Via Social Media - Facebook post:
Thessaloniki, often called the “Jerusalem of the Balkans,” was once home to one of the largest Jewish communities in the world. After the expulsion of Jews from Spain in 1492, thousands of Sephardic Jews settled in the city under Ottoman rule. By the early 17th century, around 1613, Jews made up nearly 68% of Thessaloniki’s population, shaping its economy, scholarship, and cultural identity. The city became a hub of Jewish printing, trade, and religious life, with synagogues and schools flourishing across its neighborhoods.
Over the centuries, however, the community’s dominance began to wane. Fires, shifting trade routes, and political changes gradually altered the city’s demographics. By the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Jews remained a vital part of Thessaloniki but no longer held a majority. The most devastating blow came during World War II, when Nazi occupation led to the deportation of more than 45,000 Jews to Auschwitz. Few survived, and the centuries-old community was nearly erased in a matter of years.
Today, only about 1,200 Jews remain in Thessaloniki, a fraction of its former population. Yet the legacy of this once-thriving community endures in synagogues, cemeteries, and cultural institutions that preserve its memory. Efforts by historians, educators, and descendants continue to highlight Thessaloniki’s unique role in Jewish history, a city where Jewish life once defined the majority, and where resilience and remembrance now carry forward its story.
Source: Facebook The Historians Den
Various responses:
1. Marianne: I knew people from Thessaloniki. They spoke Greek in the street but Ladino [Judeo-Spanish] in the home. This was up to WWII, a remnant from the expulsion from Spain centuries before when the Jews sought refuge in Greece and Turkey. Greek was taught in school but some of the women I know seemed to be fluent in French, so perhaps there was also a French-run school for girls. Perhaps someone knows.
2. Victor: I’m surprised that you didn’t mention The Great Thessaloniki Fire of 1917. The fire destroyed two thirds of Thessaloniki, the second-largest city in Greece, leaving more than 70,000 homeless and destroying 9,500 homes.
My mother and her family were among those left homeless. She was 13 at the time. When the fire started, she was separated from her family for several days before they were reunited. They then lived in an army tent. With so many homes and businesses destroyed, the Sephardic Jews were forced to leave and live elsewhere. My mother and her family eventually made their way to New York.
I grew up listening to stories of the fire. Afterwards my children were in awe of what happened and loved hearing mom’s story about the fire!
3. Jessica: I didn't know until a few years ago that one of my Great-great-grandparents family was originally from Thessaloniki. I am not sure of the year his family migrated from Thessaloniki to what is Belarus today, right on the Ukraine border. There was a whole community that migrated to work the waterways and once in Belarus/ Ukraine, they took on surnames that were different iterations of Turkienietch because the locals referred to them as Turks or people from the Ottoman empire (even though they were from Thessaloniki Greece).
4. Aida: They were welcomed by Albanians, the people of that place. Then came the swap of territories between Greece and Turky and Albanians were expelled as Muslim Turks. Then came the Germans and did what this article states. If there were any jews that survived were those that moved to Albania, the only country that had more jews at end of WWII than before it.
5. Al: Most people do not realize that 100 years ago citizenship and ethnicity were not one and the same. That under empires ethnicities transcended borders and then there was a big push to make Nation-States homogeneous. I wonder if this was pushed by the same powers pushing for the end of empire. The relocation of ethnic Greeks, Turks, Germans etc. was a horrifying thing.
6. Lori: St. Paul evangelized Salonika. It became a Christian city for many centuries and then Turkish invaders from Asia took it and allowed Jewish immigrants to become a majority. Christian Greeks got part of their original lands back including Thessaloniki and I see no problem with it being a majority Christian city once again.
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