Between Private and Public Sectors

Jewish engineers in Greece between the wars

Bibliographic Data

ID12709221
AuthorsOrly C Meron (0000-0003-0192-9228, corresponding author)
Year2015
Volume14
Issue3
Pages409-429
Publication date2015-05-08
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Modern Jewish Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1472-5886 • E-ISSN: 1472-5894
PublisherTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/14725886.2015.1032020
OpenAlexW1674064072
LanguageEN
References cited15

This article validates Simon Kuznets’ argument that minorities prefer the private sector to the public sector in order to avoid discrimination. Based on new archival findings, comparative interethnic research shows that majority Greek civil engineers in the interwar years developed close, interlocking relations with the government and national institutions, which elevated their socio-professional status. Despite the absence of anti-Jewish legislation, this process effectively excluded equally qualified Jewish engineers from Greek-controlled power networks and employment. The Greek nationalistic climate of the times permeated the civil engineers’ professional associations and Greece's one higher educational institution (National Technical University of Athens) of engineering. As the professional networks consolidated to protect their interests, Jewish civil engineers and architects, employers and employees alike, were effectively shut out with no possibility of benefitting from professional integration or association with the mainstream community of civil engineers. Jewish civil engineers were, therefore, channelled into restricting their services to Jewish clients and community projects. However, with the newly developing large-scale armaments industries in the 1930s, Jews opted to train as chemical, mechanical, and electrical engineers to fill positions in family-owned firms (as did their fellow Greeks), and also found employment in lower paying jobs that Greek engineers considered unattractive in state-owned facilities

Civil society · Government (linguistics · Judaism · Legislation · Mainstream · Political science · Politics · Private sector · Professional association · Public relations · Public sector · Sociology · Spanish Civil War · Australian History and Society · Culture, Economy, and Development Studies · History · Jewish and Middle Eastern Studies · Law · Public Administration

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