Shai Srougo
Biographic Data
| ID | 1449283 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Shai Srougo |
| GIVEN NAMES | Shai |
| FAMILY NAME | Srougo |
| SIGNATURE | SROUGO S |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Haifa |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-6382-0864 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 16 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 9 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 16 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2011 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
Ports of promise and prejudice
This paper foregrounds the agency of Salonikian longshoremen in Haifa in the 1930s through previously unexamined grassroots sources, images, and texts of the laborers themselves. These sources suggest that Salonikians actively navigated restrictive British immigration policies, colonial labor regimes, and institutional pressures within the Yishuv, while challenging Orientalist and Labor Zionist narratives that marginalized them. Positioning this …
Multivocal Narratives of a Nonviolent Campaign in the May 1936 Thessaloniki Events
Interwar Greece, whose political schism had deeply divided society, witnessed a remarkable display of national unity in Thessaloniki through the solidarity movement of May 1936. A labor dispute involving tobacco workers sparked a series of nonviolent protests, strikes, and demonstrations. Facing the regime's brutal suppression — including 12 fatalities and around 30 severe casualties — the workers' cause garnered widespread support across social …
The forgotten wartime letters of Abraham Benaroya (1943–1945)
Focusing on Abraham Benaroya, a prominent labor leader in southeastern Europe, this research examines his experiences during World War II, a period often neglected in prior studies. Existing scholarship has predominantly highlighted Benaroya's contributions to the Pan-Hellenic labor movement from 1909 to 1924/5, incorrectly assuming that his removal from political power signaled the end of his influence on both Jewish and non-Jewish historiograph…
Sephardic longshoremen at the Haifa Port (1933-1936)
This paper focuses on the Zionist challenges regarding “Jewish labor” through the micro-history of the Salonikian longshoremen on the eve of their emigration from Greece (early 1930s), and during the first period of integration in the Haifa Port (1933–1936). To date, the hegemonic perspective on Salonikian longshoremen has emphasized the immigrants’ crucial role in overcoming the Arab-dominated port labor market. However, while tending to paint a…
Moroccan Jewish shoemaking under European colonialism (1912-39)
This article presents the micro-history of Jewish shoemakers in urban and rural Morocco under the French Protectorate. Whereas in pre-1912 Morocco Jewish shoemakers were an active element within the spaces of the sūq , in post-1912 Morocco the traditional arrangements which enabled this integration were challenged by both the indigenous societies (the Muslim and Jewish populations) and the French local government. The struggle of the Jewish shoem…
Use of port archives made public
The fall of the Balkan port
The Jewish workers in the port of Thessaloniki (1939-1943)
This article explores the last chapter in the long history of the Jewish port workers in the waterfront of Thessaloniki—the World War II years. The Jewish blue-collar workers and white-collar workers shared a common history, and at the same time, each had a different story to tell on the drama of the war. Their everyday experience in the roles of workers, soldiers, non-combatants, and as Greek civilians reveals the Jewish role in shaping the spac…
The Thessaloniki Jewish pioneers in the Haifa waterfront, 1929–32
This article traces the economic history of the small Jewish maritime community in its hometown of Thessaloniki during the 1920s and its new home of Haifa in the early 1930s. The Thessalonikians’ strong connection to port occupations made them an ideal pioneer in the Zionist scheme of creating a Jewish maritime presence in Mandatory Palestine. The Thessalonikians’ arrival in the Arab-dominated Haifa waterfront led to continuous conflict. The arti…
The Mediterranean culture of fishing
This essay discusses the maritime Jews and their changing role in the fishing occupation in the Mediterranean sea. The first part presents the trends in historiography regarding the Thessalonikian Jewish fishermen in Ottoman and Post Ottoman periods. The second section explores the maritime world of Jewish fishermen in Ottoman Thessaloniki between the sixteenth and the twentieth centuries. We will establish the cultural identity of the Jewish fis…
The social history of Fez Jews in the gold-thread craft between the Middle Ages and the French colonialist period (sixteenth to twentieth centuries)
The Jews were the founders of the gold-thread craft in Fez. They contributed their economic and human capital to the development of various techniques of goldsmithing and implanted their unique sty
Between idealism and reality
In the struggle of Jewish labor in the port of Haifa during the British Mandate, the Thessalonikian dockers played a major role. Until recently the story of their absorption was analyzed ‘from above’ with a functionalist-nationalist explanation. The Thessalonikians arrived equipped with professional skills, enthusiasm, and Zionist solidarity, which ostensibly was to be sufficient for their successful occupational integration at the waterfront. Th…
Artisan dynamics in the age of colonialism
The article highlights the social history of Jewish goldsmiths in French Morocco between the two World Wars, a period in which the global capitalist system challenged their historical monopoly over production and commerce. Continued external intervention (Moroccan commercial treaties with European capitalist markets), direct competition (the import of cheap industrial products and an influx of entrepreneurs), the mechanisation of local manufactur…
Core–Periphery Interactions in the Late and Post-Ottoman Periods
What are the reasons for the rapid economic growth of regions and their later decline? Why does the development of a certain region create under-development in another region within a national or global sphere? A central paradigm for explaining such phenomena is core–periphery relations, and the case study presented in this paper is the port city of Thessaloniki and its regressive and peripheral status within the regional (Macedonia and the South…
Professional characteristics of the Jewish guild in the Muslim world
This article focuses upon the Jewish dockers of Ottoman Thessaloniki. At the beginning of the twentieth century, the loading and unloading of merchandise between ships and docks in the port of Thessaloniki was dominated by Jewish manpower. This dominance should be considered, first of all, in relation to the pre-industrial regulations of the Ottoman labour market. Work on the Thessaloniki docks was operated by veteran guilds of Jewish labourers (…
The informal sector in a colonial regime
The subject of this article is the economic and cultural history of the impoverished Jews of Casablanca between the two world wars. The case study of the lower classes of Casablanca Jewry is based on the informal sector theory in third world countries and includes two focal points: employment (Jewish craftsmen, hawkers, manual labourers, beggars and prostitutes) and accommodation (the residential neighbourhood and its physical and cultural charac…
Professional characteristics of the Jewish guild in the Muslim world
This article focuses upon the Jewish dockers of Ottoman Thessaloniki. At the beginning of the twentieth century, the loading and unloading of merchandise between ships and docks in the port of Thessaloniki was dominated by Jewish manpower. This dominance should be considered, first of all, in relation to the pre-industrial regulations of the Ottoman labour market. Work on the Thessaloniki docks was operated by veteran guilds of Jewish labourers (…
The fall of the Balkan port
The social history of Fez Jews in the gold-thread craft between the Middle Ages and the French colonialist period (sixteenth to twentieth centuries)
The Jews were the founders of the gold-thread craft in Fez. They contributed their economic and human capital to the development of various techniques of goldsmithing and implanted their unique sty
The forgotten wartime letters of Abraham Benaroya (1943–1945)
Focusing on Abraham Benaroya, a prominent labor leader in southeastern Europe, this research examines his experiences during World War II, a period often neglected in prior studies. Existing scholarship has predominantly highlighted Benaroya's contributions to the Pan-Hellenic labor movement from 1909 to 1924/5, incorrectly assuming that his removal from political power signaled the end of his influence on both Jewish and non-Jewish historiograph…
Between idealism and reality
In the struggle of Jewish labor in the port of Haifa during the British Mandate, the Thessalonikian dockers played a major role. Until recently the story of their absorption was analyzed ‘from above’ with a functionalist-nationalist explanation. The Thessalonikians arrived equipped with professional skills, enthusiasm, and Zionist solidarity, which ostensibly was to be sufficient for their successful occupational integration at the waterfront. Th…
Professional characteristics of the Jewish guild in the Muslim world
This article focuses upon the Jewish dockers of Ottoman Thessaloniki. At the beginning of the twentieth century, the loading and unloading of merchandise between ships and docks in the port of Thessaloniki was dominated by Jewish manpower. This dominance should be considered, first of all, in relation to the pre-industrial regulations of the Ottoman labour market. Work on the Thessaloniki docks was operated by veteran guilds of Jewish labourers (…
The informal sector in a colonial regime
The subject of this article is the economic and cultural history of the impoverished Jews of Casablanca between the two world wars. The case study of the lower classes of Casablanca Jewry is based on the informal sector theory in third world countries and includes two focal points: employment (Jewish craftsmen, hawkers, manual labourers, beggars and prostitutes) and accommodation (the residential neighbourhood and its physical and cultural charac…
Core–Periphery Interactions in the Late and Post-Ottoman Periods
What are the reasons for the rapid economic growth of regions and their later decline? Why does the development of a certain region create under-development in another region within a national or global sphere? A central paradigm for explaining such phenomena is core–periphery relations, and the case study presented in this paper is the port city of Thessaloniki and its regressive and peripheral status within the regional (Macedonia and the South…
Artisan dynamics in the age of colonialism
The article highlights the social history of Jewish goldsmiths in French Morocco between the two World Wars, a period in which the global capitalist system challenged their historical monopoly over production and commerce. Continued external intervention (Moroccan commercial treaties with European capitalist markets), direct competition (the import of cheap industrial products and an influx of entrepreneurs), the mechanisation of local manufactur…
The social history of Fez Jews in the gold-thread craft between the Middle Ages and the French colonialist period (sixteenth to twentieth centuries)
The Jews were the founders of the gold-thread craft in Fez. They contributed their economic and human capital to the development of various techniques of goldsmithing and implanted their unique sty
Between idealism and reality
In the struggle of Jewish labor in the port of Haifa during the British Mandate, the Thessalonikian dockers played a major role. Until recently the story of their absorption was analyzed ‘from above’ with a functionalist-nationalist explanation. The Thessalonikians arrived equipped with professional skills, enthusiasm, and Zionist solidarity, which ostensibly was to be sufficient for their successful occupational integration at the waterfront. Th…
The Jewish workers in the port of Thessaloniki (1939-1943)
This article explores the last chapter in the long history of the Jewish port workers in the waterfront of Thessaloniki—the World War II years. The Jewish blue-collar workers and white-collar workers shared a common history, and at the same time, each had a different story to tell on the drama of the war. Their everyday experience in the roles of workers, soldiers, non-combatants, and as Greek civilians reveals the Jewish role in shaping the spac…
The Thessaloniki Jewish pioneers in the Haifa waterfront, 1929–32
This article traces the economic history of the small Jewish maritime community in its hometown of Thessaloniki during the 1920s and its new home of Haifa in the early 1930s. The Thessalonikians’ strong connection to port occupations made them an ideal pioneer in the Zionist scheme of creating a Jewish maritime presence in Mandatory Palestine. The Thessalonikians’ arrival in the Arab-dominated Haifa waterfront led to continuous conflict. The arti…
The Mediterranean culture of fishing
This essay discusses the maritime Jews and their changing role in the fishing occupation in the Mediterranean sea. The first part presents the trends in historiography regarding the Thessalonikian Jewish fishermen in Ottoman and Post Ottoman periods. The second section explores the maritime world of Jewish fishermen in Ottoman Thessaloniki between the sixteenth and the twentieth centuries. We will establish the cultural identity of the Jewish fis…
The fall of the Balkan port
Use of port archives made public
Sephardic longshoremen at the Haifa Port (1933-1936)
This paper focuses on the Zionist challenges regarding “Jewish labor” through the micro-history of the Salonikian longshoremen on the eve of their emigration from Greece (early 1930s), and during the first period of integration in the Haifa Port (1933–1936). To date, the hegemonic perspective on Salonikian longshoremen has emphasized the immigrants’ crucial role in overcoming the Arab-dominated port labor market. However, while tending to paint a…
Moroccan Jewish shoemaking under European colonialism (1912-39)
This article presents the micro-history of Jewish shoemakers in urban and rural Morocco under the French Protectorate. Whereas in pre-1912 Morocco Jewish shoemakers were an active element within the spaces of the sūq , in post-1912 Morocco the traditional arrangements which enabled this integration were challenged by both the indigenous societies (the Muslim and Jewish populations) and the French local government. The struggle of the Jewish shoem…
The forgotten wartime letters of Abraham Benaroya (1943–1945)
Focusing on Abraham Benaroya, a prominent labor leader in southeastern Europe, this research examines his experiences during World War II, a period often neglected in prior studies. Existing scholarship has predominantly highlighted Benaroya's contributions to the Pan-Hellenic labor movement from 1909 to 1924/5, incorrectly assuming that his removal from political power signaled the end of his influence on both Jewish and non-Jewish historiograph…
Multivocal Narratives of a Nonviolent Campaign in the May 1936 Thessaloniki Events
Interwar Greece, whose political schism had deeply divided society, witnessed a remarkable display of national unity in Thessaloniki through the solidarity movement of May 1936. A labor dispute involving tobacco workers sparked a series of nonviolent protests, strikes, and demonstrations. Facing the regime's brutal suppression — including 12 fatalities and around 30 severe casualties — the workers' cause garnered widespread support across social …
Ports of promise and prejudice
This paper foregrounds the agency of Salonikian longshoremen in Haifa in the 1930s through previously unexamined grassroots sources, images, and texts of the laborers themselves. These sources suggest that Salonikians actively navigated restrictive British immigration policies, colonial labor regimes, and institutional pressures within the Yishuv, while challenging Orientalist and Labor Zionist narratives that marginalized them. Positioning this …
History (14 works) · History (14 works) · Archaeology (11 works) · Judaism (11 works) · Ancient history (9 works) · Law (9 works) · Law (9 works) · Political science (9 works) · Global Maritime and Colonial Histories (6 works) · Port (circuit theory (6 works)