Avraam Benaroya - Jewish Ethnic Activism

Jewish Ethnic Activism

Benaroya was interested in the Jewish Question since the beginning of his career and made efforts to promote Jewish causes throughout it. His first book was The Jewish Question and Social Democracy while once in Thessaloniki he founded a group called the Sephardic Circle of Socialist Studies. He also played a leading role in the creation, in 1909, of the mainly Jewish Fédération Socialiste Ouvrière. Afraid of what the resurgent Greek self-confidence behind the Megali Idea could mean for Jews in Greece and Asia Minor he actively labelled the campaign imperialist and helped organise anti-war riots among Thessaloniki's Jews. He envisaged a modern state free from ethnic divisions where Jews could exist un-persecuted and free, retaining their religion. Benaroya was always very interested in combating anti-Semitism and after 1922 he focused his action on Thessaloniki's Jewish community.