19. The Jewish Museum of Thessaloniki

The Jewish community of Thessaloniki has played an important role in the city’s history, dating back many centuries. 

We have archaeological findings that show there was a Jewish presence in Thessaloniki as early as its founding during the Hellenistic period by the Macedonian King Cassander, one of the successors to Alexander the Great, who offered tax incentives to different population groups around the city to settle there. 

Jews continued to live and play an active role in daily life in Thessaloniki throughout the Roman, Byzantine, Ottoman and later periods, when the city passed into the newly established Greek state… until virtually the entire community was abruptly and brutally wiped out during the Holocaust of the Second World War. 

These indigenous Jews, with roots in the Roman and Byzantine eras, were called "Romaniotes" because they were descended from the original Jewish population that settled around the port. The community enjoyed autonomy during the Roman Empire and its members lived in different parts of the city. The Apostle Paul is said to have preached in a synagogue during his second missionary journey to Thessaloniki in 50 AD. 

However, during the Byzantine period and later when the city was conquered by the Latins – who were Western European settlers, primarily of Italian, French, and other Latin-speaking origins – as well as Crusaders, Venetians, and other conquerors created unfavourable conditions for Jews, prompting many to leave the city. 

The next wave of Jewish migration into Thessaloniki occurred under Ottoman rule, which began in 1430, following an anti-Semitic royal decree in Spain in 1492 requiring non-Catholics to convert or leave. Jews were forced to leave Spain en masse in search of new homelands. 

To address Thessaloniki's problem of population shortage and to capitalise on the city’s strategic location and port, the Sultan invited Jews who had been expelled or who had previously left the city to settle in the newly conquered territories, with the promise that their property and religious freedoms would be respected, which indeed were honoured.

These Jews, known as "Sephardic" Jews (with "Sepharad" meaning "Spain" in Hebrew), brought skills and knowledge in crafts and trade previously unknown in Thessaloniki. In this way, Thessaloniki became known as the Jerusalem of the Balkans, as the Jews were its most populous element until the 1920s and the arrival of the Greek refugees from Asia Minor. Thessaloniki’s Jewish community became the largest in Greece.

The reality is that most of the Jewish community of Thessaloniki in Ottoman times lived below the poverty line. Most were workers and labourers, engaged in professions like farming, fishing, dyeing wool and silk, and working in the port and mines. And there was a slightly higher class of Jews who were employed in the service and craft industries. 

Of course, there were also wealthy Jewish families, who became pillars of the economy and science, such as the Fernandez family, the family of Baron Hirsch, who founded a large hospital in the city (now Ippokratio Hospital), the Allatini family, whose flour mills in Thessaloniki started the Allatini biscuit business (one of the most famous in Greece) and the Modiano family. 

Eli Modiano was an architect and gave Thessaloniki some of its most iconic buildings, including the old Customs House by the port and the famous Modiano food Market. 

Up to the late Ottoman period, before the Balkan Wars of the early 20th century, there were about 30 synagogues, dozens of Jewish newspapers, and several public and private Jewish schools. 

In 1912, Ottoman rule ended when the Greek army entered the city and Thessaloniki became part of the Greek state. Until that time, Jews still made up the majority of the city’s population. King George I of Greece declared that Jews would have the same rights as other Greek citizens. But at the same time, there was a movement to Hellenise the city that created new challenges for the Jewish community, which now faced pressure to adapt to this changing reality. 

For the most part, Jews and Christians in Thessaloniki co-existed well, especially in the upper levels of society, such as commercial relations and common social activities like attending the University of Thessaloniki and the city’s Conservatory. 

When the Great Fire of Thessaloniki destroyed most of the city in 1917, including the Jewish quarter, some 50,000 Jews were left homeless. It was the end of the city as they knew it. The Greek government sought to modernise the city post-fire, promising compensation to homeless Jews but denying them the right to return to their pre-fire neighbourhoods. They were relocated to suburban settlements created by the Jewish Community, such as Synoikismos (Settlement) 151. 

All of which brings us to the 1920s, when an influx of Greek refugees arrived after the Asia Minor Catastrophe. At that time, anti-Semitic elements began to appear in society, spurred on by local newspapers. The culmination of this was the arson attack on the Jewish neighbourhood of Kampel, leading many Jews to leave Thessaloniki for Palestine and other countries.

On 9 April 1941, the Nazis entered Thessaloniki. Jewish-owned houses and buildings began to be requisitioned, and gradually, the persecutions began. In the summer of 1942, all Jewish men between the ages of 18 and 45 were ordered to report to Eleftherias Square. After enduring public humiliation, they were conscripted for forced labour across Greece. 

Working and living conditions were inhumane and many workers died. The community therefore negotiated with the German authorities and paid a ransom in exchange for the release of the workers. 

In the following months, the confiscation of Jewish businesses, warehouses and property continued. In December 1942, the city's ancient Jewish cemetery, which contained over 300,000 graves and dated back to at least the 15th century, was destroyed and turned into a quarry for the entire city. Gravestones of priceless historical value were removed, regardless of their age, and used in construction. In the place of the cemetery, facilities were created for the expansion of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, exactly where the University's facilities are today.

Until 1943, around 55,000 Jews lived in Thessaloniki, constituting a quarter of the population and owning over a quarter of the city's real estate. Before the end of the year, this number would be almost zero. 

At the end of February 1943, with the arrival of SS troops  to implement the Nazis’ “Final Solution”, Jews were forced to wear the yellow Star of David and mark their businesses, and they were forbidden to move around after sunset or use public transport. They were confined to the ghettos within the city. On the 15 March of the same year, they began being transported to the concentration camps at Auschwitz and Birkenau.

By August 1943, when the 19th and final transportation of Jews took place, 96% of the Jewish population had been deported to the camps. Only a handful survived. 

It was recorded that around 1,800 Jews returned to Thessaloniki from the camps after the war. The survivors, along with the few who had been saved thanks to their joining the National Resistance, attempted to rebuild Thessaloniki’s Jewish community. But they found their homes occupied and their property looted. All but two or three of the synagogues had been destroyed and the 500-year-old Jewish cemetery was still being used as a quarry. 

Few of these survivors or their heirs were able to recover their property, and most left Thessaloniki. Despite this, there is still an active Jewish community in the city, but it is a much, much smaller population than before.

The building now housing the Jewish Museum of Thessaloniki was constructed by the city’s Jewish community in 1904 to serve as a commercial space, and is one of the few structures that survived the Great Fire of 1917 and subsequent reconstruction.

It was used commercially until 1997, when it was adapted for the museum's collections and opened to the public in 2001. 

Inside, you can trace the history of Thessaloniki’s Jews from antiquity to the 20th century, learning about important historical figures and details of the culture and daily life of the community.

The collection includes fragments of tombstones from the destroyed cemetery, architectural remains from synagogues, rare Hebrew books, religious items, family heirlooms, clothing, bank deposit books and a collection of pre-war family and school photographs, alongside documents from Jewish businesses that played a key role in Thessaloniki’s economy until 1940. There are also digitised copies of local Jewish newspapers and original public and private documents related to the Second World War.

There are various Jewish-related memorials around Thessaloniki. The Holocaust Memorial, located in Eleftherias Square near the port, honours Thessaloniki’s Jewish population who perished in Nazi concentration camps. And near the Aristotle University Observatory, is the Memorial of the old Jewish cemetery. The city has two synagogues, including the Monastorioton Synagogue, which has been active since 1927 and during World War II was used as a warehouse by the Greek Red Cross and escaped bombing. After the city’s liberation, the few surviving Jews sought refuge there. They convened a meeting, elected the first post-occupation administrative council, and began to organise a basic community life. Over time, the Monastirioton Synagogue became a central gathering place for the city's Jewish community. The other synagogue, Yad Lezikaron, was built in honour of the victims of the Holocaust on the site of an earlier synagogue that was demolished.