The Beginning of the Socialist Movement Among the Jews of Salonica

ABSTRACT: In the late Ottoman period, Salonica supported a vibrant political culture. Salonica served as the cradle of the Young Turk movement, whose leadership included local Jews and Dönme and was the headquarters for the Committee of Union and Progress, which launched the 1908 revolution from the city. In its wake, Salonica would host an efflorescence of labor activism culminating in 1909 in the creation of the Socialist Workers' Federation (Ladino, La Federación Socialista Laboradera), described by the historian Paul Dumont as "the most important socialist organization in the Ottoman Empire." The co-founder and longtime leader of the Federation was Abraham Benaroya, a Jewish socialist who attempted to unite the city's diverse population of Jews, Dönme, Turks, Bulgarians, Greeks, and others, though the organization's members were largely Sephardi Jews and its primary language was Ladino. Benaroya remained in Salonica following the incorporation of the city into Greece and during World War II survived deportation to Nazi camps. Later, Benaroya immigrated to Israel, where in 1971 he published a Hebrew language account of the Socialist Workers' Federation in a Holocaust "memorial book" devoted to the destroyed Jewish community of Salonica. This is an annotated translation of Benaroya's account.