Defining inter-communality between documents, tradition and collective memory: Jewish and non-Jewish capital and labor in early twentieth century Rhodes. Issue 2 (3rd April 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Guidi, Andreas
• Is Part Of: Journal of southeast European and Black Sea studies. Volume 17:Issue 2(2017)
• Page Start: 165
• Page End: 180
• Publication Date: 2017-04-03
• Subjects: Inter-communality -- Dodecanese -- Ottoman economy -- Italian colonialism -- Sephardic Jews -- collective memory; ACS = Archivio Centrale dello Stato, Rome -- AIU = Alliance Israélite Universelle, Paris -- ASDMAE = Archivio Storico Diplomatico del Ministero degli Affari Esteri, Rome -- BOA = Başbakanlık Osmanlı Arşivi, Istanbul -- CADN = Centre des Archives Diplomatiques Nantes -- DR LEX HC = Dimos Rodou – Lexiarcheio, Household Census -- GAK DOD = Genika Archeia Tou Kratos – Nomou Dodekanisou, Rhodes -- MDR = Il Messaggero di Rodi -- ÖSA = Österreichisches Staatsarchiv, Vienna; Balkan Peninsula -- Economic conditions -- 20th century -- Periodicals; Balkan Peninsula -- Politics and government -- 1989- -- Periodicals; Geopolitics -- Balkan Peninsula -- Periodicals; Black Sea Region -- Economic conditions -- 20th century -- Periodicals; Black Sea Region -- Politics and government -- 20th century -- Periodicals; Geopolitics -- Black Sea Region -- Periodicals; 330.9496
• DOI: 10.1080/14683857.2017.1324266
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1468-3857

Abstract

Abstract: This article deals with the relations between Jews and Non-Jews, especially Greeks, in late and post-Ottoman Rhodes. In the first part, I show that an understanding of the dimension of cosmopolitan Ottoman port cities is necessary for inquiring into the societal dynamics of the post-imperial local context. Secondly, I describe the obstacles for a pluralistic and inter-confessional historiography based on the current trends pursued by Greek and Jewish authors. The economic aspect of the coexistence between Greeks and Jews being a recurrent, yet very generalized and superficial motive in those works, I inquire into relations of individuals in the capital and labour market of Rhodes. In this empirical section, I draw from archival sources to show that inter-communality was far from being an exceptional, a-normal occurrence in different professions, from moneylending to prostitution. Instead, it represented a persistent factor of cooperation, interdependence and occasional conflict. By downplaying any rigid narrative of confessional segregation and coherence, I argue that 'groupist' reading of the history of Rhodes in the twentieth century should be challenged by further efforts towards a polyphonic and inclusive narrative more focused on the social actors.