History of the Jews in Greece
Total population | |
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4,500[1] | |
Languages | |
Greek, Hebrew, Judaeo-Spanish, Yevanic (historically), Turkish | |
Religion | |
Judaism |
Part of a series on |
Jews and Judaism |
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The history of the Jews in Greece can be traced back to at least the fourth century BCE. The oldest and the most characteristic Jewish group that has inhabited
Aside from the
As of 2019[update] the Jewish community in Greece amounts to about 6,000 people out of a population of 10.8 million,
Independent candidate
Jewish cultures in Greece
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
Romaniote Jews have lived in the territory of today's Greece for more than 2000 years. Their historic language was
Sephardim in Greece
The majority of the Jews in Greece are
History of Judaism in Greece
The first recorded mention of Judaism in Greece dates from 300 to 250
According to
"'Well', said Aristotle, [...] 'the man was a Jew of
Archaeologists have discovered ancient
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
The
Roman Greece
Originally a persecutor of the early
Byzantine Empire
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.[17][18]
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.
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
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.[19]
Ottoman Empire
Greece was
After their
In 1519, the Jews represented 56% of the population of Thessaloniki, and in 1613, their share was 68%.[21]
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 as the Duke of Archipelago for the years 1566–1579.
The middle of the 19th century, however, brought a change to Greek Jewish life. The Janissaries had been
Independent Greece
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 city's majority Jewish population at first hoped that the city might be controlled by Bulgaria.[24] Bulgarian control would keep the city at the forefront of a national trade network, while Greek control might affect, for those of certain social classes and across ethnic groups, Thessaloniki's position as the destination of Balkan village trading. After the city was conquered by the Greeks in 1913, Thessaloniki Jews were accused of cooperating with the Turks and being traitors, and were subjected to pressure from the Greek army and local Greeks. As a result of the intense coverage of these pressures in the world press, the Venizelos government took a series of measures against antisemitic actions.[25] After liberation, however, the Greek government won the support of the city's Jewish community,[3] and Greece under Eleftherios Venizelos was one of the first countries to accept the Balfour Declaration.[13]
In 1934, a large number of Jews from Thessaloniki made aliyah to Mandatory Palestine, settling in Tel Aviv and Haifa. Those who could not get past British immigration restrictions simply came on tourist visas and disappeared into Tel Aviv's Greek community. Among them were some 500 dockworkers and their families, who settled in Haifa to work at its newly constructed port.[26]
Later, with the establishment in 1936 of the
World War II, Resistance and the Holocaust
During World War II, Greece was conquered by Nazi Germany and occupied by the
The losses were significant in places like
On July 11, 1942, the Jews of Thessaloniki were rounded up in preparation for slave labour. The community paid a fee of 2 billion
Year | Total population | Jewish population | Jewish percentage |
---|---|---|---|
1842 | 70,000 | 36,000 | 51% |
1870 | 90,000 | 50,000 | 56% |
1882/84 | 85,000 | 48,000 | 56% |
1902 | 126,000 | 62,000 | 49% |
1913 | 157,889 | 61,439 | 39% |
1943 | 53,000 | ||
2000 | 363,987 | 1,400 | 0.3% |
In Corfu, after the fall of Italian fascism in 1943, the Nazis took control of the island. Corfu's mayor at the time, Kollas, was a known collaborator and various anti-Semitic laws were passed by the Nazis that now formed the
On March 4, 1943, Bulgarian soldiers with help from German soldiers took the Jews from Komotini and Kavala off the Karageorge passenger boat, massacred them and sunk the boat. The Bulgarians confiscated all of the Jewish properties and possessions.[34]
At Thessaloniki individual police officers rescued their Jewish friends and occasionally even their families, while in Athens the chief of police, Angelos Evert, and his men actively supported and rescued Jews.[35]
The 275 Jews of the island of
The city of
Many Jews from Salonika were put on death-camp work detail, the Sonderkommandos. On 7 October 1944, during the uprising in Auschwitz, they attacked German forces with other Greek Jews, storming the crematoria and killing about twenty guards. A bomb was thrown into the furnace of the crematorium III, destroying the building. Before being massacred by the Germans, insurgents sang a song of the Greek partisan movement and the Greek national anthem.[38]
In his book If This Is a Man, one of the most famous works of literature of the Holocaust,[according to whom?] Primo Levi describes the group thus: "those Greeks, motionless and silent as the Sphinx, crouched on the ground behind their thick pot of soup."[39] Those members of the community still alive during 1944 made a strong impression on the author. He noted: "Despite their low numbers their contribution to the overall appearance of the camp and the international jargon spoken is of prime importance." He described a strong patriotic sense among them, writing that their ability to survive in the camps was partly explained by the fact that "they are among the cohesive of the national groups, and from this point of view the most advanced."
Recognised for his contributions to the Greek cause early on in the war, Mordechai Frizis became one of the most honoured Greek officers of World War II in the postwar years, with a monument outside the national military academy in Athens.[40]
Of the 55,000 Thessaloniki Jews deported to extermination camps in 1943, fewer than 5,000 survived. Many of those who returned found their former homes occupied by Greek families. The Greek government did little to assist the surviving Jewish community with property restoration.[41][42]
Post-war community
Following the war, many Greek Jews emigrated to
A Jewish minority continues to live in Greece.
The community of Thessaloniki accused Germany to pay the manumission payments back, that the Jews of Greece paid to rescue their family members, after the Nazis asked for this money, but the Nazis hadn't freed the family members anyway. The European Court of Justice dismissed this petition.
In World War II the Deutsche Reichsbahn helped the Nazis to deport the Jews from Greece. In 2014, representatives of the Jewish community of Thessaloniki demanded from the Deutsche Bahn, which is the successor of the
According to the significant Jewish past and present of Thessaloniki the
Antisemitism in Greece
Misha Glenny wrote that Greek Jews had never "encountered anything remotely as sinister as north European anti-Semitism. The twentieth century had witnessed small amounts of anti-Jewish sentiment among Greeks... but it attracted an insignificant minority."[12] The danger of deportation to death camps was repeatedly met with disbelief by Greece's Jewish population.
A neo-fascist group,
On 21 November 2003, Nikos Bistis, the Greek Deputy Minister of the Interior, declared January 27 to be Holocaust Remembrance Day in Greece, and committed to a "coalition of Greek Jews, Greek non-Jews, and Jews worldwide to fight antisemitism in Greece."[55]
The
After a period, Alexandros Modiano, a Greek-Jewish politician, has been voted to official duties. Alexandros Modiano works in the City Council of Athens.[60]
Today the diplomatic relations between Greece and Israel are on a high level. The relations between the Jewish community and the state are also good. However, prejudice against Jews is still deeply rooted in Greek society.[61]
Obtaining Greek citizenship for Jews outside Greece
The Greek Parliament has decided to give Greek citizenship back to all Holocaust survivors who lost their Greek citizenship when leaving the country.[62] Those who are born outside Greece to either one or both Greek parents, or one or more Greek grandparents, are entitled to stake a claim to their right to a Greek citizenship through their ancestor(s) born in Greece. For the process of obtaining one's Greek citizenship, there is no need to prove the religious denomination of the ancestors.[63]
Jewish religious life
-
Beth Shalom Synagogue, Athens
-
The rabbi of Kastoria, 1904 (photo Leonidas Papazoglou)
-
Rabbi Moshe Pesach
-
The Chief Rabbi of Athens from 1913 to 1924 Haïm Castel
-
An inscription on a rock by the sea of a possibly Jewish traveller atSyros, Greece
See also
- Holocaust Museum of Greece
- History of the Jews of Thessaloniki
- History of the Jews in Cyprus
- Jewish Museum of Greece
- Greek Citron
- Greece–Israel relations
References
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- ^ a b c d e f Samuel Usque, The Foundation for the Advancement of Sephardic Studies and Culture, p. 1
- ^ a b c d The Foundation for the Advancement of Sephardic Studies and Culture, p.2
- ^ a b Zakynthos: The Holocaust in Greece Archived 2014-05-21 at the Wayback Machine, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, URL accessed May 25, 2014.
- ^ a b Doctor thought to be 1st Jew voted mayor in Greece. Associated Press
- ^ "Short History Of The Jewish Communities In Greece (pdf), publicized by the Central Board of Jewish Communities in Greece" (PDF). kis.gr. Archived from the original (PDF) on 26 September 2007. Retrieved 3 April 2018.
- ^ Current Activities of the Jewish Museum of Greece Archived 2006-10-09 at the Wayback Machine, The Central Board of Jewish Communities in Greece. URL accessed April 15, 2006.
- ^ Makris, A. (22 December 2013). "Holocaust Museum to Be Build [sic] in Greece - GreekReporter.com". GreekReporter.com. Retrieved 21 March 2017.
- ^ Matathia, Rachel. "ΠΟΛΙΤΙΚΕΣ ΣΥΝΑΝΤΗΣΕΙΣ ΓΙΑ ΤΑ ΘΕΜΑΤΑ ΤΟΥ ΕΛΛΗΝΙΚΟΥ ΕΒΡΑΪΣΜΟΥ". KIS.gr. Retrieved 21 March 2017.
- Sefunot, Vol. 13, Jerusalem, Ben Zvi Institute 1971-1978
- ^ The Holocaust in Greece: Ioannina. URL accessed April 15, 2006. Archived October 20, 2004, at the Wayback Machine
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- ^ a b c The Foundation for the Advancement of Sephardic Studies and Culture, p. 3
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- ^ Josephus, Flavius. Contra Apionem, I.176-183. Retrieved 6/16/2012 from http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=J.+Ap.+1.176&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0215.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-676-97465-2.
- ^ Medieval Jewish Civilisation: An Encyclopedia, Norman Roth, 2014 p. 127.
- ^ Jews in Byzantium: Dialectics of Minority and Majority Cultures, Robert Bonfil, 2011, p. 122
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- ^ Gilles Veinstein, Salonique 1850–1918, la "ville des Juifs" et le réveil des Balkans, pp. 42–45
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- ^ Bowman, Stephen B.: The Agony of Greek Jews, 1940-1945
- ^ Misha Glenny. The Balkans: Nationalism, War and the Great Powers 1804-1999. Page 512
- ^ Glenny, p.508
- ^ Athens -- United States Holocaust Museum Archived 2015-07-15 at the Wayback Machine, Athens -- United States Holocaust Museum, URL accessed July 15, 2015.
- ^ a b c Molho, Rena. The Jerusalem of the Balkans: Salonica 1856-1919 Archived 2008-12-26 at the Wayback Machine The Jewish Museum of Thessaloniki. URL accessed July 10, 2006.
- ^ a b c United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Archived 2012-12-08 at the Wayback Machine on the Holocaust in Corfu. "[...]two hundred of the 2,000 Corfu Jews found sanctuary with Christian families[...]" Also contains information about the Nazi collaborator mayor Kollas.
- ^ From the interview of a survivor interviewed in the film "Shoah"
- ^ a b Central Jewish Council of Greece website Archived 2007-10-17 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "Cuomotini". JewishVirtualLibrary.org. Retrieved 21 March 2017.
- ISBN 978-0804755849.
- ^ "Bird flu confirmed in Jordan Valley". JPost.com. 24 March 2006. Retrieved 21 March 2017.
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- ^ Yitschak Kerem, Forgotten heroes: Greek Jewry in the holocaust, in Mr. Mor (ed.), Crisis and Reaction: The Hero in Jewish History, Omaha, Creighton University Press, 1995, p. 229–238.
- ^ Primo Levi, If This Is a Man, Julliard, 2007, pp. 121–122 (Chapter: Because of good and evil)
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- ^ Costas Kantouris (2019-01-27). "Greek president, jeered by name deal foes, denounces Nazism". Associated Press.
- ^ Costas Kantouris (2018-01-30). "Israel president attends Holocaust museum ceremony in Greece". Associated Press.
- ^ "Greek Jews of Military Age May Go to Israel if They Pledge Never to Return to Greece - Jewish Telegraphic Agency". www.jta.org. 20 March 2015. Retrieved 3 April 2018.
- ^ "The Jews of Greece". The Museum of the Jewish People at Beit Hatfutsot.
- ^ (p. 59)
- ^ Plaut, Joshua Eli, Greek Jewry in the Twentieth Century, 1913-1973; Patterns of survival in the Greek Provinces before and after the Holocaust, Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, Madison and Teaneck, 1996,
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