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Devin E. Naar

Devin E. Naar is the Isaac Alhadeff Professor of Sephardic Studies and associate professor of history and Jewish studies at the University of Washington. He is the author of Jewish Salonica: Between the Ottoman Empire and Modern Greece (Stanford University Press).

February 21, 2019

Redesecration and Solidarity in Greece

Devin E. Naar

“Even if they vandalize the monuments one hundred times we will repair them one hundred and ten times,” pledged Yiannis Boutaris, the mayor of Thessaloniki, after the latest act of anti-Semitic destruction in the city.

Winter 2017

Memory and Desecration in Salonica

Devin E. Naar

Memory and a vandalized memorial in a once-Jewish city on the Aegean Sea.

Spring 2013

Jerusalem of the Balkans

Devin E. Naar

In 1911, David Ben-Gurion spent several months in Salonica and declared that it was "the only Jewish labor city in the world." Now, because of an open-minded mayor and his nationalist opponents, this formerly Jewish city is experiencing a peculiar mix of Jewish memory and anti-Semitism.