1. Jews Have Been Living in Greece For 2,300 Years
The history of the Greek Jewish community stretches back to the Hellenistic period, when Greece ruled over much of the known world, including the Land of Israel. Descendants of the first established Greek Jewish Community are known as Romaniotes, as they lived within the Byzantine Empire (also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire).
Their culture and rituals are unique from both Ashkenazi and Sephardic tradition, which they predate by many centuries.
Read: Ashkenazi vs. Sephardic
2. The Delos Synagogue Dates Almost to the Chanukah Era
On the island of Delos, accessible from Mykonos, one can visit what is believed to be a synagogue built not long after the time of the Chanukah story, when a small band of Jews rebelled against the Syrian Greeks (whose base was not in Greece). Like contemporary synagogues, the building faces east, following the tradition of praying toward Jerusalem.
3. They Have Their Own Language
Romaniote Jews spoke Greek, along with their own dialect known as Yevanic (derived from Yavan, Hebrew for Greece). Like its larger counterparts, Yiddish (Judeo-German) and Ladino (Judeo-Spanish), Judeo-Greek is written in Hebrew characters and incorporates Hebrew and Aramaic together with local vernacular. Virtually no native speakers remain, and there is relatively little surviving written word—mostly hymns composed by local rabbis. Here are some Yevanic terms:
- Kalo Moed: Kalo is Greek for “good” and moed is Hebrew for “holiday.” Kalo moed is a greeting used before and during Jewish holidays.
- Tsabiaf: This is how Greek Jews would pronounce Tisha Be’av, the saddest day of the Jewish year. In Yevanic, you could call someone who looked sad tsabiaf (or tsabiafikos).
- Piyyut: Originally from the Greek word for “poem” this has become a Hebrew word used by virtually all Jews to refer to liturgical poetry.
4. Ioannina Was a Major Romaniote Center
Located in Northern Greece, near modern Albania, Ioannina was the center of Romaniote culture. It is believed that Romaniote lived in the area since the city’s founding in the 6th century. Within the protective walls of the Ioannina Old City ("Kastro”), the old synagogue still stands, and is used several times each year, a mostly silent testament to the rich life that once flourished there.
5. They Start Celebrating Purim Two Weeks Early
Among Romaniote Jews in Ioannina, the first day of Adar, two weeks before Purim, was known as Irtaman. Boys would walk from house to house singing a traditional Yevanic song, for which they were rewarded with treats and trinkets.
Read: 15 Purim Facts
6. They Were Joined By Sephardim
In the wake of the Catholic persecution of Jews in the Iberian Peninsula, which culminated with the Spanish expulsion of 1492 and the Portuguese expulsion of 1496, Spanish Jews (Sephardim) streamed into Greece, bringing along their traditions, rituals, and language (Ladino), which was widely spoken in Greece until the Holocaust.
7. Salonica Was the ‘Mother City’
Located on the Mediterranean coast, Thessaloniki (Salonica), known in Ladino as La Madre de Israel (“Mother of Israel”), was once home to possibly the most prominent Sephardic community in the world. The majority of the city’s population was Jewish, numbering as many as 60,000, and it boasted many fine yeshivahs, printing presses and other vital cornerstones of Jewish life. Many of the most prominent rabbis of the Renaissance era—such as Rabbi Yosef Karo (author of the Code of Jewish Law) and Rabbi Shlomo Alkabetz (composer of Lecha Dodi)—studied Torah there.
8. The Port of Salonica Was Closed on Shabbat
Jews were so integral to the fabric of life in Salonica that its port was famously closed for Shabbat and Jewish holidays to accommodate the religious needs of the Jewish dockworkers. In a tragic twist of fate, many of those workers came to pre-state Israel and found work at the Haifa docks, only to discover that the secular Zionist powers refused to allow them to take off for Shabbat.
Read: 25 Shabbat Facts
9. Ladino Is Still Preserved Among the Sephardim
The Jews of Salonica held onto their Spanish heritage, naming their synagogues for the Spanish cities of their ancestors and using Ladino (Judeo-Spanish) in everyday life. Still now, the Sephardim of Greece say certain key parts of the Shabbat morning prayers—Berich Shemeh, said when the Torah ark is opened, and Ein Kelokeinu, sung at the conclusion of the service—in Ladino. The language is also used for telling the story of the Exodus during the Passover Seder.
10. There Were a Series of ‘Blood Libels’ in Corfu
Under Venetian rule for centuries, the island of Corfu (birthplace of Jewish novelist Albert Cohen) was home to a large and diverse Jewish community, which formed a quarter of the city’s total population. During the 19th century, there were several blood libels in which the Jews were falsely accused of murdering Christian children to put their blood into Passover matzahs. The tragic blood libel of 1891 lasted for a terror-filled month and resulted in several Jewish deaths, both in Corfu and nearby Zakynthos.
11. There Are Romaniote Synagogues in Manhattan and Israel
Following these and other antisemitic events, coupled with economic reasons, many Jews chose to leave Ioannina, founding new Romaniote communities in Israel and the US. One can still attend a Romaniote synagogue, founded in 1906, on Manhattan’s Lower East Side.
12. They Have Unique Synagogue Architecture
The structure of the Greek Synagogue is similar to that of historic Orthodox congregations around the world, with the women sitting on an elevated balcony. Like some (but not all) Sephardim, they store the Torah scrolls upright in protective wooden cases, known as a tiks (a Hebrew word derived from the Greek theke). Another unique feature is the placement of the bimah, the Torah-reading platform, which is all the way in the back of the synagogue, rather than the center, as is most common.
13. The Jews of Rhodes Were Expert Divers
The island of Rhodes was known for its lively sponge harvest, which the locals would dive deep into the Mediterranean Sea to retrieve. Jealous of the success of their Jewish competitors, in 1840 local Christians arranged for a Christian child to disappear and accused the Jews of murder. The child was eventually found alive and well, but not before several Jews had been imprisoned and tortured in an effort to extract a confession. The day the Jews were officially declared innocent was none other than the joyous holiday of Purim.
14. ‘Alephiot’ Were Made for Baby Boys
Among Romaniote Jews, it was customary for baby boys to be given an Aleph, a paper inscribed with various prayers for protection, after the brit milah ceremony. It doubled as a sort of birth certificate, containing the boy’s name, birth date, and other information.
15. Greek Jewry Was Decimated During the Holocaust
At the time when Italy and Germany overtook Greece in 1941, the country was home to just under 72,000 Jewish people, the majority of whom lived in Salonica. By the end of the war, 88% of Greek Jews and 97% of Salonica’s Jews had been murdered, mostly in the death camps in Poland.
A rare exception was the island of Zakynthos, which has become known as “The Island of the Righteous Among the Nations,” where Bishop Chrysostomos and Mayor Loukas Karrer refused the Nazi demands to hand over their Jews. The bravery of local non-Jews ensured that the entire Jewish population of the island, 275 Jews in total, survived in secluded mountain villages.
16. There Are Approximately 5,000 Jews in Greece Today
Today, the approximately 5,000 Jews who call Greece home live mostly in the capital city of Athens, with nine smaller communities around the country.
Rabbi Mendel and Nechama Hendel founded Chabad in Athens in 2001, and there are now additional centers in Thessaloniki, Rhodes, Marousi, and the Island of Crete.
Read: How Stranded Travelers Built the New Mikvah in Athens
The compiler thanks Nechama Hendel of Chabad of Greece for her invaluable assistance finding and verifying the information presented here.
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