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

(Joyce) #1

48 · Julia Phillips Cohen


decorated with war medals in a ceremony held in Salonica. See Asır, 30 Sep-
tember 1897; Il Vessillo Israelitico 45, no. 10 (October 1897).



  1. La Epoka , 14 May 1897.

  2. Jewish Chronicle, 22 June 1897.

  3. This is especially striking because it is not clear to what extent these Jew-
    ish schoolchildren would have been able to understand the Ottoman-language
    papers they were purchasing.

  4. On the girl who visited the wounded soldiers, see El Tiempo, 31 May 1897.

  5. El Meseret, 30 April 1897.

  6. See, for example, Sabah, 21 May 1897; Sabah, 22 May 1897; La Epoka, 28
    May 1897; El Meseret, 28 May 1897.

  7. Le Journal de Salonique, 22 April 1897.

  8. Le Journal de Salonique, 11 February 1897.

  9. I refer here to ritualized violence (with the work of David Nirenberg in
    mind) as an instance of violence reenacted among parties on a cyclical basis, fol-
    lowing either a weekly calendar (as in the case of rock throwing, occurring ev-
    ery Sabbath) or a yearly one (as in the case of Christian-Jewish conflicts, which
    often arose around Easter). See David Nirenberg, Communities of Violence: Per-
    secution of Minorities in the Middle Ages (Princeton: Princeton University Press,
    1998). Indeed, La Epoka had discussed the Greek-Jewish rock-throwing rituals
    performed by Greek and Jewish youths “on the Sabbath and holidays” as a
    familiar phenomenon nearly a decade before the cited instance. See La Epoka, 3
    May 1889.

  10. La Epoka, 12 February 1897.

  11. This is not to say that Greek-Jewish relations in late Ottoman cities were
    characterized exclusively by such confrontations. There is also significant
    evidence of cultural and economic exchanges between Ottoman Jews, Greek
    Orthodox, and other Ottoman Christian communities. Such confraternity and
    socializing constituted patterns that did not necessarily “make the news” on
    a regular basis, however. A full picture of Greco-Jewish relations in the late
    Ottoman Empire—although beyond the scope of the present chapter—would
    necessarily take all levels of intercommunal sociability into account. One such
    example is provided by Henri Nahum, who describes how Christians and Jews
    celebrated religious holidays together in Izmir: “Around the [Jewish] holiday
    of Purim, Greeks, and Armenians would come in large numbers to promenade
    and dance through the illuminated streets of the Jewish quarter.” Nahum, Juifs
    de Smyrne, 85.

  12. AMAEF-Nantes, Ambassador of Athens, A 218, 11 May 1897; also cited in
    Lévy, “Salonique et la Guerre,” 70.

  13. Acropolis, 2 May 1897. A translation of this article is included in the ar-
    chives of the Alliance (AIU). Representatives of the Jewish community for-
    warded the question to the British consul in Salonica at the time, asking that he
    help calm the situation by acknowledging that most of Salonica’s Jews were not
    to blame for the incident (which he agreed to do). See PRO/FO 78/4828, 9 June

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