ABSTRACT
In western Macedonian, cities such as Kozani, Kastoria, and Siatista, and northwards in Moschopoli, and even on monastic Mt. Athos, where the ‘Athonian’ academy functioned, hotbeds of the Neohellenic Enlightenment developed. Nothing similar happened in the Macedonian capital itself. The city’s commercial development did not lead to modernizing debates on education, as Enlightenment social theory dictates. Thessaloniki’s absence from the geography of the Enlightenment cannot be blamed on a lack of education in the city, but on its demographic composition and a series of conjunctures. The dominance of the Jewish community in the city’s life made the Jewish conduit the most important one for transmitting the spirit of the Enlightenment to the city. However, that conduit remained closed due to the reaction of the rabbinic leadership to the Sabbatai Zevi movement, which entailed serious losses for the community. The long-term results of this adventure were strict control over the spiritual life of the community and the exclusion of potential deviations from Talmudic tradition.
