| Description |
In the expulsions of 1492 AD and 1496 AD, many of the Sephardic Jews from Spain and Portugal immigrated to the Ottoman Empire. A significant portion ended up in the Greek city of Salonika. The Sephardic Jews of Salonika thrived for centuries under Ottoman rule thanks to their Dhimmi status and the millet system of taxation which kept the Jews protected and insulated from harm while they rebuilt their Golden Age. Their scientific, cultural, and literary attainments blossomed in Salonika during the Classical Ottoman Age. With the decline of the Ottoman Empire and the rise in dominance of the Great Powers, England and France, Greece eventually regained its independence from Ottoman Turkey. Greek independence was achieved, not so much as a result of Greek nationalism as it was from the intervention of the Great Powers in the 19th century. Throughout the 19th century and into the early 20th century, there was a great migration of Muslims out of the Balkans generally and Salonika in particular. This movement, combined with Greek independence precipitated a shift specifically of political power into the hands of a Christian monarchy. The Jewish population was very wary at first about the transition of governmental power. The implications for the Jews were that they would now be subject to the kinds of pogroms that their Ashkenazi cousins had endured for centuries, but this turned out not to be the case. The independence movement in Greece, because it was so heavily influenced and controlled by Britain and France, meant that they would have a constitutional monarchy and that the basis for power was secular, not religious. For the most part, this was good news for the Jews as they were seen as Greeks of Jewish origin instead of Jewish outsiders. Salonika had always been a crossroads for trade, armies, and navies. After WWI, and after rebuilding after the great fire, Salonika resumed this role but in a New Greek fashion with a New Greek identity, based not on race but upon economics and the ideals of equality known today as a modern constitutionally based nation state. |
