Romaniotes
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The Romaniotes or Romaniots (Greek: Ρωμανιῶτες, 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 2,000 years. Their languages were Yevanic, a Greek dialect, and Greek. They derived their name from the old name for the people of the Byzantine Empire, Rhomaioi. 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.
A majority of the Jewish population was killed in the Holocaust after Axis powers occupied Greece during World War II. They deported most of the Jews to concentration camps, where they were killed. After the war, a majority of the few surviving Jews emigrated to Israel, the United States and western Europe. Today a total of only 4,500 to 6,000 Jews, of both Romaniotes and Sephardic descent, remain in Greece.
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[edit] History
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The earliest reference to a Greek Jew is an inscription dated c. 300-250 BCE, found in Oropos, a small coastal town between Athens and Boeotia, which refers to "Moschos, son of Moschion the Jew", who may have been a slave [1]. The Romaniotes are Greek Jews, distinct from both Ashkenazim and Sephardim. Jews have lived in Greece possibly since the Babylonian exile. A Romaniote oral tradition tells that the first Jews arrived in Ioannina shortly after the destruction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem in 70 CE.
In the 12th century, Benjamin of Tudela recorded details about communities of Jews in Corfu, Arta, Aphilon, Patras, Corinth, Thebes, Chalkis, Thessaloniki and Drama. The largest community in Greece was in Thebes, where he found c. 2000 Jews. They engaged mostly in cloth dyeing, weaving and making silk garments. At the time, they were known as "Romaniotes".
The Romaniotes had distinct customs, very different from those of the Sephardic Jews, and closer to those of the Italian Jews: some of these are thought to be based on the Jerusalem Talmud instead of the Babylonian Talmud. Unlike the Sephardic Jews, they did not speak Ladino, but the Yevanic Greek dialect and Greek. Romaniote scholars translated the Tanakh into Greek. Early printed versions of the Bible in Salonica showed the Hebrew text in the middle of the page, with Ladino (Judaeo-Spanish) translation to one side and the Yevanic translation to the other.
Waves of Sephardic Jews were expelled from Spain in 1492; many settled in Ottoman-ruled Greece. They were richer, and believed themselves more educated and cultivated than the Romaniotes, so they formed separate communities. They also spoke a separate language, Ladino. 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 historically played an important part in the transport trade. In the centuries following 1492 most of the Romaniote communitities were assimilated by the more numerous Sephardim.
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 was present in Corfu until the late 19th century, when a pogrom instigated by blood libel forced most of the Jewish community to leave the island.
[edit] Holocaust
During World War II, when Greece was occupied by the Axis powers, 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 numerous Greek Jews, many were hidden by their Greek neighbours. Roughly 49,000 Jews were deported from Thessaloniki alone and were exterminated.
The Romaniotes were protected by the Greek government until the Nazi occupation. During the occupation, the Romaniotes could speak Greek better than the Sephardim, who spoke Ladino first and whose Greek had a distinct, "singing" accent. The Sephardim were more vulnerable targets, and their language was one of the factors leading to such great losses among Sephardic communities. In Ioannina 1,860 out of 1,950 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 violence and anarchy of the Greek Civil War, was the final episode in the history of the Romaniotes in Greece. The majority emigrated to Israel or the U.S.
[edit] Present day
Today a small number of Romaniotes live in Greece, mainly in Yannena (Ioannina), in Israel and the U.S. (mainly New York). These communities, though they identify as Romaniotes, now use the Sephardic rite: the distinctive Romaniote rite does not survive except in the form of certain hymns used by communities such as Corfu.
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.[citation needed]
[edit] Ioannina
Romaniote Jews are now mostly concentrated in Ioannina and Athens. 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.[2]
The synagogue is located 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 haKodesh (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.
[edit] Athens
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The Ioanniotiki Synagogue, situated above the Jewish Community of Athens offices at #8 Melidoni St., is the only Romaniote synagogue in Athens. Built in 1906, it has services only during the High Holy Days, but is opened for visitors on request through the Jewish Community office.
The Jewish identity of a building found in the excavations of the ancient Agora in Athens, is questionable. It is believed that the Metroon, found in 1930 at the foot of the hill Hephaestion (Thesion) was used as a synagogue during its construction at the end of the 4th century CE (396-400). This view was expressed by the archaeologist H. Thompson, from the American School of Classical Studies in Athens, but was not developed into a complete theory. The Jewish identity of the Metroon was based on the small piece of marble found near the Metroon, that had two Jewish symbols carved on one side, and the resemblance of the building to the synagogue of Sardis in Asia Minor.
[edit] Aegina
One hour boat ride from Piraeus, the port of Athens, one can visit the Romaniote synagogue of Aegina. The synagogue was discovered in 1829 in the city of Aegina, near the ancient military port. The synagogue was originally discovered by the German historian Ludwig Ross, from the royal court of Otto. The floor was covered in order to be protected and was studied again by Thiersch in 1901, Furtwängler in 1904, E. Sukenik in 1928, and finally by the German archaeologist Dr. G. Welter, in 1932. The studies were completed by the National Archaeological Service. Based on the quality of the floor's mosaic, the building is believed to have been constructed in the 4th century CE (300-350 CE) and was used until the 7th century CE. The mosaic floor of the synagogue still survives (see photo below) and is made up of multi-colored tesserae, that create the impression of a carpet, in a geometric pattern of blue, gray, red and white. Two Greek inscriptions were found in front of the synagogue's entrance, on the western side of the building. Today, only part of the synagogue's mosaic floor is extant, and it has been moved from its original location to the courtyard of the island's Archaeological Museum
[edit] In the United States
Only one Romaniote synagogue is in operation in the entire Western Hemisphere: Kehila Kedosha Janina, at 280 Broome Street, in the Lower East Side of Manhattan, where it is used by the Romaniote emigrant community.[3] While it maintains a mailing list of 3,000 persons, it often has difficulty meeting the minyan or quorum for worship on Shabbat and Jewish holidays.[3] It is open for guided tours to visitors on Sundays.[3]
[edit] In Israel
The Yanina Synagogue is located in the Ohel Moshe neighbourhood, in Nahlaot.
[edit] Notable Romaniotes
- Elijah Mizrachi, Hakham Bashi of the Ottoman Empire
- Mordechai Frizis, officer of the Greek Army.
- Shabbetai Tzvi, a controversial Jewish messianic claimant.
- Rae Dalven, a prominent Romaniotissa, particularly noted for her translation of Modern Greek poetry.
- Amalia Vaka, a singer of Greek traditional and rembetic songs with a successful career in the United States.
- Gabrielle Carteris, actress
- Jack H. Jacobs, Vietnam War Veteran. Medal of Honor Recipient.
[edit] See also
- Jews in Greece
- Greek citron
- Thessaloniki and Ioannina, the two cities in Greece with the most prominent Jewish communities.
- Yanina Synagogue
[edit] References
- ^ Kehila Kedosha Janina Synagogue and Museum, The Holocaust in Ioannina URL accessed January 5, 2009
- ^ Raptis, Alekos and Tzallas, Thumios, Deportation of Jews of Ioannina, Kehila Kedosha Janina Synagogue and Museum, July 28, 2005 URL accessed January 5, 2009
- ^ a b c Laura Silver, "Spreading little-known history of Romaniote Jews", Daily News (New York), June 18, 2008.
[edit] External links
- Vincent Giordano, Before the Flame Goes Out: A Document of the Romaniote Jews of Ioannina and New York, sponsored by The International Survey of Jewish Monuments.
- Kehila Kedosha Janina, Romaniote Synagogue in New York (official site)
- Edward Victor, Ioannina, Greece: account of the Kehila Kedosha Yashan Synagogue in Ioannina, with photos. (personal site)
- Deborah S. Esquenazi, The pre-Ashkenazi and Sephardi Romaniote Jews, Jerusalem Post Magazine, October 5, 2006.
- Isaac Dostis Farewell My Island
- Siddur Tefillot ha-Shanah le-minhag kehillot Romania, Venice 1523, Romaniote prayer book
[edit] Sources
- Dalven, Rae. The Jews of Ioannina. Cadmus Press, 1989. ISBN 0-930685-03-2
- Fromm, Annette B. Folklore and Ethnic Identity of the Jewish Community of Ioannina, Greece. Lexington Books, 2008, ISBN 9780739120613
- Goldschmidt, Daniel, Meḥqare Tefillah u-Fiyyut (On Jewish Liturgy), Jerusalem 1978 (in Hebrew): one chapter sets out the Romaniote liturgy.
