Migration of Jews from the Mediterranean Basin to the Americas and Beyond in WWI

Prof. Yitzchak Kerem, Heritage House for Sephardic and Eastern Jewish Communities, Jerusalem

Monastir Jews in Temuco Chile

A CHANGING SALONIKA1 )First decade: Industrialization, tram

Jewish apathy to Greek national struggle, Greek boycott of Salonikan Jewish port and commerce, Jewish role in 1908 Young Turk Revolution, Emergence of Jewish Socialist and Zionist movements. Jews increase to over 80,000 out of total population of 120,000

2 )Greek Rule – 19123 )1917 Fire. 55,000 of 72,000 homeless refugees are Jewish.

4 )Separate electoral college for Jews and Muslims 1920-19335 )1922-3 100,000 Greek-Orthodox Asia Minor refugees brought to

Salonika in Greek-Turkish population exchange. Jews dwindle from majority of city to quarter of population

Jews lose control of the port after the beginning of Greek rule in 1912

  

Further Decline and Annihilation of Salonikan Jewry

4 )Separate electoral college for Jews and Muslims 1920-1933 5 )1922-3 100,000 Greek-Orthodox Asia Minor refugees brought to Salonika in Greek-

Turkish population exchange. Jews dwindle from majority of city to quarter of population

6 )Legislation in Salonika and Greece prohibiting work on Sunday and prompting Jewish desecration of the Sabbath and migration. 1924-1925

7 )Jewish Campbell neighborhood destroyed by Asia Minor and Pont refugees, and EEE university student youth movement affiliated with ruling Republican party of Greek Prime Minister Eleftherios Venizelos. 1931

8 )Migration of 15,000 Salonikan Jews to France and 15,000-18,000 Jews to Haifa and southern Tel Aviv (1932-1938)

9 )Metaxas dictatorship 1936-1941. Jewish culture is prohibited, but Metaxas supports Zionism and Jewish illegal immigration to Palestine. 1939 – Metaxas inscribed in Jewish National Fund Golden Book. Jews prohibited from participated in EON – Greek Fascist Youth Movement. Greece is European center for illegal immigration activities to Eretz-Israel, 1934-1939 .

10 )Jews active as fighting soldiers and officers in Albanian Campaign against invading Italian army .

Over 12,000 Jews drafted and suffered a fourth of the casualties. Oct. 28, 1940-April 6, 1941. Jewish colonel Mordechai Frizis, co-architect of national counterattack, killed

from the air as leading battalion in battle against the Italians on Dec. 5, 1940 .11 )1941-1943 .German occupation of Salonika. March 15, 1943 – first deportation to

Birkenau. August 2, 1943. Last deportation of Salonikan Jewry. 54,000 Jews deported. Only 2,000 of 56,000 Salonikan Jews survive Holocaust .

Sephardic Jews in Sarajevo in 1917

WWI in Eretz-IsraelDroughtFamineExpulsions of enemy nationals of the ruling

Ottoman Turks; mainly affects Russian JewsInternal expulsions of all residents in battle areasBombings and shootings between the Ottoman

Turks and the British and AustraliansOttoman Jews drafted in Ottoman army.

Starvation, neglect, taken prisoners of war, deaths, and disappearance.

ExpulsionsJanuary 1914. Foreign subjects deported from Jaffa to

Alexandria, Egypt.Mid-December 1914. 698 Jewish exiles arrive in Alexandria.Mid-December 1914 – January 1915. U.S. battleships bring

7,475 refugees to Egypt. End of 1915. 12,277 Jewish exiles in Egypt.March 28, 1917. Expulsion from Jaffa. 10,000 Jews forced to

leave. Internal movement to Petach Tikva and Kfar Saba, and then further expulsions to Samaria and primarily to the Galilee.

October – December 1917. 2,000 Jewish expulsees find refuge in Damascus. Also Ottoman Jews from Yehuda, Rishon Letzion, Rehovot, Petach Tikva, Kfar Saba, and jerusalem arrested by Ottomans as draft dogers.

United States

Judeo-Spanish NewspapersLa EpocaEl AvenirEl Tiempo (Istanbul)El MesaretLa Vara (New York and Cairo)La America (New York)

Family Associations ShirizliIsraelShaltielAmarMizrahiMallahFarhiAbravanel

Cuba

Argentina

Brazil

Mexico

France

Tracing Past Migration Paths Salonika to Istanbul, Cairo, Naples, New York, New Jersey, Los Angeles, Buenos Aires,

Rio de Janeiro, Mexico City, London, Marseilles, Lyons, Paris, Jerusalem, Tel Aviv Castoria to New York, Rio de Janeiro Ioannina to New York, Alexandria, Jerusalem Chios – New York, Atlanta Florina – New York, Rio de Janeiro Rhodes to New York, Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Atlanta,

Montgomery, Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo, Buenos Aires, Rhodesia, Belgian Congo, Brussels, Capetown, Hebron, Haifa, Jerusalem, Hebron

Corfu to Manchester, Trieste, Alexandria, Tel Aviv Istanbul/Izmir to New York, Los Angeles, Rio de Janeiro, Buenos Aires, Paris, Brussels,

Jerusalem, Tel Aviv Monastir to Jerusalem, Temuco (Chile), New York, Rochester (NY), Indianapolis,

Cincinnati, Alexandria/Cairo to Milan, Paris, Sao Paulo, Tel Aviv, Haifa Dardanelles – Seattle, New York, Buenos Aires, Istanbul Edirne – Demotica, Sofia, Istanbul, Tel Aviv Sofia – Paris, New York, Tel Aviv