Les Juifs en Grèce au XXe siècle

Abstract

Rena Molho, The Jewish community in Greece during the 20th century The Jewish presence in the Greek peninsula has been considerable, notably with the biggest Jewish city in Europe, Salonika, where a significant part of the Spanish Jews settled after their expulsion from Spain in the 15th century. Under their impetus, Salonika, then part of the Ottoman Empire, became the greatest economic centre in the Balkans. However, this prosperous, dynamic and cultivated society could not resist national pressures. Immediately it was conquered by Greece in 1912, Jewish Salonika — and by extension the other Jewish communities in Greece— went into decline, victim of the loss of its hinterland and the desire for Hellenization. Strongly affected, moreover, by the great fire of 1917, the Jewish comminuity of Salonika was already seriously weakened before the Germans wiped it out during the Second World War. Currently there is very little Jewish presence left in Greece.