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ina trikala corfu and a functioning synagogue on crete while very few remain in kavala and rhodes 6 greek jews today largely live side by side in harmony with christian greeks according to giorgo romaio president of the greek committee for the jewish museum of greece 7 while nevertheless continuing to work with other greeks and jews worldwide to combat any rise of anti semitism in greece currently the jewish community of greece makes great efforts to establish a holocaust museum in the country 8 a permanent pavilion about the holocaust of greek jews in kz auschwitz shall be installed a delegation and the president of the jewish communities of greece met in november 2016 with greek politicians and asked them for support in their demand to get back the community archives of the jewish community of thessaloniki from moscow 9 independent candidate moses elisaf a 65 year old doctor is believed to be the first jew elected mayor in greece he was elected in june 2019 5 jewish cultures in greece edit most jews in greece are sephardic but greece is also the home of the unique romaniote culture besides the sephardim and the romaniotes some northern italian sicilian apulian provençal mizrahi and small ashkenazi communities have existed as well in thessaloniki and elsewhere all these communities had not only their own custom minhag they also had their own siddurim printed for the congregations in greece the large variety of jewish customs in greece was unique 10 romaniotes edit main article romaniote jews romaniote jews have lived in the territory of today s greece for more than 2000 years their historic language was yevanic a dialect of the greek language but yevanic has no surviving speakers recorded today s greek romaniotes speak greek large communities were located in ioannina thebes chalcis corfu arta corinth and on the islands of lesbos chios samos rhodes and cyprus among others the romaniotes are historically distinct from the sephardim some of whom settled in greece after the 1492 expulsion of the jews from spain all but a small number of the romaniotes of ioannina the largest remaining romaniote community not assimilated into sephardic culture were killed in the holocaust ioannina today has 35 living romaniotes 11 sephardim in greece edit the majority of the jews in greece are sephardim whose ancestors had left spain portugal and italy they largely settled in cities such as thessaloniki the city which was to be named mother of israel in the years to come the traditional language of greek sephardim was judeo spanish and until the holocaust the community was a unique blend of ottoman balkan and hispanic influences 12 well known for its level of education the foundation for the advancement of sephardic studies and culture calls thessaloniki s sephardic community indisputably one of the most important ones in the world 2 the wedding clothing of a sepharadi greek couple ca 19th century history of judaism in greece edit mosaic floor of a synagogue in aegina greece 300 ce greek jews played an important role in greek history from the early history of christianity through the byzantine empire and ottoman greece until the tragic near destruction of the community after greece fell to nazi germany in world war ii hellenistic period edit one of the earliest pieces of evidence for jewish presence on the greek mainland comes from oropus in boeotia dating to around 300 250 bc a manumission inscription found at the amphiareion records the freeing of a slave named moschos whose father was identified as a jew moschos participated in greek religious incubation practices and invoked the names of greek deities yet he affirmed his jewish identity in the inscription 13 in the mid 2nd century bce inscriptions from delphi mention the emancipation of several jewish slaves including a man identified simply as ioudaios greek for jew and a woman named antigona and her two daughters the latter family is described in the records as belonging to the race genos of the jews it has been suggested that they may have been prisoners of war taken during the wars of the maccabees 13 in the 2nd century bc hyrcanus a leader in the jewish community of athens was honoured by the raising of a statue in the agora 14 a man named simon son of ananias appears in athens while two jewish women heraclea and marthina are documented at delos as murdered delos is also the findspot of an inscription honoring herod the great king of judaea as well as another honoring his son the tetrarch herod antipas located in the temple of apollo 13 archaeologists have discovered ancient synagogues in greece including the synagogue in the agora of athens and the delos synagogue dating to the 2nd century bc the jews of alexandria created a unique fusion of greek and jewish culture 15 while the jews of jerusalem were divided between conservative and pro hellene factions along with the influence of this hellenistic fusion on the jews who had found themselves part of a greek empire karen armstrong argues that the turbulence of the period between the death of alexander and the 2nd century bce led to a resurgence of jewish messianism 15 which would inspire revolutionary sentiment when jerusalem became part of the roman empire according to josephus contra apionem i 176 183 an even earlier mention of a hellenized jew by a greek writer was to be found in the work de somno not extant by the 4th century bc greek historian clearchus of soli here clearchus describes the meeting between aristotle who lived in the 4th century bce and a jew in asia minor who was fluent in greek language and thought well said aristotle the man was a jew of coele syria modern lebanon these jews were derived from the indian philosophers and were called by the indians kalani now this man who entertained a large circle of friends and was on his way from the interior to the coast not only spoke greek but had the soul of a greek during my stay in asia he visited the same places as i did and came to converse with me and some other scholars to test our learning but as one who had been intimate with many cultivated persons it was rather he who imparted to us something of his own 16 roman greece edit paul of tarsus by el greco macedonia and the rest of hellenistic greece fell to the roman empire in 146 bc the jews living in roman greece had a different experience than those of judaea province the new testament describes greek jews as a separate community from the jews of judaea and the jews of greece did not participate in the first jewish roman war or later conflicts the jews of thessaloniki speaking a dialect of greek and living a hellenized existence were joined by a new jewish colony in the 1st century ad the jews of thessaloniki enjoyed wide autonomy in roman times 2 an epitaph found in taenarum modern kyparissa records a man named justus son of andromache from the city of tiberias in galilee he is believed to have been a first or second generation refugee displaced from judaea in the aftermath of the first jewish revolt 17 originally a persecutor of the early jewish christians until his conversion on the road to damascus paul of tarsus himself a hellenized jew from tarsus part of the post alexander the great greek seleucid empire was instrumental in the founding of many christian churches throughout rome including asia minor and greece paul s second missionary journey included proselytizing at thessaloniki s synagogue until driven out of the city by its jewish community evidence from the 2nd and 3rd centuries ce includes three inscriptions that combine menorah imagery with hebrew and semitic names discovered in athens arcadia and plataea this period displays a strengthening of jewish identity through an onomastic shift the increasing adoption of hebrew names for children of parents with greek names this pattern is evidenced by names such as issachar son of heraclides and beniames son of lachares 18 byzantine empire edit see also history of the jews in the byzantine empire byzantine emperor alexander the great is offered gold and silver by the rabbis after the collapse of the western roman empire elements of roman civilisation continued on in the byzantine empire the jews of greece began to come under increasing attention from byzantium s leadership in constantinople some byzantine emperors were anxious to exploit the wealth of the jews of greece and imposed special taxes on them while others attempted forced conversions to christianity the latter pressure met with little success as it was resisted by both the jewish community and by the greek christian synods 2 the sefer yosippon was written down in the 10th century in the byzantine south italy by the greek speaking jewish community there judah leon ben moses mosconi a romaniote jew from achrida edited and expanded the sefer josippon later 19 20 tobiah ben eliezer טוביה בן אליעזר a talmudist and poet of the 11th century worked and lived in the city of kastoria he is the author of the lekach tov a midrashic commentary on the pentateuch and the five megillot and also of some poems spanish jewish explorer benjamin of tudela visited greece during his travels around 1161 1162 ce after leaving southern italy and sailing through the adriatic sea he visited corfu thebes almyros and thessaloniki before moving on to constantinople in thebes he reported a jewish population of 2 000 the largest jewish community in any byzantine city of the 12th century after constantinople the empire s capital 21 the first settlement of ashkenazi jews in greece occurred in 1376 heralding an ashkenazi immigration from hungary and germany to avoid the persecution of jews throughout the 15th century jewish immigrants from france and venice also arrived in greece and created new jewish communities in thessaloniki 2 frankokratia edit the fourth crusade degraded the position of the jews in the new frankish lands on greek ground which were formerly parts of the byzantine empire the jews were at that time economically powerful though small in number comprised a community of their own separately from the christians and dealt in money lending 22 ottoman empire edit main articles ottoman jews and history of the jews in thessaloniki under the ottomans the white tower of thessaloniki marking the southeastern edge of jewish quarter of thessaloniki the mother of israel interior of the kahal shalom synagogue in rhodes city greece was ruled by the ottoman empire from the mid 15th century although pockets of christian rule such as the duchy of naxos persisted for longer until the conclusion of first the greek war of independence ending in 1832 and then the first balkan war in 1913 during this period the centre of jewish life in the balkans was salonica or thessaloniki the sephardim of thessaloniki were the exclusive tailors for the ottoman janissaries and enjoyed economic prosperity through commercial trading in the balkans after the alhambra decree of 1492 expelled the jewish community from spain between fifteen and twenty thousand sephardic jews settled in thessaloniki then salonica according to the jewish virtual library greece became a haven of religious tolerance for jews fleeing the spanish inquisition and other persecution in europe the ottomans welcomed the jews because they improved the economy jews occupied administrative posts and played an important role in intellectual and commercial life throughout the empire 23 these immigrants established the city s first printing press and the city became known as a centre for commerce and learning 2 the exile of other jewish communities swelled the city s jewish population and in 1519 the jews represented 56 of the population of thessaloniki and in 1613 their share was 68 24 ottoman jews were obliged to pay special jewish taxes to the ottoman authorities these taxes included the cizye the i̇spençe the haraç and the rav akçesi rabbi tax sometimes local rulers would also levy taxes for themselves in addition to the taxes sent to the central authorities in constantinople in the year 1523 the first printed edition of the mahzor romania was published in venice by constantinopolitan jews which contains the minhag of the jews from the byzantine empire this minhag represents probably the oldest european prayer rite a polyglot edition of the bible published in constantinople in 1547 has the hebrew text in the middle of the page with a judaeo spanish translation on one side and a yevanic translation on the other joseph nasi a portuguese marrano jew was appointed by the sultan as duke of the archipelago encompassing the cyclades islands in greece for the years 1566 1579 the jewish community in patras which had existed since antiquity left the city during the ottoman venetian wars of the 17th century however following the ottoman conquest of the city in 1715 jews returned and lived there in relative peace 25 the middle of the 19th century however brought a change to greek jewish life the janissaries had been destroyed in 1826 and traditional commercial routes were being encroached upon by the great powers of europe the sephardic population of thessaloniki had risen to between twenty five and thirty thousand members leading to scarcity of resources fires and hygiene problems the end of the century saw great improvements as the mercantile leadership of the sephardic community particularly the allatini family took advantage of new trade opportunities with the rest of europe according to historian misha glenny thessaloniki was the only city in the empire where some jews employed violence against the christian population as a means of consolidating their political and economic power 26 as traders from the jewish population closed their doors to traders from the greek and slav populations and physically intimidated their rivals with the importation of modern anti semitism with immigrants from the west later in the century moreover some of thessaloniki s jews soon became the target of greek and armenian pogroms and antisemitic incidents elsewhere in greece such as the rhodes blood libel of 1840 reflected tensions between the empire s greek and jewish communities thessaloniki s jewish community comprised more than half of the city s population until the early 1900s as a result of the jewish influence on the city many non jewish inhabitants of thessaloniki spoke judeo spanish the language of the sephardic jews and the city virtually shut down on saturday the jewish sabbath given it sometimes the name of little jerusalem 27 independent greece edit in general loyal to the ottoman empire the jews of southern greece did not have a positive stance towards the greek war of independence so often they became also targets by the revolutionaries the ottoman rule in thessaloniki ended much later in 1912 as greek soldiers entered the city in the last days of the first balkan war thessaloniki s status had not been decided by the balkan alliance before the war and glenny writes that some amongst the ci...