Greece--a Jewish History

by K.E. Fleming

K. E. Fleming's Greece--a Jewish History is the first comprehensive English-language history of Greek Jews, and the only history that includes material on their diaspora in Israel and the United States. The book tells the story of a people who for the most part no longer exist and whose identity is a paradox in that it wasn't fully formed until after most Greek Jews had emigrated or been deported and killed by the Nazis.


For centuries, Jews lived in areas that are now part of Greece. But Greek Jews as a nationalized group existed in substantial number only for a few short decades--from the Balkan Wars (1912-13) until the Holocaust, in which more than 80 percent were killed. Greece--a Jewish History describes their diverse histories and the processes that worked to make them emerge as a Greek collective. It also follows Jews as they left Greece--as deportees to Auschwitz or émigrés to Palestine/Israel and New York's Lower East Side. In such foreign settings their Greekness was emphasized as it never was in Greece, where Orthodox Christianity traditionally defines national identity and anti-Semitism remains common.

Genres: History, Religion, Judaism, Jewish

288 pages, Paperback

First published November 5, 2007

About the author

Katherine Elizabeth Fleming is the Alexander S. Onassis Professor of Hellenic Culture and Civilization in the Department of History at New York University. In Spring 2016, she was announced as NYU's next Provost, and she assumed office on September 1, 2016. She specializes in the modern history of Greece and the broader Mediterranean context, with a particular focus on religious minorities.

Fleming is also a senior member of the administration of New York University and is the second director (after Tony R. Judt) of the Remarque Institute. Fleming was associate director of the institute from 2002 until Judt's death in 2010. She was appointed Provost of NYU in April 2016 to begin in Fall 2016.

In addition to her appointments at NYU, Fleming is a permanent associate member of the faculty of the department of history of the École Normale Supérieure in Paris, where she runs a longstanding workshop on the history of the Mediterranean with the French historian of Italy, Gilles Pécout. Fleming has been in residence at the École Normale since 2007, although she retains her positions at NYU. Fleming has sat on the boards of numerous journals, among them the American Historical Review. Fleming is also President of the board of Piraeus University in Greece. In 2016 the government of Greece recognized her contributions to Greek culture by declaring her an honorary Greek citizen. In 2017 the University of Macedonia (Thessaloniki) awarded her an honorary doctorate in recognition of outstanding scholarship and contributions to the study of Greek history.

Reviews

[Jade Vandel · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book has a very comprehensive history of Judaism in Greece and aligns it very well with the development of the Greek nation, developing ideas of "nationality," and how Judaism plays into the new Greek identity that was created in the 19th and 20th centuries. The author also tastefully includes how Zionism affected the Greek state during its development and how the ideology provided both a form of comfort for Greek Jews, but also multiple problems as it was setting the Greek Jews apart from their other identity, which was Greek. The author was also able to wrap it all up nicely, concluding the book with a discussion about Judaism in Greece in the 21st century, and how Zionism affects it still today.

[Christiepa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Κατανοητό, ευκολοδιάβαστο και σχεδόν ολοκληρωμένο βιβλίο! Κατάλληλο για όσους ενδιαφέρονται να έρθουν σε μία πρώτη επαφή με την Ιστορία των Ελλήνων Εβραίων και να αποκτήσουν μια γενική άποψη περί του θέματος. Η ιστορική αφήγηση ξεκινάει από τους γηγενείς εβραϊκούς πληθυσμούς της Ελλάδας και τους διωγμένους εβραϊκούς λαούς της Ιβηρικής χερσόνησος. Συνεχίζει με τη ζωή της κοινότητας, τις ασχολίες τους και τα ενδιαφέροντα τους και έπειτα περιγράφει τη φρίκη του Β'ΠΠ. Ακολουθεί η εκτόπηση των Εβραίων, η ζωή στα στρατόπεδα θανάτου και τέλος η επιστροφή των επιζώντων. Συνεχιζόμενες μαρτυρίες συμπληρώνουν την ιστορική έρευνα και δημιουργούν ένα πολυσύνθετο σύγγραμα!

[Daniel Te · Rating 4 out of 5]

A groundbreaking title in the study of the Greek Jews, it's a topic that is covered not enough in Greece, especially considering the great losses of the Holocaust (which are proportionally speaking, extremely high in Greece, about 90% of Jews killed). Greece has a really rich history, and sometimes topics like this are too often passed over, when they should be studied more than ever (especially considering the rise of Neo-Nazi parties such as Golden Dawn in Greece).

[Miriam · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful book that places the Greek Jews in the greater history of the Balkans. Very weil annotated.