Jewish Salonika - great cultural centre

Thessaloniki was once the largest Jewish city in the world. Alexander the Great granted legal equality to Jews in 331 BC and this new freedom drew many Jews to Hellenistic cities. Sephardi Jews migrated in very large numbers when they were expelled from Spain in 1492. Thessaloniki’s community influenced Sephardim around the world, both culturally and economically. The Great Fire of 1917 that raged over the city damaged half the Jewish districts, 45 synagogues, schools, shops and businesses. c50,000 were made homeless and many Jewish sites were greatly harmed. But until WW2, Thessaloniki had a key Jewish community, the only important European city with a Jewish majority. 

Jewish Museum of Thessaloniki

1. Jewish Museum of Thessaloniki is located in the central city. Built in 1904-6, the building hosted commercial sites owned by Jewish merchants, a fine example of urban architecture that survived the 1917 fire. Luckily the renovations were carried out with respect for its architectural identity, now a Heritage Listed site.

Once housing the Bank of Athens and a French-language Jewish newspaper, the Jewish Museum opened mid 2001. It’s permanent & temporary displays highlight the community’s history via photos, documents, domestic objects & cultural artefacts. And archives of Holocaust records.

Monasterioton Synagogue, 1927

 

2. Atop Syngrou St, Monasterioton Synagogue is the only surviving pre-war synagogue in a city that once had 40-50 synagogues. It was built in 1927 by Jews from Monastir in Macedonia. The site was saved in WW2 because it was requisitioned as a Red Cross warehouse and although damaged by the 1978 earthquake, it was restored by the Greek government. And there are other small prayer houses.

3. In late 1930s, new laws were passed so Jews were slowly segregated and made 2nd-class citizens. With Nazis arriving, many Jews joined the Greek resistance & others went into hiding. In the Black Shabbat July 1942, all Jewish men in town aged 18-45 were rounded up in Central Liberty Sq., waiting to go. This made anti-Semitism legal, forcing many Jews to flee. Holocaust Memorial in Liberty Sq recalls 50,000 Greek Jews killed. The memorial is a bronze 7-branch menorah, wrapped in flames and corpses.

 Ancient Jewish cemetery

Photo from before the marble was stolen in 2019

4. The ancient Jewish cemetery was razed during the Nazi occupation, and the new campus of the Aristotle Uni of Thessaloniki was built on the site. Recently the university unveiled a Jewish Memorial to the graveyard destroyed by the Nazis. The monument is a series of gravestones in a bed of green grass next to a broken menorah that became a significant historical marker. Yet in Jan 2019 vandals smashed the campus monument, days before International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

And Aristotelean Uni of Thessaloniki has reestablished its Jewish Studies Centre, 80+ years after it was abolished by Greek dictator Ioannis Metaxas in 1935. The decision to reestablish it was made with the city’s Jewish community, which agreed to help fund the programme. The programme began 2014-5, offering undergraduate and graduate studies.

Originally an Ottoman hamam

Later Bath of the Jews

5 Hamam/Bath of the Jews is an early C16th Ottoman-era bath house, not originally built by the Jewish community. It stands on the corner of Vasileos Irakleiou & Frangini Sts, this area being settled by Sephardim.

6 In 1878-1914, flour mills, hotels, cafés, brick factories, breweries, silk-worm nurseries, carpet & shoe factories, soap works and large tobacco workshops were established, mainly by Jews, many working class. So the Workers’ Union, formed by Jewish workers, became the key workers’ organisation in the Ottoman Empire in 1909. The sheltered Modiano Market was designed by Modiano family in 1922-5 as a central food market, with a glass roof and 4 galleries.

Stoa Saul, 

bonflaneur 

7 Built by famous banker Saul Modiano in 1867-1871, Stoa Saul is a commercial complex built in 1867-71. The arcade served architect Eli Modiano, as was the Modiano Mortgage Bank. A section was destroyed in the 1917 fire then rebuilt in 1929, as a tribute to the important Saul Modiano family.

Malakopi Arcade, 1907

Now a shopping gallery

8 La Banque de Salonique, founded by talented Italian-Jewish Allatini family, is now Malakopi Arcade. Designed in 1907 by noted architect Vitaliano Poselli and built on Stock Exchange Squ. The clock on the façade stopped when a major earthquake hit in 1978, ruining buildings and killing 45 people. Today it’s a fine shopping gallery.

9 Queen Olga Avenue is lined with fin de siècle villas, some now wasting away. This was once the most elegant and richest areas of the city, and the home of many ruling families in the late C19th. Some villas are galleries, others house cultural and historical institutions. Many retain the colourful decorations and classy C19th furniture while other villas are still awaiting renewal. Emmanuel Salem (1859-1940) became one of the most prominent jurists in International Law, then was the first Gen. Sec. of the Bar Association. He was involved in founding companies for: water, gas, trams, electricity and Banque du Salonique.

The Salem Mansion was designed in 1878 for wealthy Jeborga merchant family. It was bought in 1894 by Emmanuel Salem and remained in his family for 20+ years. After WW1, Salem was involved in negotiating the Lausanne Treaty in 1923. This 3-storey mansion’s architectural styles being Classic-ism, Renaissance and Baroque. When the Salems left, the villa was the Austro-Hungarian Empire Consulate. It was bought by Italy in 1924 and served as Italian Consulate for 50+ years when it was damaged. The Heritage Listed house is still empty.

10. A Great Tragedy happened at the Old Railway Station, early 1943. Jews were shoved into cattle carriages and sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau & Bergen-Belsen camps, 46,000+ in 19 rail convoys in 1943. In all, 96% of Salonika’s Jewish community had been murdered by 1945. The Jewish cemetery was pulled down by vandals, and most of the surviving Jewish culture of the city were destroyed. In 1951, the Old Railway Station became a goods station. An C19th railway administrative building has a monument with historic details of the Baron Hirsch Jewish district. Other reminders of Jewish life were lost with the city’s post-war renewal which peaked in the 1960s, and then with the earthquake in 1978. Only 1,200 Jews live in Thessaloniki now.

Hirsch Hospital, opened 1908

now Hippocrateon Hospital

11 Thessaloniki’s biggest and most modern hospital today, Hirsch Hospital, was built between 1905-8, designed by architect Pierro Arrigoni. Built as a hospital for the Jewish community, the costs were covered by Baroness Clara de Hirsch, wife of Austrian-Jewish philanthropist Maurice de Hirsch. In the inter-war era, Hirsch was used as a military hospital by French and British. Post-WW2 it served British military bases, so then the Jewish Community transferred ownership to the Greek State.