Jewish neighbourhoods of Greece
This second virtual exhibition, was held in the framework of the European programme Judaica Europeana, in which the JMG participated as a partner.
Through the photographs presented in this exhibition, the Jewish Museum of Greece attempts to present several aspects of life in the Jewish neighbourhoods of Greece, mostly before the war. The visitor is called upon to partake of familiar, timeless and universal stories, and to perceive a vivid, though of necessity partial, image of a way of life rich in traditions and human relations, of a world that the war destroyed forever.
Athens
There is evidence of Jewish presence in Athens since the antiquity. Travellers of various periods confirm the presence of Jewish families, whose number varied; in the 1840’s there were about thirty families, in 1878 sixty and in 1887 three hundred families.
Athens did not have a Jewish neighbourhood, as many Jews lived scattered in various areas of the city. Nevertheless, many were to be found in the areas of Thission and Petralona. It was in Thission, in Melidoni Street, that the first cootemporary Synagogue of Athens was built, in 1903.
As the population rose in the first half of the 20th century, it became necessary to build a new Synagogue, which was built on the eve of the World War II, across the street from the first one.
The fact that the Jew lived scattered all over the city did not facilitate their segregation from the rest of the population. This, together with other factors, contributed enormously to their escaping the Nazi persecution during the Geran Occupation. The community of Athensi is the only one in the country that saw its numbers rise after the war, as many Jews from other destroyed Greek communities chose to move to the capital.
Today, in those two neighbourhoods there is almost no trace left that would remind one of the Jewish presence in the area. The approximately 3.000 Jews of post-war Athens live scattered around the city and totally assimilated to the rest of the population.
Volos
The Jews of Volos lived scattered in various parts of the city. A somewhat denser concentration of Jewish families was to be found in the area around the Synagogue. According to a 19th century account “the Jewish quarter neither repulses nor is it in any way different than the other quarters of the city.”
This area – which includes the Sreets Moisseos, Platonos and Xenofondos, as well as those around them – was known as ‘ta Evraika’ (the Jewish homes). Older residents still remember the name, despite the fact that today the Jewish population of the city is relatively very small. After the war, the Synagogue, which had been destroyed by the Germans, was rebuilt for the first time. Today’s building dates from 1955, when the synagogue was rebuilt once more after a destructive earthquake. Emigration to Israel and the USA, as well as the devastation caused by the earthquake, completely altered the appearance not only of the Jewish quarter, but the entire city.
Zakynthos
The Jewish Community of Zakynthos always lived in the shadow of the nearby larger Community of Corfu. Ever since the Venetian occupation, the Jews of the city lived in a separate neighbourhood called the zudeccha or the yetto in the local dialect. This was not in any way separated by the rest of the city, but it was different in that the large majority of its residents were Jewish. Before the war, the community had 275 members, most of whom were merchants and craftsmen, and maintained two Synagogues.
Two events, each in its own way, marked this small community. The first was that during the war all the members of the community were saved from arrest and deportation with the help of their Christian fellow citizens and the island’s authorities. This is a unique occurence in the history of Occupied Greece.
The second and equally crucial landmark for the community was the devastating earthquakes of 1953, which literally flattened the city and the villages of Zakynthos. Combined with the emigration of many of the community’s members to Palestine in 1947, this disaster spelled the end of the community, as, having lost their homes and property to the earthquake, practically all of the island’s Jews moved to Athens.
Thessaloniki
Thessaloniki, also known as ‘Mother of Israel’ (Madre de Israel) was the metropolis of the Mediterranean Jews. The population of the community, which in several periods of the city’s history constituted the majority of its cosmopolitan mix of Greeks, Turks, Armenians, Franks and Slavs, defined the city’s atmosphere and was responsible for its characteristic air.
The presence of Jews in the city since the antiquity, as well as the large numbers of Sephardic Jews, who arrived there at the end of the 15th century, shaped the city’s urban landscape. The Jews of Thessaloniki lived all over the city, depending on their occupation and financial means. Thus, one would find the dirt-poor harbour workers in the western neighbourhoods, near the harbour, whereas the affluent upper middle class made their homes in the suburb of Exohes – Las Kampanias. The latter make up the majority of local survivors of the Holocaust, thus making the collection of testimonies today somewhat unbalanced, since it is hard to find survivors from the former.
Historic circumstances, such as the great fire of 1917, which destroyed the centre of the city, forcing many Jews to move to settlements on the outskirts of the city, such as the Campbell quarter, contributed to the shaping of this particular urban picture. These quarters, although clearly defined, never functioned as ghettos, since they always included residents of different ethnic backgrounds. They would only assume this function during the German Occupation, as part of the conquerors’ plan to arrest and annihilate in its entirety this unique and historically important part of the city’s population.
Today, there are unfortunately very few traces left of the former vibrant presence of Jews in the city, which has now lost one of the most important and cosmopolitan parts of its population.
Ioannina
The Jewish population of Ioannina was mostly to be found in the old neighbourhood, within the fortress walls, the Megali Rouga (Big Street), next to the fortress –which was later renamed after Max Nordau and today is called Yossef Eliya street– in Koundouriotou street and the alleys leading to it, and in Leivadioti, today’s Soutsou street.
Despite the fact that there had been Jewish residents in the city from as early as the 8th or 9th century C.E. they first begin to settle in an organised fashion in a quarter of their own from 1611. That year, after the failed local uprising of Dionysius the Skylosophos (the Cynic), the Ottoman authorities decided to settle Turkish and Jewish families in the fortress. In time, this quarter became inseparably linked with the Jewish tradition of the city. The Romaniote Jews of Ioannina created probably the most significant community of Greek-speaking Jews in Greece, and reached notable levels of cultural and financial development. In 1912, the community confidently welcomed the liberation of Ioannina from Ottoman rule, and continued its active life.
The Kahal Kadosh Yashan synagogue, also known as the ‘Synagogue within’ was built right next to the fortress wall in 1829, replacing an older synagogue at the same place. It still serves the religious requirements of the few Jews who live in the city today. Around 1840, the numbers of Jewish Community of Ioannina had increased so much, that most of its members already lived outside the fortress walls. The largest of all Jewish neighbourhoods was that of the Megali Rouga, in which the ‘New Synagogue’, the Kahal Kadosh Hadash, as well as the school of the Alliance Israélite Universelle were built. Today only few traces of this neighbourhood remain, as its population was decimated during the war. The name of the street, in honour of the great poet and talmudist, Yossef Eliyia, and a community building inhabited mostly by elderly survivors, are all the remnants of the history of this part of the city.
Kastoria
The Sephardic Community of Kastoria dated from about 1550. Before the war it had as many as 900 members, most of whom lived in the Çarsı neighbourhood. This was no accident, as it means marketplace and most of them were merchants or craftsmen. They usually had shops of fabrics, glassware and ready-made clothes.
The community had a Synagogue and the Hellenic-Israelite School. Most of the Jews of Kastoria died in the war, while the survivors emigrated to the larger cities. As a result, there is little left in the city to remind one of the flourishing and vibrant community that once lived ther
Corfu
The Jewish Community of Corfu was unique among those on Greek soil in being the only one whose members lived in a specific area, with clearly defined boundaries separating it from the rest of the city; the “ghetto”, as its own residents called it. Of course the existence of a ghetto is a direct result of the island’s history: for centuries it had been under occupation by western forces (Angevins1, Venetians, French and English) in contrast to the rest of Greece, which was part of the Byzantine Empire before it came under Ottoman rule.
Shortly before the war, approximately 2,000 Jews lived in Corfu. They maintained three synagogues, the “Scuola Greca”, the “Pugliesa” and the “Nuova”, of which only the first survived the bombings of World War II and is still standing. Of the ghetto residents a mere 187 were alive at Liberation.
Today, besides the synagogue, there are still some remains of the old ghetto which transport the visitor to times gone by, when the community was thriving.
Larissa
The Jewish community of Larissa was the third largest in Greece. Most Jews lived in the neighbourhood of “Six Streets” next to where the Holocaust Memorial stands today. Although the neighbourhood was home to a large number of Jews, it was never a ghetto, and there were always a few Christian families living in it.
The community, which has an uninterrupted historic presence of approximately 1,900 years, it was and still is one of the most active Jewish communities in Greece. Before the war it maintained seven Synagogues, a Jewish school, a seminary, a religious court, as well as a rich library. After the war there was only one Synagogue left, while the community’s members were significantly reduced. Nevertheless, the community is still very active, especially in culture.
Xanthi
Although today there is but little left of the Jewish quarter of Xanthi, the city was home to quite an active community before the war.
Most Jews of Xanthi were involved in the tobacco trade, the main financial activity in the city. There were also some Jewish tanners, merchants of fabrics, haberdashers, owners of flour mills and craftsmen.
The community maintained a Synagogue and a Community Centre, which housed the Jewish school and the Cultural Centre.
Shortly before the war, the Community had about 550 members. Most of them lived in “Purnalık”, a poor neighbourhood that is today called “Remvi”, while those better-off had houses in the “Epano Mahalla”, the “Upper Quarter”.
Rhodes
Although not continuous, the Jewish presence in Rhodes dates from the 2nd century B.C. The arrival and subsequent settlement of Spanish-speaking Jews on the island, in the 15th and 16th centuries A.D., turned it into one of the most important Sephardic centres of the Eastern Mediterranean. Its strategic position facilitated trade, which flourished promoting the community’s growth. The Jews of the island prospered as traders of fabrics and silk, as well as of spices and perfumes, a fact reflected in the organisation of the local community, its schools and several midrashim, its six Synagogues and enlightened Rabbis who left collections of responsas, not only on religious matters, but on matters of general interest.
The Jews of Rhodes lived in a relatively closed community, within the limits of a specific neighbourhood which, however, was not a ghetto. The Juderia, as it was known, stretches from the harbour until the south-eastern end of the fortress wall. To this day, it remains unchanged; a walk in its narrow alleys with houses in the characteristic local style takes the visitor to a trip back in time.
After it was nearly wiped out by the Nazis in 1944, the community would have died out, had it not been for expatriate Jews from Rhodes in places as far away as Africa and America. Thus, not only has its Synagogue been saved, but the community is especially active in promoting its history and cultural heritage.
Trikala
One of the most active Jewish Communities of Thessaly, the Trikala community was different in that it had Romaniote, Ashkenazi and Sephardic Jews. At the end of the 19th and in the beginning of the 20th century, it had three Synagogues, one for each group.
Shortly before the war, there were approximately 520 Jews in the city. Most of them lived in a quarter crossed by the streets A. Diakou, G. Kondyli and G. Karaiskaki, which was known as the “Evraika”, the Jewish Quarter.
They were merchants, craftsmen, money changers or bankers. Some of the more wealthy ones would support not only the Jewish Community, but the entire city as well. Before the war there was only one Synagogue left, the Kahal Yavanim which still stands. Together with the cemetery they are relics of a formerly flourishing community, which is now, unfortunately, dwindling.
Chalkis
The Jewish presence in Chalkis can be tracked down in Hellenistic times. The community weathered periods of great turmoil, as well as long periods of stability, and its presence is constant during the Byzantine Empire, the period of Venetian occupation (when its members were restricted in a ghetto) and the Ottoman empire.
In 1840, Chalkis is already part of the newly formed Greek state; a census records 400 Jews in the city. Several moved to other cities in pursuit of business, with the result that the community numbered 325 members before the outbreak of World War II. Its best known son, Colonel Mordechai Frizis, was one of the first Greek senior officers to fall on the Albanian front.
Most of the city’s Jews lived in the neighbourhood around the Synagogue, whose main axis was Kotsou Street. During the occupation, thanks to the protection of their Christian fellow citizens and the Resistance, nearly every one of the Jews of Chalkis survived. Today only a small number of Jews live in the city, whose Synagogue and cemetery echo the rich past of this Romaniote community.
Exhibition Contributors
Exhibition Curator: Zanet Battinou
Archaelogist – Director J.M.G.
Research – Texts: Alexios – Nikolaos Menexiadis
Cand. PhD History
Texts Translations: Ilia Iatrou
Exhibition and Graphic Design: Get Inspired Design Studio
Project Manager: Anastasia Kalou, Architect of the Interior, Graphic Designer
Associate: Vassilis Moustakas, Architect – Engineer
Printed Matter Graphic Design: Hayia Cohen
Graphic Designer J.M.G.
Photographic Archive – Photography: Leonidas Papadopoulos
Exhibition Educational Programs: Orietta Treveza – Soussi
Museum Educator
Exhibition Panel Printing – Installations: Stavros Belessakos
Printed Matter: Polygrama S.A.
Electric Installations: George Adalis
Photographs from the Archives and Collections of the Jewish Museum of Greece
The Jewish Museum of Greece, © 2008
