The “Mother of Israel” or the “Sephardi Metropolis”?: Sephardim, Ashkenazim, and Romaniotes in Salonica

Although Sephardim and Ashkenazim are often considered to be two distinct Jewish groups that rarely intersected, a close look at the case of Salonica (Thessaloniki), a port city in present-day northern Greece, reveals the permeability and mobility among Jewish communities over the generations. Although often imagined as the capital of the Sephardi Jewish world, Salonica became home not only to Jews expelled from Spain but also to those from Portugal, Italy, and elsewhere prior to and after 1492. In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, industrialization, urbanization, and major political upheavals such as the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire propelled Jews from the region and beyond to seek refuge in Salonica. During this period of transition, some Jews from the Balkan town of Monastir, Greek-speaking Romaniote Jews from Thessaly, and Ashkenazi Jews from eastern and central Europe played key roles in Salonican Jewish society, whereas others experienced marginalization.