Dr. Devin E. Naar of the University of Washington will be giving this talk.
From 1492 until the twentieth century, the city of Salonica--once part of the Ottoman Empire and today the second biggest city in Greece--was home to the largest community of Ladino-speaking Sephardic Jews in the world. This talk focuses on how this once-thriving Jewish community grappled with the collapse of the Ottoman Empire and the rise of modern Greece prior to the devastation of the Holocaust. Dr. Devin E. Naar is Isaac Alhadeff Professor of Sephardic Studies and Associate Professor of History and Jewish Studies at the University of Washington. His book, Jewish Salonica: Between the Ottoman Empire and Modern Greece, won a National Jewish Book Award and the grand prize from the Modern Greek Studies Association. Complimentary copies of Dr. Naar’s book will be available at the Serling Institute for those who would like to read it before the lecture.

This event is co-sponsored by RCAH.