A GROUP OP BULGARIANS IN SALONIKI 



Photograph by Zepdji 



One sees everywhere in this Greek metropolis reminders of the centuries during which 

 Turkey ruled in Saloniki. Only the latest maps show Saloniki as a part of Greece, for it 

 was only during the first Balkan War that the region of which it is the center became 

 Greek territory. 



the population were given me, varying 

 according to the race of my informant ; 

 but they all agreed on the point that Sa- 

 loniki contains not far from 150,000 peo- 

 ple, and that more than half of them are 

 Jews. 



There is also a considerable Moslem 

 population of Hebrew origin, mainly de- 

 scended from the followers of Sabatai 

 Levi, of Smyrna, a would-be Messiah of 

 the seventeenth century, who created a 

 great stir in this part of the world, and 



who, being at last offered his choice be- 

 tween death and Islam, elected the latter. 

 Several of the Young Turk leaders be- 

 long to these Donmeh, as they are called, 

 or Those Who Turned. They are still 

 looked upon a little askance by the ortho- 

 dox of both confessions. 



Altogether the Jews of Saloniki are 

 more than a mere piece of local color. 

 They hold their heads up as do their co- 

 religionists in no other city in Europe — 

 down to the very boatmen in the harbor. 



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