Women in the Ottoman Balkans: Gender, Culture and History
Page 27
loyalty to friends, and defense of those weaker than oneself—women, small
children, and aged parents. A young girl who is unmarried personifies the
vulnerability of the group; for this reason, the family preferred to marry off
the daughter quickly in order to avoid the risk of disgrace. The honor of the
family is inseparable from the Jewish cultural heritage. Historical sources
144
Women in the ottoman Balkans
and research work alike show that “honor” is not a local variant or type of
“orientalist” stereotype: throughout the period from the foundation of the
Jewish settlement in Salonika until its tragic destruction, the concept of
“honor” was a leitmotif in the social fabric which encompassed individual,
family, community, and city.
25. El Avenir, 27 May 1911.
26. The
demand to separate the sexes arose in previous strikes. See Journal del
Lavorador (October 1909): 2; El Avenir, 27 May 1911. Male workers also
appealed to the Chief Rabbi to intervene in order to help save their jobs.
27. Ibid.,
8 August 1908. The principal demands were a 30% increase in wage and
a shortening of the work-day to10 hours. It would appear that the demand for
tobacco was high, and the management of the Régie agreed to a 20% wage
increase.
28. “The
strike at the Régie,” La Solidaridad Ovradera, 28 April 1911, 5 May
1911, 12 May 1911. The strike spread to all the tobacco factories in Kavala,
Drama, and Istanbul.
29. Avanti, 16 October 1913.
30. “The
Lockout,” La Solidaridad Ovradera, 21 April 1911; La Solidarite
Ovradera, 12 May 1911.
31. “One
Strike,” La Solidaridad Ovradera, 31 March 1911, 12 April 1911; “The
End of the Strike,” ibid., 2 June 1911.
32. Avanti, 9 December 1912.
33. Lefebvre 1991: 55.
34. “The First of May in Salonika,”
El Avenir, 2 May 1911.
35. Lefebvre 1991: 56.
36. Shields 1988: 45.
37. The
Jewish adage “The realm of the princess’ honor is within” reflects a
certain social order that dictates the subdivision of space between genders
as expressed in the Ladino proverb “A good woman’s realm is to be found
behind closed doors.” On honor and shame, modesty, and sexual humility, see:
Peristiany and Pitt-Rivers 1991: 1–20; Pitt-Rivers 1965: 19–78; Friedl 1986:
42–45; Sant Cassia and Bada 1992: 1–3.
38. Avanti, 2 May 1913. The First of May 1913 was the first Socialist “holiday”
after the annexation of Salonika by Greece. As the Greek officials feared that
the strike would expand and that disturbances would break out as a result of
the traditional May Day march, the march was forbidden and the workers
celebrated in closed halls at the workers’ club. They heard speeches in Turkish,
Bulgarian, Greek, and Ladino.
39. “The
Young Girls’ Convention,” Avanti (2 May 1913): 3.
40. “The Socialist Movement,” ibid (20 February 1914): 3.
41. “W
omen and Socialism,” ibid., 7 May 1913.
42. “Equality between the Sexes,” ibid., 8 December 1913.
43. In Ladino:
La mujer la mas alavada, es akeya ke avla poco. Yona 1903: 15.
hadar, JeWish toBacco Workers in salonika
145
44. In
Ladino: Abasho las amariyas, Vivan las verdaderas syndikalistas. Avanti,
22 December 1913.
45. Leontidou
1990: 75. There were many areas of overlap between the Communist
Party, the K.K.E. ( Κουμμονιστικό Κόμμα Ελλάδος), and the tobacco workers.
The Greek Communist Party, founded in 1918, found supporters among
the intelligentsia, refugees from Anatolia, and a large part of the industrial
workers—the tobacco workers in particular. In 1924, many of the Jewish
members of the Socialist Federation joined the Greek Communist Party. Ben-
Aroyah later left the party, and Ventura left as well, in 1928.
46. Interview with Bienvenida Pitchon Mano,
Thessaloniki, February 2002.
47. “Letter
,” Avanti, 27 October 1921. Whereas the female tobacco workers had
an organization of their own in 1913, the seamstresses and female workers in
the textile mills attained their own organization only in 1921.
48. “The Union is Power
,” Journal del Lavorador, February 1910.
49. “Letter
,” ibid., October 1909.
50. Avanti, 29 December 1913.
51. Eden
and Stavroulakis 1997: 37–47. In the mid-seventeenth century, Sabbetay
Zvi, a Jew from Smyrna, declared himself the redeemer. The sultan gave him
the alternative of death or conversion, and he and his followers converted
to Islam. Turks and Jews called them Dönme (in Turkish, “convert” or
“turncoat”). They referred to themselves as Ma’amin, which is Hebrew for
“believer.” (The corresponding Turkish-Arabic word is virtually identical.)
Salonika and İzmir were Dönme centers. On this movement and community,
see Scholem 1973; Georgeon 1992: 105–18; Küçük 1977.
52. “Lockout,”
Avanti, 9 December 1912.
53. “Between
Tobacco Workers,” ibid., 5 November 1913.
54. “The Daily List of Donations to the
Tobacco Strikers,” ibid., 11 April 1913.
55. “The
Daily Fund of the Socialist Federation,” ibid., 14 April 1913; Lucha and
Rejina Dasa, Istirio Nikopoulos, Jacob Hassid, and Lazer Zion from the Régie
factory; ibid., 8 September 1913.
56. In
Ladino: Eyos las azen vestir kon ferâje ... y ansi se izo un groop o de ninias
judias—Turkas. (“Between the Tobacco Workers,” ibid., 5 November 1913.)
57. A
vdela 1998: 424–27. Avdela describes the Great Tobacco Strike of 1914 as
a unique event that marked a turning point. In my opinion, this is not so. The
young Jewish girls participated in demonstrations prior to that time and fought
throughout this period against the Turkish and Gypsy girls hired to break their
strike. The struggle and the negotiations over better working conditions and
wages for both male and female workers began with the Great Strike of 1911,
continued in August 1912 and throughout 1913–14. See “The Tobacco Crisis:
to the Public, to the Workers, to the Fathers and to the Mothers,” Avanti, 14
May 1913. “Since the 17th of August, 1912, the tobacco workers trade union
have been engaged in a struggle against the owners of the tobacco factories.”
On the employment of Turkish and Gypsy girls, see “The Tobacco Conflict”
(ibid., 9 May 1913): 3. The striking girls were replaced with 8–10-year-old
146
Women in the ottoman Balkans
Turkish girls; “The Tobacco Conflict,” ibid., 13 June 1913. The writer of the
article claims that the Turkish and Gypsy workers were unfamiliar with the
work of the tobacco factories.
58. “The
Tobacco Workers Strike,” El Avenir, 14 April 1914; “The Strike,” ibid.,
15 April 1914.
59. La Ep
oca, 23 November 1900: “Beginning next week, every worker of the
Régie Tobacco Company must wear a fez.” The fez, which the Young Turks
wore proudly, became a symbol of freedom, liberty, and class. The tobacco
workers of Salonika, who at first wore the fez as a result of orders issued from
above, continued to wear it as a symbol of the pride of the tobacco worker;
Avanti, 9 December 1912. A month after the Greeks entered the city, the Greek
press began to criticize the Jews who wore the fez as a form of scorn towards
the Greeks (from the newspaper Paros); “The First of May in Salonika,” ibid.,
2 May 1913. Though the workers were forbidden to hand out pamphlets and
fliers about the First of May demonstrations, they congregated in the workers’
club with red flags, red decorations on their buttons, and wearing the fez.
60. A
vdela 1998: 424–30. The strikes and demonstrations hurt the tobacco
industry which fed Greece’s principle export: in 1918, tobacco made up 43% of
Greece’s exports; “The Jews and the Recent Incidents,” El Mesajero, 14 May
1936. Similar claims were heard during the Great Tobacco Workers’ Strike
at the beginning of May 1936. The fact that by that time, Jews comprised a
demographic minority in the city and a minority among the demonstrators in
the streets did not prevent the newspaper Tahidromos [ Ταχυδρόμος, The Mail]
from accusing Jewish strikers and demonstrators of being devoid of Greek
national sentiments and of harming public order.
61. Portugali
1993: 156–57. “Collective cognitive maps are of immediate
relevance to the cultural, economic, ethnic and class conflict.”
62. This name referred to the seven islands of
f the western coast of Greece.
63. Anastassiadou 1997: 191–92.
64. Ben-Aroyah
1972: 311. Socialism was seen as the dawn of a new era; “The
Socialist Federation Fund,” Avanti, 29 September 1913. In January of 1915,
at the Paradise Hall, the theatre troupe of the Socialist Federation put on
a performance of Molière’s L’avare in honor of the release from prison of
Alberto Arditi, a prominent leader of the Federation. “El primo mayo en
Saloniko,” Suplimento del Avenir, 2 May 1911; Dumont 1997: 82.
65. Leontidou 1990: 84–88.
66. “The
Tobacco Crisis,” Avanti, 13 June 1913.
67. “Books,”
La Solidaridad Ovradera, 3 March 1911; “Library,” Avanti, 10
December 1921: “The Library of the Communist Youth is open every evening
from 6:00 until 9:00 and on Saturday throughout the day.” For the names of
the books that have a clear socialist message, see also Dumont 1997: 95, ref.
15.
hadar, JeWish toBacco Workers in salonika
147
68. “Ladino
Lessons,” Avanti (21 November 1913): 2. Two Ladino classes were
offered, one for men and one for women; “Our Life,” ibid., 11 February 1914;
an Interview with Flor Eskaloni Sapan, Ramat-Gan, 2000.
69. “The Daily Fund of the Socialist Federation,”
Avanti, 6 October 1913.
70. “The
Federation Socialiste Fund,” Avanti, 15 December 1913: Porké una
noble dama refuzó de baylar kon un ovrador, i ke les sea segunda lisión, a los
lavoradores ke adiran el Sionizmo.
71. Romero 1983: 256–57, 283–86.
72. Y
erolympos 1996.
73. “The
Industrial Area,” Aksion, 8 January 1935. The municipality decided that
within 15 days, all factories were obliged to move to the outskirts of the city
between “26th of October” Street and the edge of the Beş Çınar Gardens.
74. The
tobacco factories of Praudos, Papastrato, Latour, Pomro and others were
all situated on Tantalo Street.
75. Lefebvre 1996: 71–72.
76. Sibley 1995: 57.
77. El Kulevro, 23 July 1920.
78. Interview
with Bienvenida Pitchon-Mano. Ms Mano did not attend school;
her three older sisters took her to work with them in the tobacco factory.
79. “Bula Clara: Chronica Popular
,” El Avenir, 3 August 1906.
80. Interview
with Bienvenida Pitchon-Mano. The song La Cigarrera went:
“How your blue suit becomes you, you look like a countess when you walk
out of the tobacco factory.”
81. “For
the Honor of the Jewish Girls,” El Avenir, 27 October 1910. This article
relates the stories of two brothels where Jewish girls between the ages of 15
and 20 worked while their parents were led to believe that they were employed
by the tobacco factories.
82. El Avenir (2 September 1904): 12.
83. Perhaps
the father was right to be concerned over Estherina’s choice: after
five years of marriage Abraham died, leaving her a pregnant widow with three
little babies, no money, and no support. Estherina worked for a time as a wet
nurse and later returned to work in the tobacco factory. Her children grew up
in her brother’s and sisters’ homes. During World War II, Estherina and her
children hid in the village of Hortiachi using fake documents, and fought with
the Greek resistance against the German occupation.
84. “Religious
Conversions,” El Avenir, 2 April 1909. In this article, the writer
decries the fact that young Jewish girls from poor families work as domestic
help in Greek and Turkish homes.
85. Interviews with Flor Eskloni Safan and Bienvenida Pitchon–Mano.
148
Women in the ottoman Balkans
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