerolymatos, The Balkan Wars(New York, 2002), 141. I would like to thank Dr. A. Nahmani for providing mewith this reference.

52. K. E. Fleming, The Muslim Bonaparte – Diplomacy and Orientalism in AliPasha’s Greece (Princeton, 1999), 3. On Ali Pasha’s character as perceived inWestern imagination and on his subsequent popularity as stage-character, seeibid, 118–134.

53. “Edisyon grega dela Renasensya Gudıa,” La Renasensya Gudıa, 19.2.1932.

54. On translation versus adaptation, see Elena Romero, La creacion literaria enlengua sefardı (Madrid, 1992), 244–245.

55. Olga V. Borovaia, “Translation and Westernization: Gulliver’s Travels inLadino,” Jewish Social Studies 7 (2) (2001), 149–168. See also her contributionto this volume.

56. On the development under Western influence of new literal genres in the Ot-toman state, see John Strauss, “Romanlar, ah! O Romanlar! les debuts dela lecture moderne dans l’empire Ottoman (1850–1900),” Turcica 26 (1994),125–163; Saliha Paker, “Translated European Literature in the Late OttomanPolysystem,” New Comparison: A Journal of Comparative and General LiteraryStudies 1 (1986), 67–79.

57. Romero, La creacion literaria, 250–251. On translations from Hebrew, see, forexample, Shmuel Refael, “Haim Nahman Bialik in the Ladinio Literature,” Lad-inar – Studies in the Literature, Music and the History of the Ladino SpeakingSephardic Jews 2 (2001), 121–148.

58. Bunis, Voices from Jewish Salonica, 120.

59. On the Socialist party in Salonica, see A. Ben-Arroya, “A Note on the SocialistFederation of Saloniki,” Jewish Social Studies 11 (1949), 69–72; Paul Dumont,“A Jewish Socialist and Ottoman Organisation: The Workers’ Federation ofThessaloniki,” in M. Tuncay, ed., Socialism and Nationalism in the OttomanEmpire, 1876–1923 (London, 1994), 49–75.

60. Roderick Beaton, An Introduction to Modern Greek Literature (Oxford, 1994),104–106.

61. K. Theotokis, Kondanado, trans. by Ben-Arroya (Salonica, 1924), i–iii.

62. Alisa Meyuhas-Ginio, Together Yet Apart: Jews and Christians in the MedievalIberian Peninsula (Tel Aviv, 1999), 230–231 [in Hebrew].

63. Lawrence Durrell translated the novel into English. See Emmanuel Royidis, PopeJoan, trans. and adapted by L. Durrell (New York, 1960).

64. Beaton, An Introduction to Modern Greek Literature, 60.

65. Emmanuel Roıdis, La papaza Yoanna, trans. By Y Andjel (Salonica, 1927).Another book of the same author that was adapted to Judeo-Spanish is Losamores de una dezenerada (Salonica, 1934).

66. Plazeres defendidos – romanso atenyano (Salonica, 1935), 2 vols.

67. Los amores del rey Aleksander, trans. Y. Andjel (Salonica, 1925).

68. Manolis Kanelis, Amor viktoryozo o el dram de una povera nina, trans. By“Mair” (Salonica, 1936).


69. El kapitan Leonidas Babanis (Salonica, 1930). See also Los amores de Yangulas,trans. by Y. S. Kazes (Salonica, 1927); El brigandaze makedoonyano-epiro, trans.By Minmat (Salonica, 1927).

70. John Koliopoulos, “Brigandage and Insurgency in the Greek Domains of theOttoman Empire, 1853–1908,” in Dimitri Gondicas and Charles Issawi, eds.,Ottoman Greeks in the Age of Nationalism (Princeton, 1999), 158.

71. I would like to thank Prof. Dimitris Tziovas, from the University of Birmingham,England, for providing me with this information.

72. These books were mostly translated from French, but also from Turkish. Someof the titles include: La estreya del Yildiz: romanso de la vida de los haremesdel Yildiz (Salonica, 1930); Vente anos al Harem: memoryas del ‘Kizlar Aga’del Sultan Abdul Hamid (Salonica, 5691/1931); Nuri Hafiz Bey, Los jafeyes deAbdul Hamid (Salonica, 1931); Ahmed Ferid Bey, Los haremes de Abdul Hamid(Salonica, 1931); En los hamames de Brusa (Salonica, 5693/1932); Los amoresde Suleyman el Kanuni (Thessalonik, 5697/1936–1937).

73. I am dealing with this event in length in my article “The Inauguration of theHebrew University (1.4.1925) and Its Impact on the Jewish Press of Istanbuland Salonica,” in G. Hasan-Rokem, H. Saadoun, and A. Shiloah, eds., Zionand Zionism among Sephardi and Oriental Jews (Jerusalem, 2002), 261–274 [inHebrew].

74. Benbassa and Rodrigue, Sephardi Jewry, 110.

75. On B’nai-B’rith, see Edward E. Grusd, B’nai B’rith – The Story of a Convenant(New York, 1996).

76. Joseph Nehama, Bizansyo i Sivilizasyon Bizantına (Thessaloniki, 1938).

77. Ibid, 3–5.

78. Ibid, 46–47.

79. Ibid, 7.

80. Ibid, 47–48.

81. Merkado Kovo, Kolpo de Ozo sovre la Antigwedad Grega (Salonica, 5697 [1937–1938]), esp. 4. On Merkado Kovo, see David Recanati, ed., Zichron Saloniki,Vol. 2 (Tel-Aviv, 1986), 460–461.

82. Istoria de la liberasyon de Saloniko (Salonica, 1937).

83. La matansa delos 6 (Salonica 5693/1913).

84. On the trials and the subsequent execution of the six eminent members fromthe government and army, see Clogg, A Concise History of Greece, 102.

85. Doge dıas ke estemperearon La Greca (Salonica, 1935). Another book that dealtwith a major event in Modern Greece history is La matansa del rey Gorg enSalonico (Salonica, ?) The book describes the murder of King George the Firstin Salonica following the first Balkan War. As the first few pages of the bookare missing, we do not know the name of the author nor its date of publication.

86. On this abortive coup, see Clogg, A Concise History of Greece, 113; ThanosVeremis, The Military in Greek Politics: from Independence to Democracy(Montreal, New York and London, 1997), 99–133.

87. Following World War II a Jewish newspaper was published in Salonica twice inevery month. However, the Tribuna Gudia was published with Hebrew letters.The final blow upon the Judeo-Spanish in Greece was apparently melted aslate as 1967: following the colonels’ coup and the reorganisation of the Jewish

262 EYAL GINIO

community it was enjoined that the official language of the community councilwould be Greek instead of Judeo-Spanish. Accordingly, all minutes had to beconducted in Greek. See Bea Lewkowicz, “ ‘After the War We Were All To-gether:’ Jewish Memories of Postwar Thessaloniki,” in Mark Mazower, ed., Afterthe War was Over: Reconstructing the Family, Nation, and State in Greece,1943–1960 (Princeton, 2000), 249.

88. On Metaxas dictatorship, the so-called “4th of August regime,” see Jon V.Kofas, Authoritarianism in Greece – The Metaxas Regime (Boulder, 1983).

89. Aksyon (“Action”), the other contemporary important Judeo-Spanish daily,began to use the name Thessaloniki around the same period in March 1937.

90. Jacob Katz,Out of the Ghetto – The Social Background of Jewish Emancipation,1770–1879 (Cambridge, MA, 1973), 214–215.

91. Rivlin, Pinkas Hakehilot – Greece, 27.

92. Mazower, Inside Hitler’s Greece, 251.

93. See also David Bunis’s similar conclusion that “even before the Germans closeddown the city’s Jewish presses and began the systematic destruction of thecommunity, the death knell was sounded for Judezmo in Salonika.” Bunis, Voicesfrom Jewish Salonika, 110.

94. See, as an important indicator the research of Dorothee Weis about the lan-guages used by Jews in contemporary Salonica. She clearly observes the dif-ferences between age-groups with regard to the use of Judeo-Spanish, Greek,Hebrew and French. She observes the decline of Judeo-Spanish and the parallelincrease in the using of Greek. See her article: “La agonia del Judeoespanol yla identitad sefardita: un estudio sociolinguıstico en Salonica,” MediterraneanLanguage Review 12 (2000), 142–189.

95. On the debate between the supporters of Hebrew and their opponents whoadvocated the use of Yiddish in inter-war Poland, see Joshua A. Fishman, “In-terwar Eastern European Jewish Parties and the Language Issue,” InternationalJournal of the Sociology of Language 151 (2001), 175–189.

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