For the most up-to-date information see the CES Website.

The Jewish Community of the island of Rhodes followed a unique trajectory in the 20th century. Rhodes Jewry was the only community in the Levantine Judeo-Spanish world that did not become part of a successor state of the Ottoman Empire in the 20th century. Instead it was incorporated into a colonial Empire when Italy conquered the island in 1912. The Jews of Rhodes reoriented themselves politically, culturally and socially towards Italy in the following decades. The German army invaded the island in 1943. The Jewish community was deported to Auschwitz in 1944 and perished there. A far-flung diaspora of Jews originating from Rhodes and their descendants has constructed a distinctive memory of the mother community that was destroyed in the Holocaust.

Aron Rodrigue Charles Michael Professor in Jewish History and Culture, Stanford University

Sponsors: Jews in Modern Europe Study Group; Contemporary Europe Study Group; Center for Jewish Studies Leon I. Mirell Lecture Fund

Contacts: Phyllis Albert, phyllisalbert@gmail.com; Alex Sagan, alex@sagan.org