History of the Jews in Thessaloniki

, from the third century CE. Some scholars believed that Paul of Tarsus' First Epistle to the Thessalonians mentions Hellenized Jews in the city about 52 CE. This is based on certain interpretation of 1 Thessalonians 2:14 "For you, brethren, became imitators of the churches of God which are in Judea in Christ Jesus. For you also suffered the same things from your own countrymen, just as they did from the Judeans." (NKJV). Others believe that this Christian community consisted only of gentiles (pagans) and others that Jews were a small minority in that church of Thessalonike. The Greek word for "your own countrymen" in the original text is "συμφυλέται" (symphyletai, "of the same phyle[tribe/race/nation]"). The interpretation of "συμφυλέται" as "Jews" is debated by many scholars. Also, there is no firm archaeological and other written evidence for the existence of a Jewish community in Thessaloniki during the 1st half of the 1st century AD. However, the existence of such a community is considered as very likely, even if its character is not known. Researchers have not determined yet where the first Jews lived in the city. In 1170, Benjamin of Tudela reported that there were 500 Jews in Thessaloniki. In the following centuries, the native Romaniote community was joined by some Italian and Ashkenazi Jews. A small Jewish population lived here during the Byzantine period, but it left virtually no trace in documents or archeological artifacts. ==Under the Ottomans==

In 1430, the start of Ottoman domination, the Jewish population was still small. The Ottomans used population transfers within the empire following military conquests to achieve goals of border security or repopulation; they called it Sürgün. Following the fall of Constantinople in 1453, an example of sürgün was the Ottomans' forcing Jews from the Balkans and Anatolia to relocate there, which they made the new capital of the Empire. At the time, few Jews were left in Salonika; none were recorded in the Ottoman census of 1478. The first Sephardim came in 1492 from Mallorca and Catalonia. They were "repentant" returnees to Judaism after earlier forced conversion to Catholicism. In 1493, Jews from Castile and Sicily joined them. In subsequent years, other Jews came from those lands and also from Aragon, Naples, Venice and Provence. In 1519, Ottoman census records list 3,143 (or 3,147) Jewish households and 930 Jewish bachelors in Salonika, indicating a Jewish population of around 16,500 residing in the city at that time. Later, in 1540 and 1560, Jews from Portugal sought refuge in Salonika in response to the political persecution of the marranos. In addition to these Sephardim, a few Ashkenazim arrived from Austria, Transylvania and Hungary. They were sometimes forcibly relocated under the Ottoman policy of "sürgün," following the conquest of land by Suleiman the Magnificent. In 1523, the Ottomans resettled 150 Jewish families from Salonika in Rhodes. Salonika's registers indicate the presence of "Buda Jews" after the conquest of that city by the Turks in 1541. Immigration was great enough that by 1519, the Jews represented 56% of the population and by 1613, 68%. In addition to Jewish studies, it taught humanities, Latin and Arabic, as well as medicine, the natural sciences and astronomy. The yeshivot of Salonika were frequented by Jews from throughout the Ottoman Empire and even farther abroad; there were students from Italy and Eastern Europe. After completing their studies, some students were appointed rabbis in the Jewish communities of the Empire and Europe, including cities such as Amsterdam and Venice. Salonikan Jews were unique in their participation in all economic niches, not confining their business to a few sectors, as was the case where Jews were a minority. They were active in all levels of society, from porters to merchants. Salonika had a large number of Jewish fishermen, unmatched elsewhere, even in present-day Israel. The Jewish speciality was spinning wool. They imported technology from Spain where this craft was highly developed. The community made rapid decisions (haskamot) to require all congregations to regulate this industry. They forbade, under pain of excommunication (cherem), the export of wool and indigo to areas less than three days' travel from the city. Salonikan sheets, blankets and carpets acquired a high profile and were exported throughout the empire from Istanbul to Alexandria through Smyrna. The industry spread to all localities close to the Thermaic Gulf. This same activity became a matter of state when the Ottoman Sultan, Selim II, chose the Salonican Jews to be exclusive manufacturers of uniforms for the Ottoman Janissary troops. This made the city one of the most significant textile producers and exporters in the eastern Mediterranean. His Sublime Porte issued a firman in 1576 forcing sheep raisers to provide their wool exclusively to the Jews to guarantee the adequacy of their supply. Other provisions strictly regulated the types of woollen production, production standards and deadlines. These setbacks were heralds of a dark period for Salonican Jews. The flow of migrants from the Iberian Peninsula had gradually dried up. Jews favored such Western European cities as London, Amsterdam and Bordeaux. This phenomenon led to a progressive estrangement of the Ottoman Sephardim from the West. Although the Jews had brought many new European technologies, including that of printing, they became less and less competitive against other ethno-religious groups. The earlier well-known Jewish doctors and translators were gradually replaced by their Christian counterparts, mostly Armenians and Greeks. In the world of trading, the Jews were supplanted by Western Christians, who were protected by the western powers through their consular bodies. Salonika lost its pre-eminence following the phasing out of Venice, its commercial partner, and the rising power of the port of Smyrna. he came to Salonika, where his reputation as a scholar and Kabbalist grew very quickly. The greatest numbers to follow him were members of the Shalom Synagogue, often former marranos. forming a new component of the Salonikan ethno-religious mosaic. Although they chose conversion, they did not assimilate with the Turks, practicing strict endogamy, living in separate quarters, building their own mosques and maintaining a specific liturgy in their language. They participated in the 19th century in the spread of modernist ideas in the empire. Then, as Turks, the Donme emigrated from the city following the assumption of power by the Greeks. == Modern times ==

'', residence of the Fernandez family From the second half of the 19th century, the Jews of Salonika had a new revival. Frankos, French and Italian Jews from Livorno, were especially influential in introducing new methods of education and developing new schools and intellectual environment for the Jewish population. Such Western modernists introduced new techniques and ideas to the Balkans from the industrialized world. Religion A prime factor in the development of Salonika into an economic center was its complex rabbinical authority. This stemmed from, according to K.E. Fleming, the rabbis' openness and tolerance of different groups of people. This is especially true of conversos, or Jews whose families converted to Christianity whilst living in Spain or Portugal in order to avoid persecution or potential expulsion. A common practice among conversos who wished to live in Salonika was the practice of Teshuvah. This was the concept of Jews returning to Judaism after previously converting, or after an ancestor converted. Several traders supported the introduction of a large textile-production industry, superseding the weaving of cloth in a system of artisanal production. The Jews owned 38 of the 54 largest trading houses in the city, and furnished the overwhelming majority of its labour force. The eruption of modernity was also expressed by the growing influence of new political ideas from Western Europe. The Young Turk revolution of 1908 with its bases in Salonika proclaimed a constitutional monarchy. The Jews did not remain indifferent to the enormous social and political change of the era, and were active most often in the social rather than national sphere. As the city began to take in the broader modern influences of the early 20th century, the movement of workers to organize and engage in social struggles for the improvement of working conditions began to spread. An attempt at union of different nationalities within a single labor movement took place with the formation of the Socialist Workers' Federation led by Avraam Benaroya, a Jew from Bulgaria, who started publication of a quadrilingual Journal of the worker aired in Ladino (Journal del Labourador), Ottoman Turkish (Amele Gazetesi), Bulgarian and Greek. However, the Balkan context was conducive to division, and affected the movement; after the departure of Bulgarian element, the Federation was heavily composed of Jews. The Zionist movement thus faced competition for Jewish backing from the Socialist Workers' Federation, which was very antizionist. Unable to operate in the working class, Zionism in Salonika turned to the smaller group of the middle classes and intellectuals. == Greek administration ==

Salonika, Greek city , one of the main districts of the Jewish population, near the Port of Thessaloniki In 1912, following the First Balkan War, the Greeks took control of Salonika and eventually integrated the city in their territory. This change of sovereignty was not at first well received by the Jews, who feared that the annexation would lead to difficulties, a concern reinforced by Bulgarian propaganda, and by the Serbians, who wanted Austrian Jews to join their cause. Some Jews fought for the internationalization of the city under the protection of the great European powers, but their proposal received little attention, Europe having accepted the fait accompli. The Greek administration nevertheless took some measures to promote the integration of Jews Although the first anniversary of the Balfour Declaration was celebrated with a splendor unmatched in Europe, the decline had begun. The influx of tens of thousands of Greek refugees from Asia Minor, and the departure of Dönme Jews and Muslims from the region as a result of the Greco-Turkish War (1919–1922) and the Treaty of Lausanne (1923), significantly changed the ethnic composition of the city. The Jews ceased to constitute an absolute majority and, on the eve of the Second World War, they accounted for just 40% of the population. During the period, a segment of the population began to demonstrate a less conciliatory policy towards the Jews. The Jewish population reacted by siding with the Greek monarchists during the Greek National Schism (opposing Eleftherios Venizelos, who had the overwhelming support of refugees and the lower income classes). This would set the stage for a 20-year period during which the relationship of the Jews with the Greek state and people would oscillate as Greek politics changed. The friction was exacerbated by the issue of the expropriation of the extensive Jewish cemetery on behalf of the Aristotle University, the anti-constitutional measure of separate electoral associations, the institution in 1922 of the statutory Sunday holiday (forcing Jews to either work on Shabbat or lose income), posters in foreign languages were prohibited, and the authority of rabbinical courts to rule on commercial cases was taken away. and support for the regime was sufficiently strong for a Jewish charter of the regime-sponsored National Organisation of Youth (EON) to be formed. This reinforced the trend of national self-identification as Greeks among the Jews of Salonika, who had been Greek citizens since 1913. Even in the concentration camps, Greek Jews never ceased to affirm their sense of belonging to the Greek nation. At the same time, the working-class poor of the Jewish community had joined forces with their Christian counterparts in the labor movement that developed in the 1930s, often the target of suppression during Metaxas' regime. Avraam Benaroya was a leading figure in the Greek Socialist Movement, not only among Jews, but on a national level. Thus the forces of the period had worked to bridge the gaps between Christians and Jews, while creating new tensions among the different socioeconomic groups within the city and the country as a whole. Emigration Emigration of Jews from the city began when the Young Turks pushed through the universal conscription of all Ottoman subjects into the military irrespective of religion, a trend that continued to grow after the annexation of the city by Greece. Damage from the Thessaloniki fire, poor economic conditions, rise in antisemitism among a segment of the population, and the development of Zionism all motivated the departure of part of the city's Jewish population, mainly for Western Europe, South America and Palestine. The Jewish population decreased from 93,000 people to 53,000 on the eve of the war. There were some notable successes among the community's diaspora. Isaac Carasso, reaching Barcelona, founded the Danone company. Mordechai Mano became in Israel one of the pioneers in the maritime industry and Israeli economy in general. Maurice Abravanel went to Switzerland with his family and then to the United States where he became a famous conductor. A future grandparent of the French President Nicolas Sarkozy emigrated to France. In the interwar years, some Jewish families were to be found in the 9th arrondissement of Paris, France; The seat of their association was located on the Rue La Fayette. In Palestine, the Recanati family established one of the most important banks of Israel, the Eretz Yisrael Discount Bank, which later became the Israel Discount Bank. == Second World War ==

Battle of Greece On 28 October 1940, Italian forces invaded Greece following the refusal of the Greek dictator Ioannis Metaxas to accept the ultimatum given by the Italians. In the resulting Greco-Italian War and the subsequent German invasion, many of Thessaloniki's Jews took part. 12,898 men enlisted in the Greek army; 4,000 participated in the campaigns in Albania and Macedonia; 513 fought against the Germans and, in total, 613 Jews were killed, including 174 from Salonika. The 50th Brigade of Macedonia was nicknamed "Cohen Battalion", reflecting the preponderance of Jews in its composition. The Jewish press was quickly banned, while two pro-Nazi Greek dailies, Nea Evropi ("New Europe") and Apogevmatini ("Evening Press"), appeared. Some homes and community buildings were requisitioned by the occupying forces, including the Baron Hirsch Hospital. In late April, signs prohibiting Jews entry to cafés appeared. Jews were forced to turn in their radios. The Grand Rabbi of Salonika, Zvi Koretz, was arrested by the Gestapo on 17 May 1941 and sent to a Nazi concentration camp near Vienna, from where he returned in late January 1942 to resume his position as rabbi. In June 1941, commissioner Alfred Rosenberg arrived. He plundered Jewish archives, sending tons of documents to his pet project, the Institute for Study of the Jewish Question in Frankfurt. Along with the other Greek urban communities, the Jews suffered a severe famine in the winter of 1941–42. The Nazi regime had not attached any importance to the Greek economy, food production or distribution. It is estimated that in 1941–1942 sixty Jews of the city died every day from hunger. The cemetery was soon transformed into a vast quarry where Greeks and Germans sought gravestones for use as construction materials. and other buildings. It is estimated that from the beginning of the occupation to the end of deportations, 3,000–5,000 Jews managed to escape from Salonika, finding temporary refuge in the Italian zone. A recent study by the Jewish Museum of Greece found that 250 Jews of Thessaloniki took part in national resistance movements such as the Greek People's Liberation Army, the National Liberation Front, and British-loyal units of the Greek Army. Destruction of the Jews of Salonika Salonika's 54,000 Jews were shipped to the Nazi extermination camps. More than 90% of the total Jewish population of the city were murdered during the war. Deportation , a view from inside the camp To carry out this operation, the Nazi authorities dispatched two specialists in the field, Alois Brunner and Dieter Wisliceny, who arrived on February 6, 1943. The Jewish population of Salonika was so large that the deportation took several months until it was completed, which occurred on August 7 Factors explaining the effectiveness of the deportations Much of the discussion about the reasons for the high percentage of Jewish losses in Thessaloniki have been advanced in contrast to the case of Athens, where a large proportion of Jews managed to escape death. However, this only gives a partial picture as other Jewish communities in Greece with different characteristics, such as Ioannina, Corfu and Rhodes, also experienced very heavy losses. An often quoted reason focuses on the attitude of the Judenrat, and of its leader in the period prior to the deportations, the chief rabbi Zvi Koretz, has been heavily criticized. He was accused of having responded passively to the Nazis and downplayed the fears of Jews when their transfer to Poland was ordered. As an Austrian citizen and therefore a native German speaker, he was thought to be well-informed. Koretz has also been accused of having knowingly collaborated with the occupiers. Another factor was the solidarity shown by the families who refused to be separated. This desire undermined individual initiatives. Some older Jews also had difficulty remaining in hiding because of their lack of knowledge of the Greek language, which had only become the city's dominant language after annexation by Greece in 1913. Additionally, the large size of the Jewish population rendered impossible the tactic of blending into the Greek Orthodox population, as in Athens. Again in contrast to Athens, there was also a latent antisemitism among a segment of the Greek population, in particular among the refugees from Asia Minor. When these immigrants arrived en masse in Salonika, they were excluded from the economic system. Consequently, some of these outcasts watched the Jewish population with hostility. The Jewish people were more economically integrated and therefore better off, which the immigrants equated with the former Ottoman power. It is reported that just 10 Jewish families found shelter in the city. This attitude of the local population, which included the Church, the city authorities and the professional associations, has been noted by several historians in the recent years. The resistance was also not very well developed at the time, and few Jews could realistically make the journey to the mountains. Nevertheless, Yad Vashem has identified 265 Greek righteous among the nations, the same proportion as among the French population. Many Jews from Salonika were also integrated into the Sonderkommandos. On 7 October 1944, they attacked German forces with other Greek Jews, in an uprising planned in advance, storming the crematoria and killing about twenty guards. A bomb was thrown into the furnace of the crematorium III, destroying the building. Before being massacred by the Germans, insurgents sang a song of the Greek partisan movement and the Greek National Anthem. In his book If This Is a Man, one of the most famous works of literature of the Holocaust, Primo Levi describes the group thus: "those Greeks, motionless and silent as the Sphinx, crouched on the ground behind their thick pot of soup". Those members of the community still alive during 1944 made a strong impression on the author. He noted: "Despite their low numbers their contribution to the overall appearance of the camp and the international jargon is spoken is of prime importance". He described a strong patriotic sense among them, writing that their ability to survive in the camps was partly explained by "they are among the cohesive of the national groups, and from this point of view the most advanced". == Post-World War II ==

File:Saloniki Holocaust memorial.jpg| Menorah in flames, Holocaust memorial in Thessaloniki File:Jewish museum thessaloniki sign.jpg|Jewish Museum of Thessaloniki, with signage in Greek, English, and Ladino File:Monastir Synagogue.JPG|Monastir Synagogue File:Interior of Yad LeZikaron synagogue, Thessaloniki.jpg|Interior of Yad LeZikaron Synagogue. The synagogue was opened in 1984, dedicated to the memory of the victims of the Holocaust File:Saloniki Jewish school entrance.jpg|Jewish school entrance File:Saloniki Holocaust memorial in the cemetery.jpg|Holocaust memorial in the New Jewish Cemetery At the end of the Second World War, a violent civil war broke out in Greece. It lasted until 1949, with forces in Athens supported by the British opposition to the powerful communist ELAS. Some of the Jews of Thessaloniki who had escaped deportation took part in it, either on the government or on the opposition side. Among those who fought in the ELAS many were victims, like other supporters, of the repression that fell on the country after the government had regained control of the situation. Four months later, when the new British-supported right wing government in Athens came to power in Thessaloniki instead, restitution was cumulatively halted. Not only was the government faced with a major housing crisis due to the influx of refugees caused by war, but a number of individuals who had been enriched during the war were also influential in the new right wing administration, with the government's view favouring strengthening all anticommunist ties by adopting a more conciliatory approach to any former collaborators. In 1998, King Juan Carlos I of Spain went to the city, where he paid tribute to the Sephardic Jews. The visit followed one he had undertaken at the synagogue of Madrid in 1992 to commemorate the expulsion of 1492, at which he condemned the decree of expulsion from Spain. Following the requests of Professors at the Aristotle University, a memorial to the Jewish cemetery lying beneath the foundations of the institution was unveiled in 2014. Today, around 1,300 Jews live in Thessaloniki, making it the second largest Jewish community in Greece after Athens. Israeli singer Yehuda Poliker recorded a song about the deported Jews of Thessaloniki, called 'Wait for me Thessaloniki'. The community of Thessaloniki accused Germany to repay the manumission payments that the Jews of Greece paid to rescue their family members, after the Nazis demanded this money. Nevertheless, the Nazis did not let them free. The European Court of Justice dismissed this petition. The Jewish community of Thessaloniki demands from the Deutsche Bahn (the German railway) which is the successor of the Deutsche Reichsbahn to reimburse to heirs of Greek Holocaust victims of Thessaloniki for train fares that they were forced to pay for their deportation from Thessaloniki to Auschwitz and Treblinka between March and August 1943. The Jewish community of Greece made great efforts to establish a Holocaust Museum in Thessaloniki. A permanent pavilion about the Holocaust of Greek Jews in KZ Auschwitz was to be installed. A Delegation from the Jewish communities of Greece met in November 2016 with Greek politicians and asked them for support in their demand to get back the community archives of the Jewish community of Thessaloniki from Moscow. The Holocaust Museum of Greece, located near the city's old railway station, is set to open in 2026. The museum's design includes will cover 9,000 square meters with spaces for exhibitions, education, and research. It has received significant funding from the Greek government, Germany, and private donors, including Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla. == Diaspora ==

Today, there are communities of Salonican Jews found in the United States and Israel that preserve the customs of the Jews of Salonika. Israel File:Salonica memorial.jpg|Salonica Holocaust memorial, Holon cemetery, Israel File:Thessaloniki's community Synagogue in Shapira neighborhood.jpg|Synagogue prayer in memory of the Jews of Salonika, Shapira neighborhood, Tel Aviv. Founded in 1936 File:PikiWiki Israel 5505 Landscapes of Israel - Mini Israel.JPG|Hechal Yehuda Synagogue. Completed in 1980. Model at Mini Israel. Hechal Yehuda Synagogue was founded by Jews from Salonika in Tel Aviv. It maintains the customs of Salonikan music and prayer. United States Congregation Etz Ahaim, a Sephardic congregation, was founded in 1921 by Jews from Salonika in New Brunswick, New Jersey. It is now located in Highland Park, New Jersey. The reader chants the Aramaic prayer ''B'rich Shemei in Ladino before taking out the Torah on Shabbat; it is known as Bendicho su Nombre in Ladino. Additionally, at the end of Shabbat services, the entire congregation sings the well-known Hebrew hymn Ein Keloheinu as Non Como Muestro Dio'' in Ladino. Actress and singer Lea Michele was featured in an episode of the show Who Do You Think You Are, where she learned about her Salonican Jewish ancestry. Her family, now living in the United States, is part of the diaspora of Salonican Jews. United Kingdom Prior to World War I Jews from Salonika and Istanbul arrived in London. They settled in west London opening a synagogue in Holland Park in 1928. The community still uses Ladino prayers although very few still speak the language. Over the years they adopted the customs and music of the local Spanish and Portuguese community but on the High Holidays have largely preserved the tunes and liturgy of their forefathers. == Culture ==

Language Generally, Jews who emigrated adopted the language of their new country, but this was not true of the Sepharadim of the Ottoman Empire, who arrived en masse, and retained the use of their language. The Jews of Salonika thus are known to have used Spanish, the Judeo-Spanish (djudezmo), that is neither more nor less than a dialect of Spanish having evolved independently since the 15th century. They also used Judeo-Catalan, in the case of the Katalanim. Given that the Sephardic communities were larger in population than the Katalanim, despite retaining particularities, over the centuries, the latter were diluted in the former, including the language. Judeo-Catalan is difficult to trace, but it can be said that in 1526 the majzor of Yamim Noraim, known as Majzor le-núsaj Bartselona minhag Catalunya,'' was published for the first time, of which it is known that the printing ended on the eve of Yom Kippur in the year 5287. The katalanim published several reprints of the majzor in the 19th century. In 1863 they printed an edition entitled Majzor le-Rosh ha-Shaná ve-Yom ha-Kippurim ke-minhag qahal qadosh Qatalà yashán ve-jadash asher be-irenu zot Saloniqi. This edition was published by Yitsjaq Amariliyo. In 1869 the Majzor ke-minhag qahal qadosh Qatalán yashán ve-jadash was printed, the editors were: Moshé Yaaqov Ayash and Rabbi Janoj Pipano, and those who carried out the printing were: David, called Bejor Yosef Arditi, Seadi Avraham Shealt. The majzor was published under the title Majzor le-Rosh ha-Shana kefí minhag Sefarad ba-qehilot ha-qedoshot Saloniqi, and includes the prayers of the Aragon community and the Qatalán yashán ve-jadash communities. The Catalan Jewish community of Salonica existed as such until the Holocaust. In 1927 the community published a numbered three-volume edition of the majzor entitled Majzor le-Yamim Noraim kefí minhag q[ahal] q[adosh] Qatalán, ha-yadua be-shem núsaj Bartselona minhag Qatalunya. In the second volume Tefilat Yaaqov'', there is a long historical introduction about the Catalan Jewish community and the edition of the majzor written in Judeo-Spanish. Anyway, they prayed and studied in Hebrew and Aramaic and used, as do all other Sephardic communities, what Haïm Vidal Séphiha called the language "layer", Ladino, which consisted of a Hebrew translation of texts into a Spanish respecting a Hebrew word order and syntax. These two languages, djudezmo and Ladino, were written in Hebrew characters as well as Latin characters. In addition to these languages that had evolved in exile, the Jews of Salonika sometimes spoke Turkish, the language of the Ottoman Empire, written in Arabic characters. The haskala taught by the French Jews has, in turn, encouraged teaching the French language in Alliance Israélite Universelle schools. Italian is also taught to a lesser extent. After the Greeks took Salonika in 1912, Greek was taught at school and has been spoken by several generations of Jewish Salonicans. Today it is the language that predominates among Thessalonian Jews. Modern Salonican djudezmo now include phrases from various other immigrant groups including Italian. French phrases have also become popular to the point that Prof. Haïm-Vidal Séphiha speaks of "judéo-fragnol." The cuisine of the Jews of the city was a variant of the Judeo-Spanish cuisine, which is itself influenced by the large ensemble of Mediterranean cuisine. It was influenced by the Jewish dietary rules of kashrut, which include prohibitions on the consumption of pork and mixtures of dairy and meat products, and religious holidays that require the preparation of special dishes. However, its key feature was its Iberian influence. Fish, abundant in this port city, was consumed in large quantities and in all forms: fried, baked ("al orno"), marinated or braised ("abafado"), and was often accompanied by complex sauces. Seen as a symbol of fertility, fish was used in a marriage rite called dia del peche ("day of fish") on the last day of wedding ceremonies, in which the bride stepped over a large dish of fish that was then consumed by the guests. Vegetables accompanied all the dishes, especially onions; garlic was on hand but was not used, since the Ashkenazic synagogues were major consumers of garlic and had been given the nickname "El kal del ajo," "the garlic synagogue." Greek yogurt, widely consumed in the Balkans and Anatolia, was also appreciated, as well as cream and Pan di Spagna. In anticipation of Shabbat, hamin was prepared. A Judeo-Spanish variant of the Ashkenazi cholent and the North African dafina, chamin was a meat stew with vegetables (wheat, chickpeas, white beans) that were let simmer until the Saturday midday meal. In preparation for Passover, housewives filled locked chests with sweets, figs and dates stuffed with almonds, marzipan and the popular chape blanche (white jam), which consisted of sugar water and lemon. Wine was reserved for religious rituals, but Sephardim, like their Greek and Muslim neighbors, were major consumers of raki. They also favored sugary drinks made of prune, cherry and apricot syrup, which they drank at the end of the large festive meal. == Notable Thessalonian Jews ==

, the Sultan's doctor • Aaron Abiob, rabbi • Alberto Abravanel, father of Senor Abravanel (aka Silvio Santos) and descendant of Isaac Abarbanel • Maurice Abravanel, conductor of classical music • Shlomo Halevi Alkabetz, rabbi • , founder of Allatini (company)/Allatini Mills • Charles Allatini, banker and trader • , writer, killed in Auschwitz • Moses Almosnino, rabbi • Saul Amarel, pioneer of artificial intelligence • Salamo Arouch, boxer of Maccabi Thessaloniki and Aris Thessaloniki • Hank Azaria, American actor • Isaac Benrubi, philosopher • Albert Bourla, CEO of Pfizer • Emmanuel Carasso, lawyer and a prominent member of the Young Turks • Isaac Carasso, started a yogurt factory which later became Groupe Danone • Daniel Carasso • Alberto Couriel, socialist politician and Member of the Hellenic Parliament with Federation • Alberto Errera, Greek Army officer, ELAS fighter, Holocaust victim • , journalist and one of the founders of the Zionist movement in Thessaloniki • , contractor and entrepreneur who founded the Florentin neighborhood in Tel Aviv • Allegra Gategno, prewar woman sprinter of G.S. Iraklis Thessaloniki • , second-to-last Chief Rabbi of Thessaloniki, killed in Auschwitz • (Gechaskél), rebetiko singer • Moshe Ha-Elion, Holocaust survivor and writer • Moshe Levy, chemist • Samuel de Medina, rabbi, talmudist and author • David ben Judah Messer Leon, rabbi and physician • Mordechai Mano, businessman and member of the Mano shipping family • , architect • Jacob Modiano, banker • , founder of Modiano company • , banker and philanthropist • Isaac Pasha Molho, Sultan Abdul Hamid II's doctor and vice admiral of the Ottoman navy • Alberto Nahmias, football player • , military doctor and division general of the Ottoman army • David Pardo, Dutch rabbi, born in Salonika • Joseph Pardo, rabbi • Avraham Rakanti, politician and journalist • Leon Yehuda Recanati, banker, founder of the Israel Discount Bank • Raphael Recanati, businessman, banker, and philanthropist. Founder and chairman of the Overseas Shipholding Group • Raphaël Salem, mathematician • Hayyim Shabbethai, Chief Rabbi of Thessaloniki • Solomon Sirilio, rabbi and Talmud commentator • Hayyim Saruq, trader and diplomat • Jacques Stroumsa, Holocaust survivor and musician • Joseph Taitazak, talmudist • Baruch Uziel, Israeli politician • Robi-Rafael Varsano, Holocaust survivor who, after WWII, detected Max Merten, military administration counselor of Nazi Germany in Thessaloniki • Shlomo Venezia (1923-2012), Holocaust survivor • Morris Venezia, alias Maurice Venezia, (1921-2013), Holocaust survivor == See also ==