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| The Greek Jewish community |
| A history of 23 centuries interrupted |
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| From the Jewish Museum of Greece in Athens. |
The Jewish presence in Greece has been remarkable and continuous for millenia.
Early evidence of Jewish presence in the country dates from the 3rd century BC, in tombstones and other ancient artifacts discovered throughout Greece. The first known reference comes from a 3rd century BC plaque found in Oropos, a seaside area northeast of Athens, which refers to Moschos Moschionos (i.e. Moschos son of Moschos), a Jew from Voiotia, just north of Athens.
Stabo writes that Jews came to Greece in 85 BC and mentions that the Jewish presence extended throughout the Eastern Mediterannean. After the wars of the Maccabaes (170 to 161 BC), many Israelites left Judea and settled in commercial hubs of the eastern Mediterannean, like Alexandria and Antioch. From these communities, many further settled in secondary ports and hubs in the Aegean, such as Efessus, Smyrna, Thessaloniki and, according to some sources, Halkida, near Athens.
In addition, excavations in the sacred island of Delos have unearthed an ancient sunagogue and many signs in Hebrew, all dating from the 1st century BC. From the writings of Apostle Paul we learn that he visited Thessaloniki around 50 AD and preached at the Etz Chaim Synagogue three Saturdays in a row.
Other written evidence suggests that Roman General Vespasian, in 66-70 AD, sent Nero six thousand Jews to work at the construction site of the Corinth canal. The Book of Maccabaes includes a list of Jewish communities in Greece and confirms their existence in Delos, Kos, Samos, Argos, Corinth, Crete, Thessaly and Macedonia. Historian Philon refers to Jewish presence in Thessaly, Voiotia, Attica, Crete, Evoia and Cyprus.
These communities were the basis for the extensive Jewish presence in what is today Greece throughout the thousand years of the Byzantine Empire. Despite repeated attempts by many Byzantine Emperors to force them to convert to Christianity, Greek Jews resisted and maintained their identity. In 1173, Rabbi Benjamin from the Spanish city of Tudela, who travelled to Greece to study the Jewish presence here says in his diary that he found Jews in 13 Greek cities, including Thessaloniki, Corfu, Corinth and Halkida.
There were also Jewish communities in the islands of Lesvos, Chios, Samos, Rhodes and in Cyprus. The most populous was in Theva, about 100 km north of Athens, which numbered about two thousand, followed by the 500-strong community of Thessaloniki.
In 1492 the so-called Holy Inquisition ordered the expulsion of all Jewish subjects of the Spanish throne. This resulted in a mass exodus, much of which ended up in Greece. About 20 thousand Jews settled in Thessaloniki and the surrounding areas. Many Sicelian and Portuguese Jews also came here and settled in Trikala, Larissa, Volos and Halkida. In the 200 years between the 16th and the 18th centuries Thessaloniki was the largest Jewish city in the world, and became known as the Mother of Israel.
The Spanish Sephardim of Thessaloniki brought their language and customs. Their main occupations were textile manufacture and dying as well as silk processing, but they also distinguished themselves in the arts, the sciences and in commercial activities.
At the beginning of the 20th century, the Greek state occupied less than half the land it does today; the island of Crete and northern Greece, including Thessaloniki, were still part of the dying Ottoman Empire. After the Balkan Wars of 1912-13, when the country expanded to its present size, its Jewish population increased by about 100 thousand.
When Greece was attacked by Italy in October 1940, and then by Germany in April 1941, about 13 thousand Jews enlisted in the Greek army and fought valiantly in the mountains of Epirus and Albania, and the defensive line of Macedonia. Casualties were great.
Among the 343 Jewish officers that served were Colonel Mordechai Frizis, from Halkida, who died gallantly in the Battle of Kalamas, officer Jean Allallouf, from Thessaloniki, Major Salvador Sarfatli, from Athens, officers Joseph Baruch from Corfu and Leon Dostis from Ioannina, etc.
The tragedy of the Greek Jewish community during the Holocaust was as great as any other European country's. About 86% of the community was exterminated in the concentration camps of central Europe. Of 77.377 Greek Jews in 1940, only 10.266 lived to see 1945.
The Holocaust in Greece started in Thessaloniki in 1942 and moved throughout the country in 1943. Thessaloniki had about 60 thousand Jewish citizens, of which only a handful managed to escape. Most of the lucky ones fled to mountains and joined the resistance groups and distinguished themselves as fearless freedom fighters.
By the end of the war there were only about 10 thousand Greek Jews left and many of them emigrated to the US and Israel. Today the number of Greeks of Jewish descent is much smaller. There are communities and synagogues in Athens, Thessaloniki, Larissa and Volos, and small numbers living in Halkida, Corfu, Trikala, and Ioannina.
Research: Christina Nathanael
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Jewish Museum of Greece |
| 39 Nikis Street, 105 62 Athens |
| The Jewish Museum was founded in 1977 to “collect, maintain, research, and exhibit” the traces of the 2,300-year old Jewish civilization in Greece.
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Jewish Museum of Thessaloniki |
| 13 Agiou Mina Street, 546 24 Thessaloniki |
| The Jewish Museum of Thessaloniki was founded to honour its rich and creative Jewish Sephardic heritage, as it evolved after the 15th century.
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