Learning Library
We learn that we are not supposed to assimilate from the original Greek Jews, the Maccabees. But in modern times, Greece became home to one of the largest Sephardic Jewish communities in the world, centered in the port city of Salonica (Thessaloniki). Their nuanced story offers lessons about how Jews have embraced conflicting ideologies as they have navigated different national contexts while seeking to retain a sense of a united community. We’ll explore Hanukkah customs and political practices among Salonica’s Jews in the lead up to their tragic end during the Holocaust, in an effort to carry their light forward in the complex world in which we find ourselves lighting our hanukiyas today.
Dr. Devin E. Naar is the Isaac Alhadeff Professor in Sephardic Studies and as Associate Professor of History and Jewish Studies at the University of Washington in Seattle. His first book, Jewish Salonica: Between the Ottoman Empire and Modern Greece, won a 2016 National Jewish Book Award. The book traces the multiple ways in which Jews in Salonica grappled with the end of the Ottoman Empire and their new-found position within the context of the Greek state during the early twentieth century. Dr. Naar is working on two new books, one about Sephardic Jews in the United States, and another about the history of Ladino language and culture. He has delivered hundreds of public lectures across North America and in Greece, France, Israel, and Russia; has written for Time Magazine, The Washington Post, Tablet Magazine, Jewish Review of Books, and more; and has taught for the Wexner Heritage Program.
