εταιρεία μελέτης ελληνικού εβραϊσμού, Οι Εβραίοι στον ελληνικό χώρο: Ζητήματα ιστορίας στη μακρά διάρκεια. (review)

Jews have lived in Greece since antiquity, longer than in any other European country. However, they are absent not only from "official" history accounts (e.g., school textbooks) but also largely from mainstream historical scholarship, including works that challenge the ethnocentrism of the official received wisdom. Most Greeks, even the educated, among whom I would include myself, know little about the history of Jews, except for their strong presence—demographic, economic, and cultural—in the "second Jerusalem," Thessaloniki, or the key roles that some of them played in the formation and leadership of the Socialist Workers Federation, which was established in 1908. The principal aim of the 1991 conference held by the Association for the Study of Greek Jewry—namely, to break this silence—was both well justified and successful. (In this context it is worth mentioning two other relevant publications: the 1994 issue of the journal [25–26] devoted to "the intellectual contribution of Jews in Thessaloniki" and the 1994 issue of [52–53] on "Jews in Greece," edited by F. Gkikopoulos and Efi Avdela respectively. )

The sixteen papers in are by scholars representing a variety of disciplines. The papers are based not only on archival materials held in Greek, European, and Israeli institutions but also on archeological finds, demographic and other quantitative data, and literary, biographical, and autobiographical accounts. Grouped into five categories, they focus on different aspects of Jewish life during Byzantine, Ottoman, and modern times and in different geographical areas of the country.

Under "Economic Life: Professions and Guilds," M. Anastasiadou examines the distribution of Jews in the professions in Thessaloniki during the second part of the nineteenth century, and A. Brouskou documents the employment of Jewish women as wet nurses for Christian infants raised in an orphanage in the same city during the first quarter of the twentieth century.

The section on "Institutions and Communities" includes two papers on the Byzantine and post-Byzantine Peloponnesos and the city of Patras by A. Lambropoulou and A. Moutzali, respectively, both documenting the continuity of the Jewish presence during these periods and the involvement of Jews in a great variety of professions affording different economic and social status. G. Haniotis traces the history of the symbiosis and antagonism between indigenous Jews and those who settled in Corfu after they were exiled from Italy in the mid-sixteenth century. He also examines the policies of the Venetian, French, British, and Greek political authorities and the history of antisemitism, which culminated in the massive exodus of most of the seven thousand Jews in the late nineteenth century, following accusations of the ritual murder of a child. B. Rivlin discusses the operation of Jewish societies for mutual aid in several Greek cities from 1830 to 1930. Modeled after medieval guilds, these societies looked after the sick and the poor and promoted the involvement of youth in cultural activities. Some of them also had political, socialist or Zionist aims. Finally, R. Molho tells the story of "le cercle de Salonique," a prestigious and influential social club, established in 1873, that attracted prominent bourgeois members of the Jewish community but also economically and politically powerful Greeks and foreign diplomats, businessmen, and guests.

Under "Politics and Ideology," P. Dumont studies the biography of Josef Nehamas, author of the seven-volume Histoire des Israelites de Salonique, through his correspondence with the Alliance Israelite Universelle (1899–1936), the international organization that operated a boys' school in which Nehamas was employed as teacher and director. Dumont traces his struggles against both Zionism and antisemitism, his commitment to multiethnic coexistence, and his attachment to Thessaloniki, which led him in the end to accept Greek rule as an alternative to emigration. S. Marketos examines the scientific Marxist internationalist ideology of the Jewish leaders of the "Federation" and their contribution to building up a socialist movement in Greece.

Two papers focus on the Jewish genocide. Discussing the antecedents of the Holocaust, H. Fleischer locates the agents of antisemitism primarily among the supporters of the Venizelist policies as well as among the refugee population that arrived in Greece from Asia Minor in 1924...