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2007-07-19T08:18:42Z

Present day

Irlandos: /* World War II and the Jewish Holocaust */

2007-07-19T08:16:15Z

World War II and the Jewish Holocaust

Irlandos: New page: The '''Romaniotes''' (Greek: '''Ρωμανιώτες''', Rōmaniōtes) are a Jewish population who have lived in the territory of today's Greece and neighboring area...

2007-07-19T08:15:51Z

New page: The '''Romaniotes''' (Greek: '''Ρωμανιώτες''', Rōmaniōtes) are a Jewish population who have lived in the territory of today's Greece and neighboring area...

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The '''Romaniotes''' ([[Greek language|Greek]]: '''Ρωμανιώτες''', Rōmaniōtes) are a Jewish population who have lived in the territory of today's [[Greece]] and neighboring areas with large Greek populations for more than 2000 years. Their language is [[Greek language|Greek]]. Large communities were located in [[Thebes]], [[Ioannina]], [[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, who settled in Greece after the 1492 expulsion of the Jews from Spain.

==History==

The earliest reference to a Greek Jew is in an inscription, dated c. 300-250 BCE found in [[Oropos]], a small coastal town between [[Athens]] and [[Boeotia]], and refers to him as ''"Moschos, son of Moschion the Jew"'' who may have been a slave [http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN0521522110&id=V_w5AaqqiGAC&pg=PA381&lpg=PA381&vq=moschos&dq=lewis+papers+selected&num=100&sig=47n7I6FNu6QO3woPd75kczuW-CA]. The Romaniotes are '''Greek Jews''', distinct from both Ashkenazim and Sephardim. Jews have lived in Greece possibly as early as the Babylonian exile. A Romaniote oral tradition traces the first Jews to arrive in [[Ioannina]] to shortly after the destruction of the Second Temple in [[70]].

Benjamin of Tudela records the existence of Jews in [[Corfu]], [[Arta]], [[Aphilon]], [[Patras]], [[Corinth]], [[Thebes]], [[Chalcis]], [[Thessaloniki]] and [[Drama]]. The largest community was in Thebes, where he found c. 2000 Jews. They engaged mostly in cloth dyeing, weaving and making silk garments. These Jews were at that time known as "Romaniotes".

When the waves of Sephardic Jews expelled from Spain in 1492 settled in Ottoman Greece, they were richer, prouder and more cultivated, separating themselves from Romaniotes. [[Thessaloniki]], a city in northern Greece, had one of the largest (mostly Sephardic) Jewish Communities in the world and a solid rabbinical tradition. On the island of [[Crete]], the Jews played an important part in the transport trade.

Eventually, most of the Romaniote communitites were assimilated by the more numerous Sephardim. Remnants of the Romaniotes have survived in [[Ioannina]] ([[Epirus]]) and the USA (Kehila Kedosha Janina Synagogue in New York City, built in [[1927]], is a gathering spot for these Greek Jews). The Romaniotes had their distinct customs, very different from those of the Sephardic Jews; unlike the Sephardic Jews, they did not speak Ladino, but the [[Yevanic language|Yevanic]] Greek dialect and [[Greek language|Greek]]. Romaniote scholars translated the Tanakh into Greek (see [[Septuagint]]).

At the beginning of the [[20th century]] the Romaniote community of [[Ioannina]] numbered approximately 4000 people, mostly lower class tradesmen and craftsmen. Economic emigration caused their numbers to dwindle and at the eve of [[World War II]] there were approximately 1950 Romaniotes left in Ioannina. Centered around the old fortified part of the city (or [[Kastro]]), where the community had been living for centuries, they maintained two synagogues, one of which, the Kehila Kedosha Yashan Synagogue still remains today.

A strong Romaniote community also was present in Corfu.

==World War II and the Jewish Holocaust==
During [[World War II]], when Greece was occupied by the Axis, 86% of the Greek Jews, especially those in the areas occupied by Nazi Germany and Bulgaria, were murdered despite efforts by the [[Church of Greece|Greek Orthodox Church]] and many Christian Greeks to shelter Jews. Although the Germans and Bulgarians deported a great number of Greek Jews, many were hidden by their Greek neighbours. Despite this though, roughly 49,000 Jews were deported from [[Thessaloniki]] alone and exterminated.

The Romaniotes were protected by the Greek government until the Nazi occupation. During the occupation the Romaniotes could use the [[Greek language]] better and more efficiently than the Sephardim, who spoke Ladino and whose Greek had a distinct, "singing" accent. That made the Sephardim more vulnerable as targets, and was one of the many factors that led to such great losses among Sephardic communities. In [[Ioannina]] 1860 out of 1950 Jews were deported to Auschwitz and Birkenau in April 1944. Most of them were exterminated by the Nazis.

The creation of the state of Israel in [[1948]], combined with the [[Greek Civil War]], was the final episode in the history of the Romaniotes, the majority of whom migrated to Israel or the USA.

==Present day==
Today a small number of Romaniotes live in Greece, mainly in Yannena ([[Ioannina]]), in Israel and the U.S.A. (mainly New York). Greek Jews historically tended to follow the Jerusalem Talmud instead of the Babylonian Talmud, and developed their own [[Minhag]] and their own variety of Greek language, so called [[Yevanic]].

There are approximately 4,500 to 6,000 Jews living in Greece today, both from the Romaniotes and the Sephardi subgroups. The majority now live in [[Athens]].

===Activities and Synagogues===
====In Greece====
Romaniote Jews are now mostly concentrated in Ioanninia and Athens.
=====Ioannina=====
In [[Ioannina]], the remaining Romaniote community has withered to a number of 50 mostly elderly people. The Kehila Kedosha Yashan Synagogue remains locked, only opened for visitors on request. Immigrant Romaniotes return every summer and open the old synagogue. The last time a Bar Mitzvah (the Jewish ritual for celebrating the Coming of age of a child) was held in the synagogue was in [[2000]], and was an exceptional event for the community. [http://www.edwardvictor.com/Ioannina.htm]

=====Athens=====
The Ioanniotiki Synagogue, situated behind the Jewish Community of Athens offices at #8 Melidoni St., is the only Romaniote synagogue in [[Athens]]. Built in [[1903]], it has services only during the High Holy Days, but is opened for visitors on request through the Jewish Community office.

====In the United States====
Only one Romaniote synagogue is operation in the entire Western Hemisphere: Kehila Kedosha Janina, on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, where it is used by the Romaniote emigrant community.

==Kehila Kedosha Yashan Synagogue==
The synagogue is located in the cradle of Romaniote culture, Ioannina, in the old fortified part of the city known as ''"Kastro"'', at 16 Ioustinianou street. Its name means "the Old Synagogue". It was constructed in [[1829]], most probably over the ruins of an older synagogue. Its architecture is typical of the Ottoman era, a large building made of stone. The interior of the synagogue is laid out in the Romaniote way: the Bimah (where the Torah scrolls are read out during service) is on a raised dais on the western wall, the Aron Kodesh (where the Torah scrolls are kept) is on the eastern wall and at the middle there is a wide interior aisle. The names of the Ioanniote Jews who were killed in the Holocaust are engraved in stone on the walls of the synagogue.

==Notable Romaniotes==
*Rae Dalven, a prominent Romaniotissa, particularly noted for her translation of Modern Greek poetry.
*[[Amalia Vaka]], a singer of Greek traditional and [[Rebetiko|rebetic]] songs with a successful career in the United States.
*Gabrielle Carteris, actress

==See also==
*[[Jews in Greece]]
*[[Yevanic language]], the Judeo-Greek [[dialect]] of the Romaniotes.
*[[Thessaloniki]] and [[Ioannina]], the two cities in Greece with the most prominent Jewish communities.

==External links==
* Vincent Giordano, [http://www.RomanioteLegacy.org Before the Flame Goes Out: A Document of the Romaniote Jews of Ioannina and New York], sponsored by The International Survey of Jewish Monuments.
* [http://www.kkjsm.org Kehila Kedosha Janina, Romaniote Synagogue in New York] (official site)
* [http://www.ushmm.org/greece/eng/intro.htm The Holocaust in Greece], United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
* Edward Victor, [http://www.edwardvictor.com/Ioannina.htm Ioannina, Greece]: account of the Kehila Kedosha Yashan Synagogue in Ioannina, with photos. (personal site)
* Deborah S. Esquenazi, [http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?apage=1&cid=1159193374317&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull The pre-Ashkenazi and Sephardi Romaniote Jews], ''Jerusalem Post Magazine'', October 5, 2006.
*Isaac Dostis [http://www.act1presentations.com/Farewell,%20My%20Island.asp Farewell My Island}

==References==
* Rae Dalven, "The Jews of [[Ioannina]]", Cadmus Press (1989), ISBN 0-930685-03-2

{{Credit wikipedia}}

[[Category:Greek Jews|**]]

@@ Line 23: / Line 23: @@
 ==Present day==
-Today a small number of Romaniotes live in Greece, mainly in Yannena ([[Ioannina]]), in Israel and the U.S.A. (mainly New York). Greek Jews historically tended to follow the Jerusalem Talmud instead of the Babylonian Talmud, and developed their own [[Minhag]] and their own variety of Greek language, so called [[Yevanic]].
+Today a small number of Romaniotes live in Greece, mainly in Yannena ([[Ioannina]]), in Israel and the U.S.A. (mainly New York). Greek Jews historically tended to follow the Jerusalem Talmud instead of the Babylonian Talmud, and developed their own Minhag and their own variety of Greek language, so called [[Yevanic]].
 There are approximately 4,500 to 6,000 Jews living in Greece today, both from the Romaniotes and the Sephardi subgroups. The majority now live in [[Athens]].

@@ Line 16: / Line 16: @@
 ==World War II and the Jewish Holocaust==
-During [[World War II]], when Greece was occupied by the Axis, 86% of the Greek Jews, especially those in the areas occupied by Nazi Germany and Bulgaria, were murdered despite efforts by the [[Church of Greece|Greek Orthodox Church]] and many Christian Greeks to shelter Jews. Although the Germans and Bulgarians deported a great number of Greek Jews, many were hidden by their Greek neighbours. Despite this though, roughly 49,000 Jews were deported from  [[Thessaloniki]] alone and exterminated.
+During [[World War II]], when Greece was occupied by the Axis, 86% of the Greek Jews, especially those in the areas occupied by Nazi Germany and Bulgaria, were murdered despite efforts by the [[Greek Orthodox Church]] and many Christian Greeks to shelter Jews. Although the Germans and Bulgarians deported a great number of Greek Jews, many were hidden by their Greek neighbours. Despite this though, roughly 49,000 Jews were deported from  [[Thessaloniki]] alone and exterminated.
 The Romaniotes were protected by the Greek government until the Nazi occupation. During the occupation the Romaniotes could use the [[Greek language]] better and more efficiently than the Sephardim, who spoke Ladino and whose Greek had a distinct, "singing" accent. That made the Sephardim more vulnerable as targets, and was one of the many factors that led to such great losses among Sephardic communities.  In [[Ioannina]] 1860 out of 1950 Jews were deported to Auschwitz and Birkenau in April 1944. Most of them were exterminated by the Nazis.

Romaniotes - Revision history

Irlandos: /* Present day */

Irlandos: /* World War II and the Jewish Holocaust */

Irlandos: New page: The '''Romaniotes''' (Greek: '''Ρωμανιώτες''', Rōmaniōtes) are a Jewish population who have lived in the territory of today's Greece and neighboring area...