In August 1917, a fire broke out in a crowded quarter on the northwest side of Salonika. It eventually destroyed the historical center of the city, including the homes and property of more than 70,000 people, most of them Jews. The Greek government enacted a law for the reparceling and reconstruction of the burned-out area, which aroused anger and concern among Salonikan Jews, who understood it as a scheme to push them out of the city. The scholarly discussion of this crucial event in the history of the city and its Jewish community has revolved mainly around two main foci: the role of the fire as a much-needed opportunity to modernize the city and the question whether the rebuilding plan was a calculated scheme to Hellenize Salonika at the expense of the Jewish community. This latter debate is part of the wider discussion of the place of European Jewry in the transition from empire to nation-state. In this paper, the repercussions of the fire will be discussed from another perspective, namely, the role played by members of the local Jewish political and social elite in the aftermath of the fire. Key members of this elite adapted themselves to the politics of the Greek state and succeeded in turning what was considered a disaster by the majority of the Jewish community into a catalyst for promoting their own economic interests.

中文翻译：

---

金钱、权力、政治和 1917 年的萨洛尼卡大火

1917 年 8 月，萨洛尼卡西北侧一个拥挤的街区发生了火灾。它最终摧毁了这座城市的历史中心，包括超过 70,000 人的家园和财产，其中大多数是犹太人。希腊政府颁布了重新安置和重建被烧毁地区的法律，引起了萨洛尼卡犹太人的愤怒和担忧，他们认为这是将他们赶出城市的计划。关于这座城市及其犹太社区历史上这一重要事件的学术讨论主要围绕两个主要焦点：火灾作为城市现代化的急需机会的作用以及重建计划是否经过精心策划的问题。计划以牺牲犹太社区为代价将萨洛尼卡希腊化。后一场辩论是关于欧洲犹太人在从帝国向民族国家过渡中的地位的更广泛讨论的一部分。在本文中，将从另一个角度讨论火灾的影响，即当地犹太政治和社会精英成员在火灾后所扮演的角色。这些精英的主要成员使自己适应了希腊国家的政治，并成功地将大多数犹太社区认为的灾难转化为促进自身经济利益的催化剂。