Jewish Salonica: Between the Ottoman Empire and Modern Greece

The Toby and Herbert Stolzer Endowed Program
Cosponsored by the Centers for Global Advancement and International Affairs (GAIA Centers)

Devin Naar, University of Washington

The Mediterranean port city of Salonica (Thessaloniki) was once home to the largest Sephardic Jewish community in the world. The collapse of the Ottoman Empire and the city’s incorporation into Greece in 1912
provoked a major upheaval for Salonica’s Jews. Professor Naar’s new book, Jewish Salonica, winner of the 2016 National Jewish Book Award for archival research, tells the story through the voices of Salonican Jews as
they forged a new place for themselves in Greek society.

Date: Sunday, October 15, 2017
Time: 07:30pm
Trayes Hall, Douglass Campus Center
100 George Street, New Brunswick

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Devin E. Naar is the Isaac Alhadeff Professor in Sephardic Studies and Associate Professor of Jewish Studies and History at the University of Washington in Seattle, where he directs the Sephardic Studies Program. Originally from New Jersey, Naar received his BA in History from Washington University in St. Louis and his PhD in History from Stanford University. He has served as a Fulbright Scholar to Greece. His new book, published by Stanford University Press, is entitled Jewish Salonica: Between the Ottoman Empire and Modern Greece. It won the 2016 National Jewish Book Award for archival research and was a finalist in the category of Sephardic culture. Naar teaches courses in Jewish history, Sephardic culture, the Holocaust, and the modern Mediterranean world. A past fellow at the University of Washington’s Society of Scholars, he also serves on the academic advisory council of the Center for Jewish History in New York where he represents the American Sephardi Federation.