Avraam Eliezer Benaroya | |
|---|---|
אברהם בן-ארויה | |
 | |
| Born | 1887 |
| Died | 16 May 1979(1979-05-16) (aged 91–92) |
| Movement | Socialist |
Avraam Eliezer Benaroya (Hebrew:אברהם בן-ארויה;Bulgarian:Аврам Бенароя;Greek:Αβραάμ Μπεναρόγια;Ladino:Abrahán Eliezer Benarroya;Turkish:Avram Benaroya; 1887 – 16 May 1979) was a Jewish socialist, member of theBulgarian Social Democratic Workers' Party (Narrow Socialists),[7] later leader of theSocialist Workers' Federation in theOttoman Empire. Benaroya played a key role in the foundation of the Socialist Workers' Party of Greece in 1918, the predecessor of theCommunist Party of Greece.[8][9]
Benaroya was born to aSephardi Jew in Bulgaria.[10][11][12][13] He was raised inVidin by a family of small merchants.[14][15][16][17] Apolyglot, Benaroya learned to speak six languages fluently. He studied at theUniversity of Belgrade Faculty of Law, but did not graduate, becoming rather a teacher inPlovdiv. Here Benaroya became a member of theBulgarian Social Democratic Workers' Party (Narrow Socialists) (although other sources suggest that he joined theBulgarian Social Democratic Workers' Party (Broad Socialists),[18] he himself insisted that this was incorrect[19]) and published inBulgarian his workThe Jewish Question and Social Democracy (1908).[20][21]
After theYoung Turk revolution of 1908 he moved as asocialist organizer toThessaloniki. He founded here a group calledSephardic Circle of Socialist Studies and was in connection to theBulgarian left-wing faction, close to theInternal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO), calledPeople's Federative Party (Bulgarian Section),[22] as well as to some Bulgarian socialists, who worked there.[23] Benaroya's influence grew, as he argued that any socialist movement in the city must take the form of a federation in which all national groups could participate. Due to the Bulgarian roots of its Jewish founder, the organization was viewed with suspicion by theYoung Turks and later by the Greek government, as being close to the IMRO and Bulgarian socialist movement.[24][25][26]
Idealistic and pragmatic at the same time, in Thessaloniki Benaroya played a leading role in the creation, in 1909, of the mainly JewishSocialist Workers' Federation, or inLadino, Federacion. The organization took this name because, built on the federative model of theSocial Democratic Party of Austria, it was conceived as a federation of separate sections, each representing the four main ethnic groups of the city:Jews,Bulgarians,Greeks andTurks. It published its literature in the languages of these four groups (i.e., Ladino,Bulgarian,Greek andTurkish, respectively) but in practice the two latter sections were under-represented if not nonexistent. The democratic Federacion soon became, under Benaroya's leadership, the strongest socialist party in theOttoman Empire. It created combative trade unions, attracted important intellectuals and gained a solid base of support among Macedonian workers while cultivating strong links with theSecond International. From 1910 to 1911 Benaroya edited its influential newspaper, theSolidaridad Ovradera, printed in Ladino.
Unlike other parties which were organised on ethnic lines, as a cross-community group the Federacion was allowed by theOttoman authorities. A prominent Bulgarian member,Dimitar Vlahov, was a socialist MP in the new Ottoman parliament until 1912.[27][28] Indeed, its leaders initially supported theYoung Turks, and Benaroya participated in the "Army of Freedom" march onIstanbul to help put down theCountercoup of 1909. Alarmed by the growing power of socialist groups, the CUP subsequently launched a crack down, under which Benaroya was jailed three times, in early November 1910, June 1911 (when he was deported toSerbia) and February 1912 (when he was deported toGreece).[29][30][31]
In the aftermath of the incorporation of Thessaloniki into the Greek state, Benaroya resisted the attempts to impose ethnic divisions in the city. Opposed to theFirst World War, Benaroya and another Jewish socialist were exiled for two and a half years at the island ofNaxos. In contrast to most of the prominent socialists in the pre-1913 Greece who followedEleftherios Venizelos, Benaroya and the Federacion, adhering to its internationalist ideals, mobilized forneutrality. As this happened to the same policy as pursued byKing Constantine and his militaristic entourage, this led to the loss of support for Federacion inMacedonia.
From 1915 onwards the Federacion was buoyed by the popular reaction to the war. Both monarchist and Venizelist policy actually assisted the emancipation and the radicalization of the left, and Benaroya, keeping equal distance from both established political groups, was quick to turn the situation to advantage. In the1915 general elections Federacion sent two deputies representing Thessaloniki (Aristotelis Sideris and Alberto Couriel) to the Greek Parliament, while it lost by only a few votes for a third seat. It already had strong links with internationalist groups and organizations all over Greece and abroad; from them the Socialist Workers Party was to spring up in due time. However, another socialist faction, headed by the future Prime MinisterAlexandros Papanastasiou, who sided with Venizelos in foreign affairs, also had deputies elected in the same election.
Papanastasiou and other reform-minded socialists strongly supported Venizelos' liberal brand of nationalism. Benaroya and the Federacion, on the other hand, were influenced byAustromarxists such asVictor Adler,Otto Bauer andKarl Renner, who, sensitive to matters national, searched ways to utilize socialism as a cohesive force for the decrepitHabsburg monarchy; they elaborated the principle of personal autonomy, according to which national consciousness should be depoliticized and become a personal matter. Modern states should be based on free association and allow self-definition and self-organization of ethnicities in cultural affairs, while a mixed parliament, proportionally representing all nations of the realm, should decide on economic and political questions. The Federacion traced the origins of its federative position in Balkan authors of theEnlightenment likeRigas Velestinlis, and stressed that the forthcoming peace should exclude any change of borders or transfer of populations. The Socialist Workers' Party, that was created under Benaroya's initiative near the end of theFirst World War, followed closely the Federacion's theses on nationalself-determination, and wanted to transform the Greek state into a federation ofautonomous provinces that would safeguard the rights of minorities and participate in a federative Republic of the Balkan peoples.
Benaroya was interested in theJewish Question since the beginning of his career and made efforts to promote Jewish causes throughout it. His first book wasThe Jewish Question and Social Democracy (1908) while once in Thessaloniki he founded a group called the Sephardic Circle of Socialist Studies. He also played a leading role in the creation, in 1909, of the mainly Jewish Federacion. Apprehensive of what the resurgent Greek self-confidence behind theMegali Idea might mean for Jews in Greece andAsia Minor, at the time he labelled the campaign imperialist. He envisaged a state free from any ethnic divisions where Jews could exist unpersecuted and free, retaining their religion. Some of his fears might have been argued to have been realised when after the city's fire, the Venizelos administration did not rebuild the original Jewish section,[32] adopting instead a French town plan, but a considerable proportion of the Jewish population remained throughout the following decades, with the Greek government guaranteeing their rights in March 1926. Benaroya was always very interested in combatinganti-Semitism, while over later years he shifted his emphasis to reflect the sizable Thessaloniki Jewish community that chose to remain within the Greek state.
After a historic meeting with Venizelos, Benaroya's tactical abilities resulted in the birth of theSocialist Workers' Party of Greece (later named the Communist Party of Greece) and theGeneral Confederation of Greek Workers, which helped unite Greek workers.
Government persecution of the new movement led to a general strike in 1919. Subsequently, social and political polarization, as well as the prestige of the newbornSoviet Union, strengthened the radicals and before long the party was affiliated to theLeninistThird International. TheLabour Centre of Salonica, another creation of Benaroya's, which united more than twelve thousand workers of all nationalities, a good part of them Jews, became the focus of radical socialism. The fall of the Venizelos government (1920) and the war inAnatolia fuelled even more dissent, leading to anti-war riots. In the wake of these developments Benaroya, thrown in prison again, as well as most of the leading members of the party, were marginalized by the radicals. On the other hand, moderate socialists underAlexandros Papanastasiou started preparing their own revolution: their primary aim was now to overthrow theGreek monarchy.
In 1922 theGreek army was defeated by theKemalists and a military revolution ensued that deposed King Constantine. The new government undertook many reforms, notably thedistribution of big estates to peasants, but after a general strike, workers were violently suppressed.
A little later, in December 1923, Benaroya, together with Couriel andKordatos, who preferred social-democratic organizational models and opposed radicalBolshevisation considering the circumstances not suitable for a revolution, were expelled from theCommunist Party of Greece and he was obliged to quit the editorship ofAvanti. Afterwards, he focused his action on Thessaloniki's Jewish community, and participated in a splinter group that—with help from Papanastasiou, then Prime Minister—tried unsuccessfully to split the Communist Party. At that time, he and Papanastasiou agreed on the need for reforms and not revolution, and on the priority of abolishing the monarchy. An equally urgent imperative, though, was combating racism and anti-Semitism.
Benaroya remained politically active after 1924, but as he stayed outside the principal political formations of the left, the communists and Papanastasiou's socialists, his capacity for action was increasingly restricted. In Thessaloniki, he had a difficult political life, especially after the Liberals' more nationalist turn by the end of the decade, and the repeatedcoups d'état of 1935 that destroyed the Republic and the hopes of the democratic left. In the 1940s he lost a son during theGreco-Italian war, he survived theNazi concentration camps, and led a small socialist party in Greece after his return collaborating himself withAlexandros Svolos. He left toIsrael in 1953, toHolon, where he ran a small convenience store. He died in 1979, aged ninety-two.
