ABSTRACT
The chapter argues that Jewish identities do not exist in a cultural vacuum and that the formation of such identities must be placed within a meaningful context. In the case of Greece the construction of any religious minority inevitably raises the discussion of the pivotal position of the Orthodox Christian Church. In the explorations of the devices by which social exclusion is constructed, the study of the local press acquires a significant position reflecting some of the current issues that concern Greece. By contextualising the ‘making of otherness’ in modern Greece, in this case the non-Orthodox, my aim is to provide an intepretive framework that takes into account some ethical issues. The first part of this chapter includes the presentation and assessment of the relationship between the State and the Church and in particular the initiatives of the current archbishop as indications of a nationalist rhetoric in modern Greece. The second part is a discussion with Thessalonikan Jews about the role of the Orthodox Church in Greece.
