“Our Good Friend and Illustrious Coreligionist Theodor Herzl”: The Three Interviews of La epoka with the Zionist Leader and Hamidian Censorship

Abstract: La epoka was a Ladino newspaper published in Salonica. Its editor Sam Lévy published three interviews with Theodor Herzl between 1901 and 1904. His announcement and subsequent publication of the third interview drew angry responses from the Sublime Porte, which ordered the governor of Salonica to close it down. The governor resisted the orders and La epoka remained open, even publishing a eulogistic obituary of Herzl. In this article, I examine these interviews and obituary, showing that Lévy combined his sharp criticisms of Zionism with an adulation of the Zionist leader. I also explore Ottoman archival documents about the Ladino press and argue that Hamidian censorship could be flexible according to political circumstances, overlooking Lévy’s first two interviews that were made during the Ottoman government’s negotiations with Herzl, yet reacting sharply to the third interview conducted afterward and containing direct references to the Sixth Zionist Congress.