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Bet Shaul, Thessaloniki, Greece
Description
Bet Shaul was built between 1895-1898 on land previously owned by Shaul Modiano in the Hamidye Quarter. Beit Shaul was designed as a building made of masonry by Vitaliano Poselli, a well known Salonikan architect. Fakima Modiano, the widow of Shaul Ya’akov Modiano, undertook the construction of the synagogue. In 1898, she dedicated it to her late husband, and called it Bet Shaul. The synagogue was also known as Kahal de la Señora Fakima, which translates to “The Synagogue of Mrs. Fakima.”1
It was 24.5 meters long by 15.5 meters wide, including its courtyard, and it was 14 meters high. One entered Bet Shaul through a small courtyard. The exterior was divided by three pilaster bays; the inner, central pilaster bay was wider than the outer two. The central bay hosted a large arched window and a carving of the Ten Commandments. From the exterior, it was clear that the synagogue contained two levels, with a string course, which is a line of decorative bricks below the window sill, separating the building horizontally, and a row of arched windows on each floor.2
The interior of Bet Shaul was approximately eighteen meters long by fourteen meters wide and 12.5 meters high. The women’s gallery occupied the entrance wall and two parallel sides of the building. The ark and bimah were on the east end of the sanctuary, like in many synagogues of the time. The decorated black marble bimah was raised from the floor and extended out into the center of the room, where the ark was located. The base of the ark was decorated in black marble. The lower part of the interior walls were painted black, and the rest of the walls were painted white with gray veining to imitate marble. A wedding photo in front of the ark can be found here.3/4
Following the Great Fire of Thessaloniki in 1917, many synagogues and Jewish homes were destroyed. Bet Shaul, one of the few surviving synagogues, became the official community synagogue of Thessaloniki and even hosted families whose homes had been destroyed. Official ceremonies and holidays were hosted by Bet Shaul, including a ceremony in honor of British King George II’s visit to Thessaloniki on November 29, 1935.5
Unfortunately, Bet Shaul was blown up by the Nazi’s in 1943 following the deportation of its Jewish community.6
Site History
Beit Shaul was located on the same site for forty-five years as an active synagogue on the old Avenue des Campagnes. The site was donated by Shaul Modiano’s family in 1895 in the burgeoning Jewish quarter of Hamidye in the eastern historic city center. The synagogue was located in a wealthy part of the Hamidye quarter, and was full of villas and consulates. The Hamidye quarter began growing in the late nineteenth century, as Jewish families and institutions moved to the area. There was a rabbinical school, the official home of the rabbi, synagogues and, as of 1908, the Clara de Hirsch Hospital was in close proximity.7
Modiano Family
The Modiano family was a wealthy, influential, Sephardic Jewish family that arrived in Salonika from Livorno, Italy, during the late seventeenth century. The family left Spain during the Spanish Inquisition and had settled in Livorno.8 When they moved to the Ottoman Empire, they were known as Francos, or European Jews. The Modiano family were not subjects of the Ottoman Empire, and as such, they were able to enjoy the capitulation treaties, put into place between France and the Ottoman Empire in 1535 to protect foreign merchants and grant them certain tax exemptions.9
The family was important to the economic growth of Salonika. They were landowners and bankers. The family was recognized as important merchants in the city, so in 1903, when the Thessaloniki Chamber of Commerce formed a committee to put together a study on the best economic system for the city’s port, they appointed the prominent Mario Modiano as rapporteur.10
The Modiano family were also prominent members of the Jewish community of Thessaloniki. For example, in 1902, five out of twelve members of the Jewish Community Executive Council were from the Modiano family. The Modiano family also was part of a long line of Rabbis and scholars.11
Notable family members include Eli Modiano (b. 1881- d. 1968),the architect of the Modiano Market, which is still in use today and was built in 1925 on the previous site of the Talmud Torah Hagadol Synagogue. He received his education at the École Centrale des Arts et Manufactures in Paris, and returned to Thessaloniki to help rebuild it after the Great Fire of Thessaloniki in 1917.12 He also designed the Modiano family mansion, which today houses The Folklore and Ethnological Museum of Macedonia.13
Shaul Modiano and Fakima Cazes
Shaul Modiano was born in 1816 and was orphaned at the age of seven. After relatives refused to take him in, he ended up working for and living with a French physician, Dr. Lafont, until he was sixteen. At age seventeen, Modiano worked for Dr. Ioannis Prassakaki, a Greek physician and businessman. He met Fakima Cazes while working for Dr. Ioannis Prassakaki.
Shaul Modiano and Fakima Cazes got married in 1834. When they married, they were Austrian citizens, but once Italy was unified in 1860, they obtained Italian citizenship. The Cazes likely supported the marriage because Shaul Modiano came from a long line of important scholars and Rabbis and because he had foreign citizenship, which offered the advantageous capitulation treaties.
Fakima Cazes came from a family of successful grain and cotton merchants. Her father, Isac Cazes, was a successful businessman and conducted business with the international brokerage, House of Vlastos. Her brother, Jacob Cazes, became a grain merchant and an important figure in the Jewish community, serving on the Jewish Community Executive Council of Salonika beginning in 1888 and as its president beginning in 1912. When Shaul Modiano married into this influential family, his father-in-law, Isac Cazes, gave him a position in the House of Vlastos, where he became a successful international businessman. Soon, Shaul Modiano became an affluent banker and merchant, and started the Modiano Banking House. He was well connected with the Cazes family, with his cousins Raphael Modiano, Daniel Modiano, and Dr. Leon Modiano. He also held significant roles in the Jewish Community Executive Council.
Fakima and Shaul had three children, Jacob, Samuel, and Levi. When Shaul Modiano died in 1883, his children took over his business ventures. Jacob and Samuel Modiano took over Banque Saul, and Levi Modiano owned his own bank, Banque Levi. At the time of Shaul Modiano’s death, the family owned a stocking factory, six warehouses, two nurseries, a silk factory, cafés, a store, storerooms, and Cité Saul, a commercial center housing ninety-six businesses.14
Description
Jews of Thessaloniki, Greece
Home to Romaniote, Sephardic, and Ashkenazi Jews under Ottoman rule, the port city of Salonika was known as the “Jerusalem of the Balkans” because of its thriving Jewish community. Evidence suggests Jews may have been present in the city as early as 600 BCE.15 Greek-speaking Romaniote Jews arrived in Thessaloniki as early as 135 BCE; however, their numbers remained relatively small. Ashkenazi Jews immigrated to Thessaloniki because of expulsions and persecution, beginning with Bavarian Jews escaping programs in 1470.16 Sephardic Jews followed suit after their expulsion from Spain in 1492, followed by Italian Ashkenazi Jews who were expelled from various Italian city-states that were under Spanish rule. Many came through the port and settled in Salonika, making it a “Sephardic Metropolis,” and heavily contributed to the city’s economic, religious, and public affairs.17 A part of the Ottoman Empire at the time, "Salonica [was] neither Greek, nor Bulgarian, nor Turkish; she [was] Jewish,"18 and by the mid-sixteenth century, the city had a majority Jewish population. According to an Ottoman traveler who visited Salonika in the early seventeenth century, Jews were so integrated into the city that it seemed impossible to think there was a time when Jews were not present.19
By 1900, an estimated eighty thousand Jews lived in Thessaloniki out of a total population of 173,000. However, the Jewish population drastically declined throughout the twentieth century, following the Young Turk Revolution in 1908, Greece’s annexation of the city in 1912, and the Great Fire of Thessaloniki in 1917. The destructive fire left 53,737 Jews homeless, destroying houses, synagogues and schools.20 The community rebuilt new synagogues; however, the community was still in decline as Jews increasingly left for the United States, Mandatory Palestine, and France.21/22
Jewish Community During and Following WWII
German forces entered Thessaloniki on April 9, 1941. They terrorized the Jewish community, forcing Jews into labor, into wearing a yellow Star of David, and into ghettos, among other things.23 Beginning on March 16, 1943 to August 7, 1943, Jews were taken to the Baron Hirsch camp, named for the Jewish philanthropist who funded the buildings next to the railway that the Germans seized and turned into a ghetto. From the Baron Hirsch camp, 48,974 were deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau, where many perished.24 A remaining 4,000 Jews were deported by Bulgarian authorities to Bulgarian occupied parts of Greece and Triblinka.25
The small group of Jews who returned to Thessaloniki following the Holocaust found their homes and property seized despite Greek laws passed on October 27,1944 demanding the return of all property originally belonging to Jews.26/27 A Holocaust memorial that was unveiled on November 23, 1997 currently sits in Eleftherias Square, in honor of more than fifty thousand of Salonika’s Jews who perished during the war.28
Jewish Community Today
Following the Holocaust, only two thousand Jews returned to the city. Today, only around 1,200 Jews live in Thessaloniki.29 Currently, The Jewish Community of Thessaloniki is a legal entity under the auspices of the Ministry of Education and Religious Affairs. The Community manages Jewish areas of life, including the Yad Lazikaron Synagogue, Yossef Nissim Primary School, cemeteries, and the Saul Modiano nursing home.30 You can find the community website here.
Thessaloniki, Greece
© Mapbox, © OpenStreetMap
Sources
Footnotes
[1] Ēlias V. Messinas and Samuel Gruber, Synagogues of Greece : a Study of Synagogues in Macedonia and Thrace (New York: Published for American Sephardi Federation (ASF)/ by Bloch Publishing Company in association with Bowman & Cody Academic Publishing, 2011).
[2] Messinas and Gruber, Synagogues of Greece.
[3] Messinas and Gruber, Synagogues of Greece.
[4] ANU Database, ed., "Wedding ceremony in the magnificent synagogue 'Bet-Shaul', Salonika (Greece), early 1912," ANU Database, accessed August 21, 2024, https://dbs.anumuseum.org.il/skn/en/c6/e222521/Photos/Wedding_ceremony_in_the_magnificent_synagogue_Bet_.
[6] Messinas and Gruber, Synagogues of Greece.
[5] Messinas and Gruber, Synagogues of Greece.
[6] Messinas and Gruber, Synagogues of Greece.
[7] Messinas and Gruber, Synagogues of Greece.
[8] "Timeline of Jewish History in Italy," Jewish Virtual Library, accessed August 2, 2024, https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/timeline-of-jewish-history-in-italy.
[9] Cristina Pallini and Annalisa Riccarda Scaccabarozzi, "In Search of Salonika's Lost Synagogues. An Open Question Concerning Intangible Heritage," Journal of the Fondizione CDEC, no. 7 (2014): accessed June 27, 2024, https://doi.org/10.48248/issn.2037-741X/769
[10] Minna Rozen, "Money, Power, Politics, and the Great Salonika Fire of 1917," Jewish Social Studies 22, no. 2 (2017), https://doi.org/10.2979/jewisocistud.22.2.03.
[11] Minna Rozen, "Money, Power,"
[12] Agora Modiano, ed., "The History," Agora Modiano, accessed August 21, 2024, https://www.agoramodiano.com/en/the-history/.
[13] The Folklore and Ethnological Museum of Macedonia.k, ed., "The Building of LEMM-TH," Thw Folklore and Ethnological Museum of Macedonia., accessed August 21, 2024, http://www.lemmth.gr/to-kterio-tou-lemm-th.
[14] Minna Rozen, "Money, Power,"
[15] Koelner, "The History," Academia.
[16] Jewish Museum of Thessaloniki, "Οι Εβραίοι της Θεσσαλονίκης" [The Jews of Thessaloniki], Jewish Museum of Thessaloniki, accessed June 28, 2024, http://www.jmth.gr/article-20032014-oi-evraioi-tis-thessalonikis.
[17] Devin E. Naar, "The “Mother of Israel” Or the “Sephardi Metropolis”? Sephardim, Ashkenazim, and Romaniotes in Salonica," Jewish Social Studies 22, no. 1 (2016): 2, https://doi.org/10.2979/jewisocistud.22.1.03.
[18] Devin E. Naar, Jewish Salonica: Between the Ottoman Empire and Modern Greece (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2016), 1.
[19] Naar, Jewish Salonica, 7.
[20] Jewish Community of Thessaloniki, "Η Ιστορία της Κοινότητας" [The History of the Community], Jewish Community of Thessaloniki, accessed June 28, 2024, https://www.jct.gr/history.php.
[21] Devin E. Naar, "The “Mother,"
[22] Jewish Museum of Thessaloniki, "Οι Εβραίοι," Jewish Museum of Thessaloniki.
[23] Jewish Museum of Thessaloniki, "Οι Εβραίοι," Jewish Museum of Thessaloniki.
[24] Dr. Evangelos Hekimoglou, The exact location of the Ghettos in Thessaloniki, 1943, accessed June 30, 2013, https://www.academia.edu/10614219/The_exact_location_of_the_Ghettos_in_Thessaloniki_1943.
[25]
Office of the Special Envoy for Holocaust Issues, Justice for Uncompensated Survivors Today (JUST) Act Report: Greece, Rep., at 80 (Mar. 2020). Accessed June 28, 2024. https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.state.gov/reports/just-act-report-to-congress/greece/&sa=D&source=docs&ust=1719595934160991&usg=AOvVaw2HjUPk3T20gQSwmCjQTSWT.
[26] Office of the Special Envoy for Holocaust Issues, Justice for Uncompensated Survivors Today (JUST) Act Report: Greece, Rep., at 80 (Mar. 2020). Accessed June 28, 2024.
[27] Jewish Museum of Thessaloniki, "Οι Εβραίοι," Jewish Museum of Thessaloniki.
[28] Jewish Community of Thessaloniki, "Μνημείο Ολοκαυτώματος" [Holocaust Memorial], Jewish Community of Thessaloniki, accessed June 28, 2024, https://www.jct.gr/HolocMemorial.php.
[29] Albert Bourla, "Pfizer CEO Dr. Albert Bourla on His Family Story and Jewish Roots," interview by Robert Krulwich, Museum of Jewish Heritage, last modified February 18, 2021, accessed July 6, 2024, https://mjhnyc.org/events/legacies-pfizer-ceo-albert-bourla/.
[30] Jewish Community of Thessaloniki, "Administration," Jewish Community of Thessaloniki, accessed June 28, 2024, https://www.jct.gr/administration.php.
Sources Cited
Agora Modiano, ed. "The History." Agora Modiano. Accessed August 21, 2024. https://www.agoramodiano.com/en/the-history/.
ANU Database, ed. "Wedding ceremony in the magnificent synagogue 'Bet-Shaul', Salonika (Greece), early 1912." ANU Database. Accessed August 21, 2024. https://dbs.anumuseum.org.il/skn/en/c6/e222521/Photos/Wedding_ceremony_in_the_magnificent_synagogue_Bet_.
———, ed. "Wedding ceremony in the magnificent synagogue 'Bet-Shaul', Salonika (Greece), early 1912." ANU Database. Accessed August 21, 2024. https://dbs.anumuseum.org.il/skn/en/c6/e222521/Photos/Wedding_ceremony_in_the_magnificent_synagogue_Bet_.
"Capitulations." Jewish Virtual Library. Accessed August 21, 2024. https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/capitulations.
Chronakis, Paris Papamichos. "De-Judaizing a Class, Hellenizing a City: Jewish Merchants and the Future of Salonica in Greek Public Discourse, 1913–1914." Jewish History 28, no. 3/4 (2014): 373-403. JSTOR.
Devin E. Naar "The Mother of Israel; Or the Sephardi Metropolis? Sephardim, Ashkenazim, and Romaniotes in Salonica." Jewish Social Studies 22, no. 1 (2016): 81-129. https://doi.org/10.2979/jewisocistud.22.1.03.
The Folklore and Ethnological Museum of Macedonia.k, ed. "The Building of LEMM-TH." Thw Folklore and Ethnological Museum of Macedonia. Accessed August 21, 2024. http://www.lemmth.gr/to-kterio-tou-lemm-th.
"Francos." Jewish Virtual Library. Accessed August 21, 2024. https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/francos.
Hekimoglou, Dr. Evangelos. The exact location of the Ghettos in Thessaloniki, 1943. Accessed June 30, 2013. https://www.academia.edu/10614219/The_exact_location_of_the_Ghettos_in_Thessaloniki_1943.
Jewish Community of Thessaloniki. "Η Ιστορία της Κοινότητας" [The History of the Community]. Jewish Community of Thessaloniki. Accessed June 28, 2024. https://www.jct.gr/history.php.
Koelner, Yosef. "The History of Jewish Thessaloniki From Its Inception Through The New Testament Period." Academia. Accessed June 28, 2024. https://www.academia.edu/103955894/The_History_of_Jewish_Thessaloniki_From_Its_Inception_Through_The_New_Testament_Period.
Messinas, Ēlias V., and Samuel Gruber. Synagogues of Greece : a Study of Synagogues in Macedonia and Thrace. New York: Published for American Sephardi Federation (ASF)/ by Bloch Publishing Company in association with Bowman & Cody Academic Publishing, 2011.
Minna Rozen. "Money, Power, Politics, and the Great Salonika Fire of 1917." Jewish Social Studies 22, no. 2 (2017): 74-115. https://doi.org/10.2979/jewisocistud.22.2.03.
Naar, Devin E. Jewish Salonica : between the Ottoman Empire and Modern Greece. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2016.
Office of the Special Envoy for Holocaust Issues, Justice for Uncompensated Survivors Today (JUST) Act Report: Greece, Rep., at 80 (Mar. 2020). Accessed June 28, 2024. https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.state.gov/reports/just-act-report-to-congress/greece/&sa=D&source=docs&ust=1719595934160991&usg=AOvVaw2HjUPk3T20gQSwmCjQTSWT.
Pallini, Cristina, and Annalisa Riccarda Scaccabarozzi. "In Search of Salonika's Lost Synagogues. An Open Question Concerning Intangible Heritage." Journal of the Fondizione CDEC, no. 7 (2014). Accessed June 27, 2024. https://doi.org/10.48248/issn.2037-741X/769.
“Timeline of Jewish History in Italy." Jewish Virtual Library. Accessed August 2, 2024.
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/timeline-of-jewish-history-in-italy.