filologiju 44–45 (1996).
Opširni popis Bosanskog sandžaka iz 1604. godine [Detailed census of the Sancak
of Bosnia from the year 1604] (Sarajevo: Bošnjački institut Zürich—Odjel
Sarajevo i Orijentalni institut u Sarajevu, 2000).
Peirce, Leslie. Morality Tales: Law and Gender in the Ottoman Court of Aintab
(Berkeley, Los Angeles, and London: University of California Press, 2003).
Singer, Amy. Constructing Ottoman Beneficence: an Imperial Soup Kitchen in
Jerusalem (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2002).
Spaho, Fehim Dž. “Vakufnama Shahdidar, supruge Gazi Husrev-bega,” [The
vakufnama of Shahdidar, wife of Gazi Husrev Bey] Vakufname iz Bosne i
Hercegovine (XV i XVI vijek), ed. Lejla Gazić (Sarajevo: Orijentalni institut u
Sarajevu, 1985).
126
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Trako, Salih. “Vakufnama Sinan-bega, sina Bajram-age” [The vakufnama of
Sinan Bey, son of Bajram Aga], V akufname iz Bosne i Hercegovine (XV i XVI
vijek), ed. Lejla Gazić (Sarajevo: Orijentalni institut u Sarajevu, 1985).
Tucker, Judith E. In the House of the Law: Gender and Islamic Law in Ottoman
Syria and Palestine (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998).
Vakufnama Fatime Ašide [The vakufnama of Fatima Ašida] (unpublished original
manuscript).
5
Jewish Tobacco Workers in Salonika:
Gender and Family in the Context of
Social and Ethnic Strife
Gila Hadar
Salonika, the largest city of Macedonia, is situated in the northern part of modern
Greece.1 An administrative and commercial center for centuries, Salonika2
became one of the main sites of settlement for the Sephardic Jews who were
expelled from the Iberian Peninsula at the end of the fifteenth century (1492–97)
and subsequently became the largest and most dominant element of the city’s
population.3 They were primarily involved in commercial and industrial activities,
and were highly stratified in different classes, professions, and income groups.
Culturally, the Jewish community developed its own distinct traditions in terms
of family values, religious rituals, language (Ladino4), literature, customs, and
habits of everyday life.
In the nineteenth century and at the beginning of the twentieth, the city of
Salonika witnessed far-reaching political, social, geopolitical, and demographic
that influenced all its inhabitants. The various communities were influenced by
Turkish and Hellenic nationalism, by socialist and communist ideologies, and by
the development of modern capitalist industries.
One of the most remarkable phenomena in Salonika was the industrialization
and modernization of the city and the contribution of wealthy Jewish, Greek, and
Muslim entrepreneurs, together with European banks and businesses, to these
processes. The tobacco industry was one of the largest industries in Macedonia and
the Near East. The tobacco factories of Greek Macedonia employed approximately
20,000 workers. In Salonika, where the processing plants were located, 8,000
workers were employed, most of whom were young Jewish girls.5 Nonetheless,
they are absent from the historical narrative of the city, the community, the family,
and the working class.
In this article, I examine the process whereby gender, class, and ethnic identities
were created among the female Jewish tobacco workers6 of Salonika, as well as
their way of life and everyday activities; the ways that their entrance into the
work force influenced how they conceived of themselves in the private and public
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Women in the ottoman Balkans
spheres; and the ways in which the outside world, the community, and the family
related to the “princess” who broke into the public arena, took part in the events
and social struggles of the time, and became part of the working community
and the Socialist and Communist parties. I address how these processes were
connected to issues of communal and ethnic/national interests in the Ottoman
and post-Ottoman periods. Gender, class, and ethnicity are all emotionally laden
issues, each of which contributes to the formation of identity and the sense of
belonging. Yet throughout this period, we find that delineations of gender, class,
and ethnicity crossed, merged, and even conflicted with one another. These various
aspects are examined here in light of the theories of spatiality of Henri Lefebvre,
David Sibley, and Juval Portugali, as well as the theories of the gendering of
space of Shirley Ardener and others.7
The main source for this paper is the Sephardic Jewish press—newspapers
and journals written in Ladino and published in Salonika from the end of the
nineteenth century until 1941.
The Socialist Federation
Until the Young Turk Revolution (July 1908), trade unions and strikes were
forbidden.8 After the revolution, rallying behind the Young Turk motto of “Liberty,
Justice, Equality, Fraternity,” the workers demanded equality in everyday life
as well as in the factory. In the liberal climate that followed the revolution, a
type of cultural mass-production began among the different ethnic and national
groups, particularly through the free press, serving to raise ethnic and national
consciousness within their respective communities.9 The new regime permitted
the establishment of trade unions and social organizations. “Everyone is eager
to exploit the opportunities which freedom has opened up to them. Everyone is
establishing trade unions and associations that until now have been prohibited by
the authorities. The bakers, railroad workers, tailors, dock workers, shoemakers,
sales clerks in the shops and the young girls in the textile mills and factories have
all been on strike.”10
The umbrella organization of the workers was La Federation Socialista,
which began to work openly immediately after the revolution.11 The Federation
was established in 1909 by a group of workers from all ethnic groups who were
imbued with socialist ideals: Avraham Ben-Aroyah (Benaroya), Alberto Arditi,
Samuel Amon (a tobacco worker), Angel Tomov, Dimitri Michalis, Salih Ben
Abdi, Mehmet Nâzımî, Istiryo Nikopoulo, Dimitar Vlahof, and Jacques Ventura.
The last two represented the Federation in the Turkish Parliament. At the same
time, trade unions were formed along religious and ethnic lines. These unions
participated in the struggle for better working conditions and higher wages. The
organ of the Socialist Federation was Journal del Lavorador ( Laborador). It was
published in four languages: Ladino, Turkish, Bulgarian, and Greek. Later, due to
problems with the censor, the name was changed to La Solidaridad Ovradera, La
Solidarite Ovradera, and Avanti.
hadar, JeWish toBacco Workers in salonika
129
Immediately following the Young Turk Revolution, strikes began in Salonika.
The first strike in which tens of thousands of workers participated, including
approximately 10,000 tobacco workers and 3–5,000 dockworkers, railroad
workers, and bakers, was organized by the tobacco workers’ trade union.12 The
tobacco workers were the first in the city to for
m a trade union that was part of the
Socialist Federation. From the very first year of its establishment, female tobacco
workers were part of the tobacco workers’ organization, though they did not take
part in its management, nor in committees that negotiated with employers.
Working Conditions
The participation of young girls in the work force was, in actuality, an extension
of their domestic roles. Just like women who went to work as wet nurses,
seamstresses, servants, and laundresses, in the eyes of the family and of the
employers, tobacco work too was seen as an extension of women’s household
duties: sorting (of tobacco leaves), threading (of the leaves on strings), and
hanging (the leaves to dry).14
Tobacco work was seasonal, and during times when tobacco was not being
processed, the young girls worked as servants and laundresses in Jewish, Muslim,
and Greek houses. The formation of the gender and class identities of these young
Jewish working class girls took place in the private sphere of the home and—
quite literally—on the floor of the factory. The word for “on the floor” in Ladino
is embasho, which also means “below” and carries a certain negative connotation:
in Ladino, the word basho means “inferior—without education or honor.” Just as
floor scrubbing was done on one’s knees, so the tobacco work was done while
sitting on the factory floor (Figure 5.1).
Young girls aged 12–14 were sent to work as servants in wealthy homes. A
Swedish tourist who visited the city in March 1900 wrote: “All the laundresses
and maids, even in non-Jewish homes, are Jewish.”15
The principal reason for the entrance of young girls into the work force,
besides the prevailing hunger and poverty, was the need to save money for a
dowry, a prerequisite for marriage.16 The necessity of providing a dowry was the
issue around which the life of any family that had been “cursed” with numerous
daughters revolved. The equation was simple: a rich dowry meant a rich husband—
a poor dowry, a poor husband—no dowry, no husband. It was estimated in 1910
that a young girl of the working class would need to work 10 to 15 years to save
enough money for a dowry.17
The reputation of young Jewish girls for being industrious workers, together
with the desire of tobacco companies to save on production costs and increase
profit, led to the establishment of production lines relying upon the work of
young Jewish women and girls. The management strategy of tobacco factories
was based on the family. Companies preferred to employ single young girls who,
because of their age and the communal and familial nature of Jewish society, were
considered submissive and obedient, not “troublemakers.” The workers were not
unknown to one another: fathers, mothers, daughters-in-law, sons-in-law, sisters,
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Women in the ottoman Balkans
brothers, cousins, and neighbors worked side by side in the drying and sorting
halls, so that there was constant societal supervision over young girls. Both male
and female workers worked principally in the sorting and packaging of the tobacco
leaves according to size, hue, and quality. The workday lasted between 14 and 16
hours, and took place in dark and dry halls in order to preserve the quality of the
tobacco leaves. Female workers sat on the floor either in circles or in lines, and
at their feet lay piles of tobacco leaves to be sorted into baskets. Tobacco dust
particles, carried in the air, penetrated their lungs and eyes and caused respiratory
problems, lung infections, tuberculosis, eye infections, and chronic headaches,
while sitting on the floor caused chronic backaches. In contrast to the textile
industry, where the rapping noise of the looms made conversation impossible in
the production hall, the task of sorting tobacco leaves was quiet in and of itself.
This presented the young girls with a golden opportunity to converse about any
possible subject, among others their romantic dreams about groom, house, and
family—dreams that would never come true if the empty dowry chest was not
filled up with household utensils, bedding, and attire suitable for a bride under
the wedding canopy. Mixed into this stream of conversation were issues of social
and political import: the difficult working conditions, long hours, and low wages,
the discrepancy between the wages paid to males and females performing the
same tasks, and their living conditions as compared to those of the young girls in
the wealthy households where they worked when there was nothing to do in the
tobacco factories. The older women, particularly widows who carried the sole
financial burden of providing for their children, preferred to do domestic labor.
Though wages for domestic labor were low, they were steady throughout the year
and therefore provided more economic security.
As international demand for tobacco increased and tobacco prices rose, the
local tobacco industry was able to offer higher wages than those customary in
the mills and textile factories.18 The division of labor was according to gender.
Men were employed as overseers, cutters, and porters, and they sorted the high-
quality tobacco leaves— baş balı—whereas young girls picked the leaves from the
fields (Figure 5.2) and sorted the lower-quality tobacco leaves— basma, pastalçı,
mirodatus, and kaba kolak. Furthermore, in cases where both sexes performed the
same task, female workers received from one third to one half of the men’s wages.
In one case, for example, men received 20–23 kuruş a day for cutting and sorting,
whereas young Turkish girls received only 8–10 kuruş a day for the same task.
Workers’ wages were paid according to gender rather than according to task.19
Why did the tobacco industry provide the most fertile ground for the new
socialist ideas, and why did tobacco workers, including young girls, form the
most militant group of all the trade organizations—the one that led the socialist
struggle in the city?
The answer lies in a combination of factors: the relatively large number of
workers who labored under one roof,20 the fact that the work was seasonal,
allowing workers time for political and social organization, and the conditions
under which tobacco leaves were sorted and stringed. Frequent strikes hurt the
hadar, JeWish toBacco Workers in salonika
131
Figure 5.1. A tobacco processing factory at the beginning of the twentieth century.
Beth Hatefutsoth, Photography Archives, Tel Aviv. Greece, Salonika, 322/111.47.
factory owners’ income and increased production expenses. Employers tried to
crush workers’ organizations and reduce production costs by several means. In
1910 there was even an attempt, through an appeal to the courts, to outlaw the
tobacco trade union. The court complied with the demands of the factory owners,
and in response the workers left the factories and laid siege to the courthouse.21
Another attempt by factory owners to increase production and break the Jewish
trade union was to institute a seven-day work week. The Herzog factory, whose
owners were Jewish and which employed 350 Jewish workers along with 30
Turks
, Bulgarians, and Greeks, decided to continue production on the Sabbath. In
response, the Jewish female workers went on strike, declaring that they refused to
work in a factory that did not respect the holiness of the Sabbath.22
As female workers were paid less than male workers and were considered more
obedient, girls and young women were hired to replace the men in traditionally
male positions in the factory, in an attempt to cut costs and optimize efficiency.
This process of replacing male workers with female workers was part of an overall
trend taking place in the tobacco industry throughout the Ottoman Empire, and
which succeeded in particular in Bulgaria.23
One of the excuses used for firing male workers and replacing them with
female workers was “safeguarding the honor” of the female workers.24 However,
it was not “the honor” of female workers that prompted factory owners to invite
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Women in the ottoman Balkans
Figure 5.2. Six young women picking tobacco leaves under the supervision
of the husband of one of them and his brother, c. 1920.
Courtesy of the Mattaraso Family, Haifa.
Rabbi Meir, Chief Rabbi of Salonika, to inspect the tobacco workshops in order to
“investigate the claim” that Jewish girls were working alongside Jewish, Greek,
and Muslim men in the same workshops. Rather, it was their desire to hire female
workers for traditionally male positions and thus pay female wages. The trade
union declared:
The demand to separate the sexes does not arise from the desire of the
employers to safeguard the honor of their female employees. It is poverty
which shames the male worker as it does the female worker. It is the Tobacco
Worker’s Union that protects the honor of the workers, male and female
alike.25
The Rabbi inspected and found, to his relief, that in the girls’ workshops there
were only female workers, and the only males who—infrequently—entered there
were elderly men.26 From a close inspection of the strikes that broke out at the
tobacco plant of the Régie Cointeressée des Tabacs de l’Empire Ottoman, we can
see an illustration of the tactics of replacing male with female workers. During the
first strike that broke out at the factory in August 1908, 400 male workers and 400
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