"As these studies show, the utility of Jewish merchants in an era of European expansion overseas was vital to the relatively tolerant relations between Jews and non-Jews. It made possible higher levels of acculturation, integration and assimilation than ever before." "But port cities were not simply benign engines of progress. Jews active in the transatlantic slave trade in Amsterdam compromised fundamental Jewish values. Rivalry between mercantile communities in cities such as Odessa was regularly expressed through religious and ethnic hatred. The fall of empires and the rise of nation states could have catastrophic effects on 'port Jewries' like Salonika's. Jewish mass migration through ports such as London and Southampton degraded the image of the Jew."--Jacket.