The Divergence of Judaism and Islam. Interdependence, Modernity, and Political Turmoil

(Joyce) #1

34 · Julia Phillips Cohen


also mentioned the Jewish man who risked his life to warn members of
an Ottoman regiment near Larissa that the bridge they planned to cross
was loaded with dynamite.^26 Many of these acts were planned, and all
of them were officially condoned, but they were not the only forms of
patriotism that Ottoman Jews exhibited during the war.
There were also clear instances of Jewish identification with the em-
pire and with Muslims that concerned rather than pleased the Jewish
leadership. These acts of patriotism were often spontaneous and consti-
tuted what I will call negative acts of patriotism; that is, they were always
defined in opposition to a third party who became the adversary. When
one such chaotic moment threatened to turn violent within the city itself
during the height of the war, the Salonican Jewish press faced a dilemma.
The disturbance did not match its reports of ethno-religious harmony in
the midst of war, nor did it fit with its position that “the Salonican resi-
dent represents the ideal of the malleable and governable citizen.”^27
To complete our picture of Jewish patriotism in the Ottoman Empire,
we need to look elsewhere for other stories, both those that were not told
in contemporary Jewish papers and those that were mentioned within
their pages only in other contexts. One such case surfaced in Salonican
Jewish newspapers some two months before war was declared.
In early February, Le Journal de Salonique called for the serious atten-
tion of police concerning the “scandalous activities” taking place in an
open space behind Hamidiye Boulevard every Saturday. There, the ar-
ticle explained, numerous gangs of young Greek Orthodox and Jewish
ruffians gather and “arrange themselves in the order of battle.” At this
point, they begin throwing stones, which “at times rain down with such
fury that they leave the site of battle and injure innocent passers-by on
the boulevard.” Local Greek and Jewish leaders had done all they could
to discourage this behavior, the piece suggested, but nothing had worked
to combat the “instinct of aggressiveness which reigns among these little
scoundrels.” At this point, the article concluded, only the strong hand of
the police could help.^28
The fighting appears to have been a form of ritualized violence.^29 It
was not new but rather a “chronic sickness” that was taxing the nerves
of those who cared about the community, a piece appearing the follow-
ing day in La Epoka explained.^30 The Ladino article urged that rabbis ad-
dress the problem in sermons throughout the city’s synagogues, decrying
both the activity itself and the profanation of the Jewish Sabbath. It also

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