Preliminary Programme

Wed 22 March
    8:30
    10:45
    14:15
    16:30

Thu 23 March
    8:30
    10:45
    14:15
    16:30

Fri 24 March
    8:30
    10:45
    14:15
    16:30

Sat 25 March
    8:30
    10:45
    14:15
    16:30

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Wednesday 22 March 2006 16:30
B-4 ETH33 Jewish migrants, refugees and survivors 1930-1950s
Room B
Network: Ethnicity and Migration Chair: Michael G. Esch
Organizers: - Discussant: Michael G. Esch
Orly Caroline Meron : Ethnic Economy and Niches: Jewish Entrepreneurship in Salonica (1922)
The proposed paper examines Salonica’s multi-ethnic business world prior to the arrival of Greek refugees from Asia Minor (1923), a wave of immigration that contributed to the radical demographic change culminating in the population’s ethnic unification. The comparative inter-ethnic research is based on a list of firms adapted from the ... (Show more)
The proposed paper examines Salonica’s multi-ethnic business world prior to the arrival of Greek refugees from Asia Minor (1923), a wave of immigration that contributed to the radical demographic change culminating in the population’s ethnic unification. The comparative inter-ethnic research is based on a list of firms adapted from the Annual Report published by Salonica’s Chamber of Commerce (1922). Ethnic classification of firms enabled observation of Salonica’s Jewish economy from the perspective of the Greek economy on one hand and other local ethnic components on the other.
Based on Light’s ethnic economy concept in combination with the definition of an ethnic niche as an economic sub-branch controlled by particular ethnic entrepreneurs, the quantitative analysis focuses on the following issues: How did changes in state policy following transformation of the multi-national Ottoman regime to a Greek nation-state (1912) affect the ethnic makeup of the city’s business world? How did those same transitions affect the Jewish business structure? What was the impact of internal demographic change on the Jewish minority’s real, human and social capital in the context of Jewish entrepreneurship? What characteristics distinguished Jewish niches from Greek or other ethnic niches? What can we say about the capture of Jewish niches by Greek entrepreneurs given another list of firms, adapted from an independent report (1915) conducted by Austrian officials? Did Greek entrepreneurs belonging to the majority population in the new nation-state expel Jews from participation in specific economic branches? If so, what were these industrial or commercial branches? (Show less)

Yair Seltenreich : Efforts of Jewish Immigration to Syria and Lebanon during the 1930s: Social Aspects
The struggle for free Jewish immigration to Palestine during British mandate years (1922-1948) was followed by another, almost unknown, struggle for Jewish immigration to Syria and Lebanon, which were then under French mandate. Demands for settlement ranged from Rotterdam and Cologne to Karachi and Kabul. This struggle, intensified during the ... (Show more)
The struggle for free Jewish immigration to Palestine during British mandate years (1922-1948) was followed by another, almost unknown, struggle for Jewish immigration to Syria and Lebanon, which were then under French mandate. Demands for settlement ranged from Rotterdam and Cologne to Karachi and Kabul. This struggle, intensified during the Nazi persecutions since 1933, was led in that period mainly by non political organizations.
Both the plans (sometimes fantastic) for massive Jewish installation in Syria and Lebanon, and the hesitant reaction of the French authorities, reflect mainly social and mental factors. Those are richly documented in the French Archives du Ministere des Affaires etrangeres. The paper will analyze the rationale of those various, complicated and sometimes contradicting.
Jewish plans considered mass settlement, up to 10 000 families, either in Northern marshy parts of the Gharb region or, alternatively, in Allaouite autonomous region. Their ideas were supported by different minorities, Christian Maronites and even Shi'ite Moslems (nowadays the bitterest enemies of the state of Israel…). They claimed Jewish immigration will be beneficial both economically and socially to the entire impoverished local population. The French, on their side, feared the Jewish immigration might prejudice Syrian middle classes, bring Jewish cultural dominance, cause uncontrollable tensions with the sensitive Moslem urban lower classes. While Jewish organizations claimed they would take particular care not to repeat mistakes done in previous years in Palestine: the immigrants will be obliged to learn Arabic and to intermingle between Arab populations. The French remained reserved.
Many peculiarities added to this complicated situation: Jewish crooks in Danzig tried to use the process for illegal huge money transfers. On the other side, prominent personalities of Moslem Elites, while condemning violently and publicly those plans, clandestinely tried to sell their own lands to those Jewish organizations…
Finally World War II broke. Since 1940 each of the involving parties found itself in unpredictable dire straits. The dream evaporated, never to return. (Show less)

Gerben Zaagsma : Eastern European Jewish communists in Paris in the 1930s.
This paper examines the place of Jewish communists in Paris in the wider Parisian immigrant Jewish landscape in the 1930s. I will specifically highlight the various uses and constructions of Jewishness within the Jewish communist milieu as reflected in their newspaper Naye Prese.

Jewish communists in Paris came from the ... (Show more)
This paper examines the place of Jewish communists in Paris in the wider Parisian immigrant Jewish landscape in the 1930s. I will specifically highlight the various uses and constructions of Jewishness within the Jewish communist milieu as reflected in their newspaper Naye Prese.

Jewish communists in Paris came from the sizeable Yiddish-speaking Jewish immigrant population and within this community they competed and interacted with several other Jewish organizations and media. In the political realm these were mainly the Parisian branch of the Jewish socialist Bund (organized in the Medem Farband) or the socialist-zionist Poale Tsion. The main way of reaching the ‘Jewish street’ was through the media: the Jewish communists published a daily Yiddish newspaper, Naye Prese. Although the Bundists also published a journal, Undzer Shtime, their main competitor was the other Yiddish daily, Parizer Haynt, that was not a party organ and had a more conservative, zionist orientation and a stronger connection to the old home country, Poland.

I will focus predominantly on the period of the Spanish Civil War. As will become clear Jewish communists were highly influential among the Jewish immigrant workers in Paris and the Spanish Civil War was an important issue in the ‘battle’ for the Jewish masses. In this context it is important to know that the Parisian Jewish communists were the driving force behind the creation of the Jewish Naftali Botwin company within the International Brigade. In the paper I will examine how Naye Prese wrote about the Spanish Civil War, and especially, the involvement of volunteers with a Jewish background in the International Brigade. By contrasting this with an analysis of the other newspapers I will show how the Spanish Civil War was one of the ways to promote what Naye Prese once dubbed the ‘Jewish Popular Front’ among the Eastern European Jewish immigrants in Paris and how this fitted into a wider political strategy of dealing with the threat of anti-semitism in Europe at the time. (Show less)



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