The Macedonian Sephardic Jews From Thessaloniki

8/12/2019 The Macedonian Sephardic Jews From Thessaloniki

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THE MACEDONIAN SEPHARDIC JEWS FROM THESSALONIKI

MACEDONIA AND JUDAISM COMING ONE FULL CIRCLE

How these two ancient biblical civilisations did came to contact?

How did the Jews establish a thriving diaspora in Macedonia, and when?

Alexander the Great, during his campaign of expansion in the Middle East, had one big priority to

begin with, and that was to continue the legacy of his father and carry out the planned confrontation

with Ancient Persia, the dominant Asian superpower of the day.

There were many conspiracies surrounding the murder of Phillip the II, and one of them suggested

involvement of Persian gold to bribe the murderer into execution of the king.

Persian client states were literally bought to pay tribute to their absolute monarch by the vast

quantities of gold accumulated into their reserves

Their influence spread far and wide, and as there was no limit to their gold reserves, they could

intimidate almost anyone with it, that includes the smaller and more vulnerable independent city

states scattered around the Aegean Sea

Alexander was to that resentful and naturally hostile to Darius, however, it was both their dream to

eliminate competition and reduce the threat of Persia expanding further into Europe thru Asia

Minor, and that gave both an uneasy sleep, as parts of their kingdom were indeed overrun by Darius

in the region as close to home as Trace!

It is said that Alexander consulted the Oracle in Delphi, and the local Temple Priests blessed his

campaign of expansion in the East.

When the young king arrived in Israel, one story says that Alexander sacrificed a Lamb on Mount

Moriah, dedicating the victim to YHWH, the Lord of the Jews, however, this story is contradicted by

another which refers to dedicating the Holy Temple to Zeus, which confirms the spiritual superiority

of the Hellenic Gods...

The proposed story of Alexanders sacrifice to YHWH is nothing but wishful thinking, given the fact

that it would confirm that he had become sympathetic to the Lord of the Children of Israel.

The version that Alexander demanded that the Jews surrender in submission to Zeus is much more

likely, given his status of a conqueror.

Anyway, this has been documented as officially the first contact ever between Hellenism and

Judaism in history, and has been confirmed by archaeology just as well.

In essence, it was Macedonian expansionist foreign policy and determination to eliminate the

military threat from Persia, which brought Hellenism and the Greeks into Judea.


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Here, the Pagan polytheism of the Greeks would clash with the obsessive and fanatic observance

and warship of Jewish monotheism.

At that time, Judea had already become a theocracy, with its entire authority and sovereignty passed

in the hands of the High Priest and the Sanhedrin.

Observance of the Sabbath, the practice of circumcision, the study of the Prophets, Torah and

Tanakh studies, as well as pilgrimage to Jerusalem to warship in the Temple on Mount Moriah, had

become the paramount objectives in Jewish society.

The Greeks could not believe the obsession and fanaticism of Jewish religious observance and

warship.

Some of the more pious orthodox Jews among the older generations had been so dedicated to

honour the Shabbat, they observed even during times of conflict, encouraging the Greeks to fight

most of their battles on Saturday.

Subsequently, Hellenism became an addictive culture and the young Jews were easily submerged

and assimilated into the New Greek culture export provided by the Macedonians.

Theres as well record of a generational dividebetween the Older Jews who were naturally hostile

and xenophobic to the cultural domination of the Greeks, who were not in favour of Hellenism

becoming the new Lingua Franca

The cultural gap between old and new created a power vacuum in the vulnerable Jewish society.

It is hard to speak of anti-Semitism as far as then, when hostility among distant cultures was almost

normal, and it would be extremely hard to determine any other reasons for war beyond trade and

territorial disputes

Anyway, it would be logical to expect Jewish arrival in the region of Macedonia thru the Levant and

Syria and from there into Anatolia to cross Bosporus and finally approach Macedonia at some point.

Yes, a small but established Jewish diaspora is well known to have arrived in Macedonia as far as in

Antiquity, and again in Byzantine times, after all, the first Hebrew Bible was finally compiled by

Hellenized Jews during their scattering along the eastern Mediterranean coast centuries ago

Ptolemy, the Macedonian general who inherited Egypt at the death of Alexander, was tremendouslyfriendly with the Alexandrian Jews, and had requested the Tanakh translated into Greek himself,

making thus phenomenal contribution to introducing the Bible world-wide, not just as Jewish, but

also as a global literary marvel, and a source of divine inspiration, religious warship and prophetic

revelation

The first recorded and established community of Jewish diaspora in Macedonia dates back to Roman

Greece, during the time of the Emperor Titus, and St. Paul the Apostle, in the first century of our

Era


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This is why the most recent excavations in Thessaloniki carried out to facilitate the development of a

modern underground railway, provide a picturesque evidence of a thriving Christian warship,

however, as the Romans were still Pagans, the Emperor was a strong opponent of Christianity.

There has been a strong evidence of a time when even do it had been well established, it was a

religion in hiding, as Christianity had still been prosecuted back in the day

This makes a reasonable explanation why the Christians, the followers of St. Paul, or the Nazarenes

as they were called were determined to preserve their new religion, and to that they had to build

their houses of warship underground, to be able to avoid prosecution

It just as well marks the beginning of Christianity as a separate religion, and it provides strong

evidence of the two religions, getting apart and going their own separate way

It was here that the Orthodox Jews rejected Christ, for they could not accept the prophetic challenge

and Jesus claim to messianic revelation

For them, it had been a heresy beyond belief, to accept that God had been killed and buried, a

mortal man of flesh and blood

Having said all this, both religions in the beginning, it is believed, at least, had a strong sense of

solidarity, for they both had a common enemy, in the eyes of the Romans, who were strong

opponents of monotheism, for it undermined and marginalized their Pagan belief system

But these Jews would not be Sephardic; they would be the same stock as the twelve tribes of

Samarra and Judea

They wouldnt speakLadino, and the rich heritage from the Hebrew Siglo de Oro in Spain and

Portugal wouldve taken no part in the development of this prominent mainstream in Judaism.


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THE ARRIVAL OF JEWS IN SPAIN

FOLLOWING MUSLIM CONQUEST AND EXPANSION

The already established diaspora of Jews along the entire Old world, from the Fertile Oasis of

Mesopotamia, thru Arabia and the valley of the river Nile, all the way along the Mediterranean

coast, it seems, would have no particular tribute to pay to the medieval Iberian renaissance and the

Andalusia Muslim Golden Age.

However, it was indeed the Jews of Alhambra who directly encouraged, financed and propelled the

Moorish Emirate of Grenada to become the cultural, intellectual and artistic hub of western Europe,

when the reminder was going thru the most decadent spiritual and social decline in known history.

It was due to this incredible creative alliance that the Moors became a force to be reckoned with.

When, after the collapse of the Western Roman Empire, the entire region was going thru the Dark

Ages, the Sunni Umayyad Emirate with its centre in Cordoba elevated European civilisation and

humanity hopes for cultural, artistic and social progress.

Of course, this was not the first contact between the two religions, and Judaism and Islam have met

before, having initially been introduced to each other in Arabia, during the life and career of

Muhammad, the Ishmaelite, as he is popularly known among the Jews.

It was this man, indeed, who claimed prophetic heritage and family relationship in ancestry from

Hegira, the Egyptian maiden in the Household of Abraham and his wife Sarah, who would once

again, since the time of Jesus Christ, find an extraordinary charisma and appeal in the stories from

the Old Testament about Monotheism and belief in a single universal God.

As Sarah, the Bible tells us, had trouble conceiving, she encouraged her husband Abraham to lay

with his maiden in order to produce a family heir

It is difficult for a known man to just go by and not notice that Mohammed literally built and

modelled his entire claim to prophet hood to the life and work of the Hebrew Patriarch who

introduced monotheism by rejecting idol warship and crushing the workshop of his father, where

the latter built and sold pagan home Gods.

What Abraham did in his fathers store before departing from Ur, Muhammad re-enacted on his

return from exile from Yatrib back to Mecca, even the act of exile and immigration to Medina, is

nothing but a story from the biography of Abraham from Summer, we have all learned and became

familiar with thru the Bible and the Pentateuch.

One cannot go by in compete ignorance, to deny the mesmerising influence, the charm, and

charisma, as well as the appeal of the ideas introduced in Aramaic and Hebrew to the prophets of

the Children of Israel and the twelve tribes and their impact on civilisation and humanity.


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The fact that these two Religions, Judaism and Islam, will not merge and would not integrate with

each other was obvious from the beginning, when the two faiths were initially introduced, during

Mohammads Hijra to Medina.

After all, Mohammad first approached for help two arguing Arab tribes seeking an arbitrator, in

what was well known to be a majority Jewish Oasis settlement in Yatrib, better known to others as

Medina, under its Arab name.

The Jews already had one such experience of rejecting ones claim of the coming of the Me ssiah, and

it would be a second time when Mohammed would approach with the same offer.

Around this time, Jews were known to have been scattered thru the Arabian Peninsula, from

Palestine in the north, all the way to Yemen in the Deep South, where for one such time a local

monarch was well known to have embraced Judaism.

To the Jews, and in their religious mind-set, the revelation had come in the way of the Burning Bush

and thru the Ten Commandments given to their prophet Moses on the Mount Sinai, so naturally and

almost inertly they immediately rejected the idea of converting to Islam.

To them, Mohammad had brought nothing new, however, one can not underestimate the appeal

the Ishmaelite had on his own people, the Arabs, who at the time had been a disintegrated bunch of

desert Nomad tribes totally submerged in idol warship, pagan polytheism, alcohol drinking and

infanticide.

However, even Mohammad had persuasion problems in the beginning

One can only look at the beginning of his prophetic career to fully understand the real appealMohammad had among his own people at first, when he was in fact evicted from the Meccan elders,

the Quresh Caravan merchants and protectors of the Kaaba and the holy well of Zamzam.

Having said all this, with time, submission to God, even had lasting appeal among the biggest of

opponents, and the Meccan caravan Aristocracy finally paid tribute to the Messenger of God.

Before this, in an already developed pattern, that would establish a well-known repetition of Anti

Judaism thru human history, Mohammad slayed the Jews from Yatrib in an act of disobedience and

failure to accept him as the Seal of the Prophets.

There are many conspiracies regarding to what lead him to make such a decision, many of which

relate to lack of loyalty as well as disobedience of the terms of coalition and joint protection of the

oasis confederation

However, this would in fact set president, and with the establishment of Islam as a state religion of

the Muslim empire that swept across the then known world, Caliphs and leaders would change

foreign policy towards The people of the Book, and would raise a hand to the experienced and

learned Jewish communities scattered thru the Mediterranean Sea.

It is a simple abuse of historic facts to claim that the Yatrib episode set a standard and a pattern in

Judeo Muslim relations for the time to come, in fact Jews would prosper more under Islam andMuslim States would achieve so much more with the help of their Hebrew Dhimmis subjects.


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ROOTS OF ANTISEMITISM

RELIGIOUS INTOLERANCE, SUPERSTITION AND PREJUDICE

Everywhere the Muslims went, the Jews followed in a sincere hope they find a more hospitable host

than the Christian Monarchs of the early medieval period.

The relationship between the two communities would eventually deteriorate with the advent of the

State of Israel, but it would enjoy excellent relations for well over a millennia.

What would in fact become a well-known pattern and a tradition of Anti-Semitism, Pogroms,

expulsion of Jews, genocide and would eventually culminate with the Holocaust, is Christianity we

should pay tribute to.

Even do rooted in Judaism and established by a Jew, as well as blossoming as a Jewish sect to beginwith, it is with the establishment of the Church and its institutions that we have to look to, to find

the roots of Anti-Semitism and Judeophobia.

Since the great schism by the Nazarenes, The Christian world had a very hostile idea of the Jew being

the one who cooperated with the Romans in the crucifixion of Christ.

By the time the Muslims would reach to Spain thru the Moroccan coast, prosecution of Jews in

Christian lands would become a mainstream event, and a pattern not much different from one

Christian country to another

Images of the Secret Supper and visions of Judas acting as traitor spreading word to the Roman

administrators in Jerusalem of a fake messiah and self-proclaiming saint disputing the Roman

Emperor as a supreme Deity, surround the medieval mind of the stereotype idea that comes to mind

when Jews are mentioned

Pontius Pilates was to become the archetype of an Anti-Semite, even do his role was equally

detrimental to the crucifixion of Jesus as the one of the contemporary theocratic Jewish

establishment represented by the High Priest and the Sanhedrin

Fact of the whole matter is, that the real enemy and inspiration for Jesus declaration of prophethood

is the Temple Aristocracy in Jerusalem, which had built up a horrendous racket to extort money fromthe pious pilgrims and turned Judea into a typical class divided society.

This extremely uneven social divide drove Christ mad, as he was a dedicated utopian and a pioneer

religious socialist.

The Traitors of Jesuswould pay a heavy price for this mediocre idea being compulsively spread into

the mind of the ordinary Christians thru the advance of the Church and Christian clergy as the upper

class of the advancing medieval European societies.

For the upper echelons of power in the newly established Christian countries of Europe, the Church

and Priest hierarchy deliberately declared Judaism as Heresy, as the new religion did not wish to

contend with anyone in the fight for power over the mind of ordinary people.


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Christianity it seems, even do it literally sprang thru the back benches of Judaism did not wish to

have any other faith to compete with.

The idea of globalising and monopolising religion and declaring any other faith as heresy and word of

the Devil, is a direct product of the establishment of Christian clergy and hierarchy within the

institutions of Church that would openly declare war on Judaism for centuries to come.

On the other side, the Jewish community, strongly established in their faith already at the time,

could not deal with the idea of an ordinary man being a Son of God.

They immediately rejected Jesus as a false prophet, and declared the idea of Holy Trinity as a

perverted contradiction of the ideas of Monotheism.

The rabbinic belief of the coming of the messiah was postponed for the arrival of another creature of

heavenly character, and the Synagogue resumed preaching on its own tradition of Prophet hood,

excluding Jesus as an imposter, a false prophet.

In their simple opinion, no man could ever be a son of God, and with that Christianity compromised

the idea of Monotheism, it was nothing more than pagan idol warship of the Crucifix.

With this, the seeds of hostility and resentment and intolerance for one other were planted.

Accusations of heresy, political intrigue, mass killings and pogroms and the Ghetto as well as the

yellow star shaped badges of the prosecuted Jew would become a martial law and a world milestone

of inhumanity!

Christianity would prove that it is a formidable killing machine of Jews, and with this Christianity

would put enough blood in the hands of the institutions of Church no wonder the entire faith would

become nothing more than a power tool!

The Faith of Jesus with its own decadent approach to religion would exclude itself from the mind of

the faithful.

Christian societies would plant the seeds of secularism and would declare war on the spiritual, they

would starve the idea of faith and the belief system would only become manipulation and

propaganda tools, an extended hand of struggle for power, but hollow and shallow in its spirituality.

The faith of Jesus would become nothing more than a secular ministry, department for propagandain the hands of greedy Christian manipulators in the quest for power and global domination.

The church would erode and spiritual as well as social decline and strong faith in the Christian world

would become a Myth.

This is one other reason why the withdrawn community of the ever so faithful Jews would become

firm in their belief, and they would never challenge their resolve in the faith in their God of Israel.

This resentment for one other would eventually disperse and evict the Jews from their own ancient

homeland all over the world.


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The financial contribution of Arab Oil money and subsequent revamp of Arabia from one of the

poorest World regions into one of the richest overnight would play a crucial role.

The Wahhabi regime in Saudi Arabia would seize political opportunity to declare spiritual war on the

newly established and Zionist Israel, and would heavily promote Wahhabi values all over the world.

It is due to this that Europe would find one big break and hostilities would transfer from the old

continent to the Middle East, and Palestine would become the centre of Arab Israeli conflict.

By this time, Jews would go thru so much segregation, racism, pogrom and prosecution that would

calumniate with the deportation of Jews to the Gas chambers of Nazi occupied Poland.

Before the start of the Second World War, Thessaloniki was a home to an established and thriving

Sephardic Jewish community, and one of the biggest in Europe.

It is the same Jews of Grenada who would seek and find refuge here from Catholic prosecution and

the Spanish Inquisition.

As Spain declares its first crusade against established communities of Jews and Moors in Spain,

The Sephardic community would find a safe haven in ottoman Macedonia.

Under strict permission of the Sultan, the Sephardic Jews would be allowed to settle among the

Greeks in Thessaloniki, in the Sultans deliberate effort to promote trade and commerce in the most

populated part of Macedonia.

This would make Thessaloniki itself a natural melting pot and one of the most cosmopolitan

heavens, an open city to every faith and community.

Armenians and Vlachs, as well as Bulgarians and Turks would form an international place of trade

and commerce that would become a big source of revenue for the Sultan.

Much of his body of advisors particularly in finance and banking would come from the Sephardic

community.

The building of Synagogues would be permitted and sometimes even financed by the Sultans own

revenue coffers.

Thessaloniki would become a small Metropolis where one could hear Turks and Greeks mingle withBulgarians and Armenians as well as Romas and Vlachs in the market place discussing trade and

business.

The Sephardic tradition would once again regenerate and the community would rise from its ashes

like a phoenix, it would find a breeding ground for the Ladino to flourish and prominent members

would achieve success in maritime trade and commerce, banking and finance would revive the local

economy and Thessaloniki would become an established provincial capital in education, business

and a major regional Port.

Due to its centurysold established connections thru the Mediterranean world, the Sephardic Jewswould once again achieve dominant positions in moneylending which would directly contribute to


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shipbuilding and that would eventually modernise Mediterranean maritime trade from Thessaloniki

and the city would become a major shipping and shipbuilding dockyard.

Over time, since their early sixteenth century arrival in Thessaloniki, The Sephardic Jews would

become the established overall majority in the city outnumbering all other communities up until

their deportation to the extermination camps in Poland.

How would this community erode and decline to such spiritual extent to destroy this lovely Oasis of

peace and prosperity in the Balkans?

How would these people who got along so well and lived together for centuries raise a hand on each

other?

How did nationalism spread so fast in the Balkans and what did the Church establishment have to do

with it?

The national revival as well as the awful and less digneous decline of Ottoman power played a great

role.

The renaissance in Western Europe as well as the ascension of Protestant values in Europe since the

arrival of Martin Luther paved the way for the English industrial revolution, but one of the greatest

roles for the rise of Western Europe played the New World discovery.

By this time, Eastern Europe dealt with its own social decline, as Medieval Ottoman influence and

Communism would strike a final nail in the coffin of prosperity in east Europe.

There has never been a bigger antagonism in prosperity between Eastern and West Europe.

At the beginning of the twentieth century, Western Europe became a colonial and industrial

superpower.

At the same time Eastern Europe dealt still with feudalist values and was spiritually starved by a

declining Ottoman Empire that was desperately trying to hold onto its colonial territories.

A strange blend of national pride mixed with the introduction of communism and socialist values by

no other than an Ashkenazim Jew called Karl Marx ignited the powder keg.

Macedonia would eventually be split to spheres of local nationalist influence that would expel theTurks from Eastern Europe.

In a strictly totalitarian approach and only to preserve regional power play interests and to reduce

Russian influence and the establishment of a strong Black Sea maritime fleet, the Great Powers of

old Imperial Europe will manipulate Tsarist Russia into submission at the Bucharest conference.

This would seal the faith of Macedonia as a whole and integrated region, by dividing it and

redistributing parts of it among the newly established Orthodox Countries on the Balkans.

In a deliberate divide and rule manoeuvre, three new States would be introduced into what was an

Ottoman controlled domain in the Balkan Peninsula


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From this moment on, Greece, Bulgaria and Serbia would engage in a relentless play of propaganda

to expand each their own influence and consolidate power along the newly acquired parts of

Macedonia.

The region itself, divided and occupied once again by an outside force, would be a subject of a

civilian conflict between communities and ethnicities from different spheres of influence.

The Macedonian population would once again be divided along nationalist and religious lines, each

contributing to further divisions.

With the Bulgarian national revival, the Serb Pan Slav irredentist local foreign policy and the Greek

medieval Byzantine revival megalomania, the old cosmopolitan and international values of cross

religious tolerance would evaporate to allow nationalist sentiment to settle.

As Turkey finally consolidates a one nation statehood around Asia Minor and commits the first

twentieth century genocide with the ethnic cleansing of their Armenian population, and the mutual

agreement between Greece and Kemal Ataturk administration for a non-hostile exchange of ethnic

populations between the two, the first one nation states emerge in the former region in Europe of

Ottoman control.

Meantime, Jewish Zionist would pave the way for introduction of Palestinian settlements.

However, not before the world war two and introduction of the holocaust would the Jews see the

establishment of their own land.

The Great powers of Western Europe would unleash the greatest conflict in the history of the

civilised world.

As communism clashes with German struggle for supremacy, and Nazi Germany declares war on

Orthodox Europe and Judaism, the world would become a playground for inhumanity.

Today, it is hard to imagine a world without conflict, as it seems humanity has its own way to self-

destruct.

We have killed more of each other than any other disease or a virus plague or bacterial illness has

thru human history.

What is it that makes us such evil and intolerant blood mongers?

Have we evolved enough to learn that when we die, we die human, not Muslim or a Jew or perhaps

a Christian?

Thessaloniki itself tells a story of deterioration of human values and world inhumanity, with the rise

of one nation single ethnic mono religious doctrine, that would swamp the entire region into a

decline and civil war that would result in the emergence of military dictatorship for several decades.

When the Second World War was over, hostilities were far from finished in the Aegean part of

Macedonia.


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As the region resumed with the civilian conflict, the inter-ethnic war paved the way for a makeover

of the social infrastructure that would result in ethnic cleansing and assimilation as well as expulsion

of non-Greeks from the part now integrated into Greece.

Over just more than a decade, the demographics of the region as well as Thessaloniki would change

so drastically to accommodate the arrival of the Greeks from Asia Minor at the expense of all other

ethnicities that would be prosecuted, imprisoned and expelled from the Aegean part of Macedonia.

It was because of this that the Greek community deliberately consolidated around a totalitarian and

autocratic police state dictatorship, that would see that part of Macedonia become almost ethnically

clean from a natural melting pot and one of the most cosmopolitan and multi-ethnic regions of the

world!

There was only one relief for the surviving Sephardic Jew, who had recently returned back to

Thessaloniki, to realise that his own home for centuries had been sold by the Germans to Greeks

arriving en mass from the Anatolian coast to settle into the newly established Greek state.

In anticipation of realisation of the Balfour agreement and following the Holocaust of recent years,

the world Jewish community was finally allowed to establish its own state in the ancient historic

homeland of Palestine.

As Thessaloniki was no longer a majority Sephardic and the fascist Greek junta did everything it

could to keep all non-Greeks out of their country, and no incentives were implemented to facilitate

the return of the few surviving Jews back to their homes in Greece, it became clearly obvious to the

civilised world that the regime of Metaxas is stealing homes from all non-Greeks to hand them over

to settlers from Asia Minor.

On return back to their occupied houses, the holocaust survivors had been told that their houses had

been legally sold to Greeks by the German interim authority.

The fascist regime of Metaxas did the same to all ethnic Bulgarians and all other non-Greeks upon

their return from the war.

It seemed, no other surviving ethnicities were welcome to return back to their own homes for

centuries, apart from the Greeks who flooded the region and occupied the households of the old

settlers openly encouraged by the police state.

Only time would tell

As modern Greece, now a member of the EU is desperately trying to wash its hands from its fascist

past, history comes back to haunt them for the inhumanity and exodus of thousands of non-Greeks

who were expelled from the region of Aegean Macedonia, and are still by law not allowed to return

back.

Repatriation is still a taboo, any claim of a return of households and properties is denied, and the

Exodus was apparently peaceful and spontaneous at the will of the people.

In other words, all non-Greeks were self-determined to make themselves homeless, abandon theirhouses and homes for the past four centuries and become refugees of the Greek Junta!!!


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Who in a sound mind set would openly and deliberately abandon its own households, land and

properties for centuries, and depart empty handed?

Since the end of Ottoman occupation, Greece establishes itself as a one nation ethnically clean

Orthodox state by genocide, ethnic cleansing, deportation and imprisonment as well as assimilation

to all whod wish to resume living in the country.

Twentieth century Greece becomes a model for Xenophobia, intolerance and racism, as well as

ethnic and religious hatred.

One can only wonder how this country infiltrated into modern mainstream politics of contemporary

Europe

It was here that Authoritarian, modern, totalitarian monarchy dictatorship was born, Friedrich

Nietzes one nation nationalist state was born in the Kingdom of Greece, and it was from here with

the success of this developed model that it was implemented into Kaisers Germany

Today, with the rise of the Golden Dawn, an extreme right wing and fascist paramilitary

organisation, that has already won seats in the Greek parliament to a significant extent, by

promoting deportation of all foreigners from Greece; we witness the defeat of common sense and

rise of modern neo Nazi values in the cradle of democracy.

It is only an open statement of concealed intolerance and fascist values that have been glowing in

the dark, waiting for an appropriate moment to rise from the ashes and blossom.

How did these inhuman values preserve themselves in Greek society, how could hatred become so

powerful to suffocate the mind and overrule sanity?

One cannot interpret the past, as well as any event in mainstream society and politics without

analysing local regional history in retrospective.

As a learned man once said: Life is lived forward, but is only understood backwards.

Why are four rich centuries of Ottoman heritage eliminated from the books of Greek national

history?

Was is just the Spanish Jews who suddenly disappeared from the demographic landscape of Greece,

or it was just a repetitive pattern that would see the same destiny and would eventually become thearchetype for ethnic cleansing, genocide, forced expulsions and pogroms, that would indeed be

experimented with and perfected in the creation of the Kingdom of Greece, thru the ashes of the

1821 Revolution?

Why whenever we mention a modern genocide, ethnic cleansing as well as an artificial creation of a

one nation ethnically clean state we must point a finger at the advent of modern Greece?

How did one of the most ethnically diverse and cosmopolitan, multireligious and tolerant and

culturally mixed regions in the entire world become ethnically clean almost overnight?

Foreign intervention, as well as the influence of the Great Powers can never be underestimated


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It was the success of the Greek Nationalist Revolution of 1821 that introduced genocide as a solution

for ethnic disputes and political disagreements in multicultural societies.

Whole settlements around Greece populated with Sunni Muslim ethnic Turks, as well as entire

regions were the Sephardim Jews have been domiciled have been literally wiped out and razed to

the ground.

Philhellenism, as it was called, borrowed heavily from the contemporary French revolutions as well

as implementation of democracy after the bourgeoisie revolt in 1789, and it was because of this

substantial deposit of Greek values in western societies, that current west European leaders were

heavily influenced and sympathetic to the idea of a Greek national revival as well as liberation

revolution from Ottoman rule.

To some west European leaders, such as Ludwig of Bavaria, this was an ideology that would be

heavily exploited to develop a special heritage as well as a cultural link between Greek Antiquity And

western civilisation, and this would substantially contribute to the rise of intolerance as well as anationalist sentiment in a region which, during Ottoman rule received a substantial portion of other

ethnicities to domicile themselves in the Greek islands.

The Ottoman policy was rather hostile to uniform and ethnically clean one nation homogenous

ideologies, and deliberately encourage diversity as well as religious and multicultural tolerance.

Was genocide and ethnic cleansing the only way to reduce Ottoman hegemony and influence in the

region, and at the expense of what values, that replaced this cosmopolitan kaleidoscope with a one

nation nationalist monarchy in Greece?

Could one argue that it was inevitable for fascist and ultra nationalist values to penetrate the Greek

national liberation movement, which contributed to achieving freedom and Ottoman overthrow?

Are homogenous and uniform nationalist societies better and richer, as well as culturally more

evolved and superior, than multicultural and multi-ethnic ones that promote religious tolerance as

well as cosmopolitan and multireligious values and cultural diversity?

Is Greece richer and culturally more diverse today than it was before?

The most important question, is the self determination of a community as well as the common goal

and dedication to choose the right, as well as culturally more sophisticated values, and to that effect,

No one who has a more spiritually evolved belief system would encourage and endorse the

penetration as well as proliferation of ideas of genocide, as well as Arian fascist philosophy in the

PanHellenic movement!!!

One can debate and go on forever, but it is more evident today than ever, that cultural diversity as

well as religious tolerance always builds societies culturally richer and more superior to the ones

isolated and indoctrinated with nationalism


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Lets not exaggerate and say that massacres were only committed by one side, as the Ottomans

were equally determined to deny the Greeks their national freedom as well as their right to self-rule

and self-determination!

Ottoman atrocities are equally perverse and massacres were carried out to the same extent by both

sides, and one could easily argue that it was simply the mainstream norm of the day, to deny any

human rights as well as a different and more tolerant outcome to the occupied enemy

To one such extent, and to prevent such atrocities carry themselves into the future, is that, almost a

whole century after, the League of Nations was introduced, as a worldwide institution for the

prevention of human rights and dignity

What is much more significant and important today, is the current interpretation of such events in

mainstream politics, as well as the direction societies would continue to follow into the future, and

with the advent of the Golden Dawn in Greece as well as with growing ethnic intolerance against

anyone who does not fit into the mainstream stereotype accepted by a nationalist state, is thatGreece has to make its choice once again and determine its course forward into the future!!!

Yes, freedom is the most fundamental human right, but if you replace one repressive regime with

another, to become the one, to deny freedom and preservation of ones own religious and cultural

identity, to others, how has a society defended its own freedom struggle and how has it become

more ideologically advanced than the society it just replaced?

And, should a society make its own decision, to embrace nationalism as well as one nation fascist

values as a state ideology, does this have to become a mainstream norm worldwide today?

What is the lesson learned from the Greek liberation revolution of 1821 by Greece itself today?

Why is Greek society today, an example of modern Xenophobia, and despite its outward tolerant

and relaxed attitude towards foreigners, it has become a breeding ground for the rebirth of Fascism

as well as neo Nazi political movements that have swept across Greek mainstream politics and have

already penetrated and infiltrated Greek society to an alarming extent?

Why is modern Greece today still denying its own massacres, by becoming more intolerant and

perhaps the only country in Europe where ethnicities are denied their identity and no other religion

could prosper proper, than the one endorsed by the state?

HOMOGENIZATION AND ASSIMILATION INTO

GREEK SOCIETY

The Greek society of Antiquity has been a substantial pillar, an archetype, and with its rich heritage

and cultural contribution, it has been a major influence in the development of Western civilization.

No doubt, ever since the advent of Phillip the II of Macedonia, the charisma and cultural as well as

spiritual superiority of Greece, made Hellenism a lingua franca,and many subsequent cultures have

deliberately and by self-determination absorbed and duplicated as well as introduced Hellenism into

their own cultures.


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The Greeks of Antiquity razed the bar of human spiritual development high, and they pushed the

envelope of human activity, incorporating the limitless human potential into science, arts as well as

cultural and social studies, philosophy and religion.

It is beyond dispute, that the Greek civilization of Antiquity is the cradle and a spiritual heart for the

development of European culture as we know it.

It was here that Democracy was introduced, many scientists and philosophers of both materialistic

as well as idealistic background pay tribute to Greek Classical scholars, for their fundamental and

immense contribution in the fields of many sciences that would subsequently develop in specific

disciplines with their own special departments.

Much of what we do and the way we think today, our architecture, the style in which we modelled

our societies and institutions, the Olympic games, the advent of Drama as well as modern Classical

literature, science arts and culture, draws influence and borrows heavily from the achievement of

Hellenic scholars from Antiquity.

Hellenism thru out the ages, has been incorporated as a backbone and basics for the development of

modern European and World civilization, every science and art discipline pays tribute and owns

much of its core values to the achievement of Greek Classical scholars from Antiquity .

No other civilization or culture can dispute or perhaps challenge the Greek achievement and

contribution as well as their influence to the development of European society thru out the ages

Aristotle and Pythagoras, Socrates and Archimedes, Homer all the other Classical Greek scholars

from Antiquity, are much sought after and read even today, by contemporary and mainstream

scholars, each in their own field and domain.

It is hard to remember such plethora of human social, artistic and scientific activity, all concentrated

and condensed in one place, under one culture and civilization, not even the nineteenth century

European Enlightmentcould level and challenge the Classical Greek heritage and Tradition and their

contribution to the development of human thought.

All these attributes are beyond dispute by far the absolute way to pay tribute and honour a

civilization, a society and a culture that wiped out prejudice and superstition, and gave way to

curiosity, research and reason, as well as scientific study

But could we say that development of human taught climaxed and achieved its Zen in Greece during

Antiquity?

Could one propose an argument to say that, all other subsequent heritage and contribution to

science, art and philosophy could be wiped out and erased from human memory, as well as the

collective human experience?

Is the reminder of human achievement obsolete, inferior and irrelevant to the contribution of Greek

Antiquity?


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PHILHELLENISM AND NEOCLASSICISM AS A REVIVAL OF GREEK ANTIQUITY,

AND THE LINK BETWEEN GERMAN ARIAN PHILOSOPHY AND RESURRECTION OF NATIONALISM IN

GREECE

Who wouldve thought that Richard Wagners influence would spread far and wide into OttomanGreece?

Yes it has, and even do it is impossible to make some kind of reasonable link, and to justify a direct

relationship between 19th

century Bavaria and the events of 1821 in Greece following the uprising

and the Revolution, one cannot and should not underestimate the influence of Classical Greece from

Antiquity on the development of the entire Western Civilisation and cultural heritage

As far as Wagner is concerned, no he wasnt much of a Philhelleneas much as he was the archetype

of an indoctrinated Nietzscheinfluenced Aryanised ultranationalist patriot, but only an enthusiast, as

he only wrote, he never really put his hatred of Jews into practice, apart from the impact he had on

development of modern 20 century Anti-Semitism, Richard Wagner was nothing more than a

romantic fool, far too obsessed with his own traditional Christian hatred of the Jews

But it is the combination of the two, the oratory and intellectual ability of Friedrich Nietzsche,

blended with Richard Wagners furiosity and resentment of anything non German that introduced

the idea of Anti-Semitism and Fascism into a country humiliated with the loss of World War I and the

subsequent reparations as well as impossible conditions forced upon them by the League of Nations

that propelled Germany into the ultranationalist Third Reich

Not to disrespect the contribution of Richard Wagner to classical music, but much of his written

prose was totally anti-Semitic and unfortunately influenced the evil genius of Adolf Hitler, as well as

Nietzsches philosophy that desperately tried to break away from any kind of moral conformity

But of course, with Germany only united recently, some intellectuals influenced by the events in the

French revolution of 1789, believed that the German Nation would have a much more noble history

if they could artificially and deliberately produce a direct ancestral link and somehow provide

continuity in the cultural heritage between Germany and classical Greece from Antiquity

So, the German historians and intellectuals on payroll working for the local monarchs, particularly in

Munich, as it was the capital of Bavaria, deliberated and provided a false statement of history as

little authoritative as it could be, and persuaded the local Royal family in a spending spree to rebuildMunich to look as Antique as Athens, and much of the duplicate replica buildings remain in the

capital of Bavaria even today

Germanys obsession with a special place in history did not stop there; as the Bavarian noblemen

tried and did everything they could to infiltrate a member of their royal family on board the newly

established Kingdom of Greece

However, this wasnt the end, and influence was mutual, as the new German King of Greece, the son

of Ludwig of Bavaria did much to become a Philhellene himself, he did as much as he possibly could

to introduce an artificial link in cultural heritage between the two distant nations, and as Bavaria

became an outpost of Athens in Northern Europe, much of the mainstream influence from the


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Enlightment shifted and influenced Greece, particularly with regards to the ideas of a one nation

nationalist Monarchy model introduced by the Bavarian King

The rest of the cross influence could easily be noticed in the works of Lord Byron, who dedicated

much of his literally work and died in Greece during the revolution himself, as well as the paintings

of Delacroix who developed a new neoclassical movement in Western Art directly influenced by the

Revival of Greek Classicism from antiquity

The world was once again obsessed with Greece; it was yet another renaissance of classical values,

but much of the negative influence particularly the new nationalist movement that swept across

much of Western Europe back in the day, found fresh breeding ground in a naturally cosmopolitan

and tolerant region that rested on totally different values and traditions for centuries

Greece was once again in the centre of attention, and with the start of the Revolution in 1821,

Europe would once again remember where it got its heritage and cultural influence from, but this

time around, much of the events would be controlled from the Great Powers of Western Europe

Nationalism was never the right choice for Greece as it was no choice for Macedonia a well, however

much of the territory under Greek control, would once again be raised to the ground this time to

build an artificial one nation nationalist monarchy with an imported German Kaiser

Even the ethnic cleansing and the anti-Semitism this time around would be synchronized and as

Greece would get rid of its own Jews, the Germans would eliminate theirs

The Holocaust it seems was as much the Greek, as it was the German final solution

The rest is history and one thats unfortunately told in the worst and the most wrong way possible,to rid Greece of the responsibility for the genocide it committed against its own population by

virtually eliminating the entire non Greek population from Aegean Macedonia as well as mainland

Greece

This is much to add to the hypocrisy of the contemporary Greek government as well as to conceal

the fact that Greece has been ethnically cleaning its populations for almost two centuries

Yes itstrue, that some of the non-Greek ethnicities did deliberately accept to assimilate and baptise

in order to integrate as well as blend in to Greek society, but to what cost and what was their choice

in a country filled with ultra-nationalism and Xenophobia?

Why were the Greeks so desperate to erase the multi-ethnic and tolerant element from their own

tradition, by destroying the identity of its own nation it had inherited since its rich Ottoman period?

Why were the Greeks so determined not to preserve their own Ottoman as well as Byzantine

national history at the expense of elevating their Classical heritage from Antiquity and can a country

as well as a nation deliberately hand pick its own history?

To what effect and what cost was this done in Greece, and is this country better off today than it

was when it was one of the most complex and cosmopolitan societies in Europe?


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Theres no recorded traditional hostility between Greek and Jewish communities in the collective

memory of World history, however, isolated incidents of hatred, such as deteriorating relations

between the two in Constantinople, have in actual fact culminated in resentment and intolerance for

each other, and it could arguably be said that it only culminated with the Greek Revolution of 1821

This is in fact the remembered year of the first large massacre of Jews at the beginning of the

hostilities in 1821, when the entire Jewish population of Tripolitsa was slaughtered like cattle by an

invading Greek mob rule that captured by then one of the established Turkish towns in the

Peloponnese

One could only say that the Jews were not particularly targeted, however they shared the same

destiny as the Sunni Muslim Ethnic Turks who surrendered after a long land siege, which ended with

Genocide of all non-Greeks, and with this the Greek revolution was officially started

When the Greek revolution is looked back in retrospective, one can only say that it wasnt just a war

for liberation and independence, it was also a war of extermination and ethnic cleansing, as since

then, the Kingdom of Greece has implemented a plan for the establishment of a pure one nation

nationalist and ethnically clean monarchy

This policy was relentlessly pursued with the acquiring of Aegean Macedonia, which was integrated

into Greece thru systematic genocide and ethnic cleansing of all non-Greeks from a land traditionally

cosmopolitan and diverse

Modern researchers of local history provide a substantial argument to claim that the big fire of

Thessaloniki of 1917 was nothing more than a deliberate effort to destroy the livelihoods of local

Turks and Spanish Jews who had lived in the city for almost four centuries, coinciding with the

implementation of the Greek Final solution in the recently incorporated Aegean Macedonia into

mainland Greece

Of course, with the deportation of the Spanish Jews from Thessaloniki in 1943 during the Holocaust,

the last remaining Sephardic neighbourhoods would finally be eliminated and the establishment of

modern ethnically clean Greece would finally take shape then

If one looks in retrospect thru the perspective of the larger picture, the elimination of the Spanish

Jews was only a sideshow; they were only a collateral damage to the Greek Final Solution, the main

objective being building a pure ethnically clean one nation nationalist monarchy build to the GermanArian model

German nationalism was this way successfully imported into Greek mainstream societyand thru

ethnic cleansing and large scale genocide the Kingdom of Greece would eventually become an

artificial, but pure one nation state

It is a fact beyond dispute that there was enormous cooperation between the Greek Regime and the

Nazi Germans, confirmed by the deliberate building of a nearby ghetto literally next door to the train

station in Salonika for a more convenient and easy deportation to the concentration camps.


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Nobody in the Greek establishment disputed or opposed the deportations; on the contrary, such

was the collaboration with the Germans, such was the extend of mutual share of agenda, interests

and ideology, the entire deportation went smooth and without incidents

Just to demonstrate determination to oppose the Germans, one could remember the example of the

Bulgarians, who despite being an ally of the Nazis, they resented the idea of ethnic cleansing of their

own population

It is hypocrisy beyond belief that the entire EU is in support of the Name Issue dispute between

Republic of Macedonia and the current Greek regime, still unfortunately delivering a xenophobic

policy concerning minorities, despite of being a member of the alliance.

Le Madre de Israel, as was Salonica known among its Jewish subjects, was overnight ethnically

cleansed, its Hebrew and Muslim population totally wiped out, and a makeover with a completely

new identity was forged by the arrival of Ethnic Greeks from Asia Minor, who were moved into the

vacant and abandoned properties that used to be occupied by their rightful owners

Today, if it says on your travel document that you have been born in Macedonia, but your passport

is not Greek, youre still not allowed to visit the place of your birth, which is a basic human right thru

the known civilised world.

The city that once helped for the Sephardim to get re-established and once again thrive, flourish,

protect and preserve their Spanish heritage and identity, was deliberately wiped out to be replaced

by a new city that pays no tribute to its own history.

Out of 49 Synagogues in 1943, today only one single remains, the Mosques that survive are

deliberately converted into churches, their minarets destroyed or turned into bell towers, and once

the most cosmopolitan city and regional crown jewel, a natural melting pot of several faiths and a

kaleidoscope of ethnicities and cultures, today is a homogenous and ethnically clean Greek city,

where minorities are not even considered a part of the diverse demographics

If the Sephardim were established and inaugurated in Cordoba, they survived and regenerated

themselves from centuries of expulsions and pogroms in Salonica

In the Jewish dictionary Lexicon, up until today, Salonica remains called the Jerusalem of the

Balkans

Le Madre de Israel, has maintained consistent Jewish presence, and been home to established

Hebrew diaspora, from the Hellenised Romaniotes from Thessaly, all the way thru to Thessaloniki

becoming the biggest Jewish city in the 19th

century, and a centre of revival of the Sephardic

heritage


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Documents

The Macedonian Sephardic Jews From Thessaloniki