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Greece
Athens - photo taken by Ted Margulis
Jewish life in Greece dates back 2400 years. The first Greek Jew whose name
is known was "Moschos, son of Moschion the Jew," a slave identified in an
inscription dated to approximately 300 BCE-250 BCE. This information was
found in an inscription unearthed in Oropos, a small coastal town between
Athens and Bocotia. Jews later became traders, craftspeople, farmers and
silk growers. When the Romans gave the Jewish community autonomy, the Jews
became known as Romaniotes, some of whose descendants still live in
Greece
today.
Out of 77,377 Jews living in Greece, before WW II, only 10,000 survived the
Holocaust.
Remains of an ancient Greek Synagogue
Books
"Illusions of Safety"
Authored by Michael Matsas tells
us of the duplicity of the American government, but it also includes stories
of Greek Jews and how they fared during WW II and the Holocaust. The book is
available through the Kehila Kedosha Janina Synagogue Museum
http://www.kehila-kedosha-janina.org
"Jewish Sites and Synagogues of Greece"
Authored by Nicholas Stavroulakis and Timothy DeVinney and published by
Talos Press. Excellent introduction to Jewish travelers.
"Legacy of Courage"
Authored by Dr. Frederic Kakis. Most Holocaust survival stories are based on
characters who, by the grace of God, survived the horrors of the Death Camps
and were able to describe the brutality and torture they had have endured as
well as the fate of million of other innocent victims that died in the gas
chambers.
This book describes a very different survival story. It is the tale of a
Jewish family during German occupation of Greece, who decided early on, that
the best way to escape deportation and ultimately survive was to resist. It
is a story of intrigue, courage and adventure at time humorous, at times
sad, but always interesting and exciting.
ISBN 1-4017-1358-X Paperback
"War-Time Jews: The Case of
Athens" - (Eliamep)
A brief monograph on why and how Greeks rescued Jews in Athens in WW II.
General Greece
Information
http://www.serbianna.com/columns/savich/107.shtml Greece is the home of the longest continuous Jewish presence in the European
Diaspora, going back 2,300 years. The Jews who first settled in Greece,
called themselves Romaniotes and preserved their distinctive synagogue
rites, liturgy and dress long after Sephardic Jews -- expelled from Spain
and Portugal -- became the majority.
Jewish communities existed in Thessaly, Beoetia, Macedonia, Aetolia, Attica,
Argos, Corinth, and throughout much of the Peloponnese, and on the islands
of Euboea and Crete. There were synagogues in Philippi, Thessalonica,
Veroia, Athens and Corinth. Benjamin (Ben Jonah) of Tudela, a Jewish
traveler of the second half of the twelfth century, visited Jewish
communities in Corfu, Arta, Patras, Corinth, Thebes, Egripo (Halkida)
Salonika and Drama.
More than 65,000 Jews were murdered during the
Holocaust. Only 13% of the population survived.
There is a synagogue in New York, the Kehila Kedosha Janina, which is
located on Manhattan's Lower East Side
280 Broome Street (off of Allen St.)
New York 10002
Fax:1 212 673 4441
The only synagogue in the
Western hemisphere, built by the Jews in 1927, and still operating today
http://www.kehila-kedosha-janina.org/contents.htm
At this site, there is a great deal of information, in a Newsletter format
including info on: Congregation Kehila Kedosha Janina 'The Janina Cemetery'
located in Ioannina; The Museum (Open 11 a.m. to 4 p. m. on Sundays or by
appointment) including a list of over 200 names of the rescuers of Greek
Jews in Yad Vashem's archives; Romaniote Piyuttim (poems); Corfu
Holocaust Memorial; and more.
There is an article printed in the January/February 2001 issue of The Jewish
Monthly, published by B'nai Brith, that offers a great deal of information
about these Jews.
ETSI - Sephardi Genealogical
and Historical Society
The purpose of "ETSI" is to help
people interested in Jewish Genealogical and Historical Research in the
Sephardi World. "ETSI's" field of study covers the Ottoman Empire (Turkey,
Greece, Palestine, Syria, Libya, Egypt); North Africa (Algeria, Morocco,
Tunisia); Spain, Portugal, Italy and Gibraltar. The study of every Sephardi
community or family who lived in other regions is equally within the
society's aim
E-mail
laurphil@wanadoo.fr
Europages
Business 2 business company
directory and business in Europe, yellow pages access, international and
European business directory (professional services, addresses and business
classifieds http://www.europages.net
A valuable site to help find a person, maps, etc. Type in the name of any
country you wish to research. This service is free. http://www.webhelp.com/home
Global Gazetteer
A great web site. It is a directory of 2,880,532 of the
world's cities and towns, sorted by country and linked to a map for each
town. A tab separated list is available for each country
http://www.calle.com/world/index.html
Open Street Maps
The crowd-sourced mapping projectOpenStreetMaphas
amassed a million contributors since its inception in 2005 and, according to
navigation app maker Skobbler, boasts greater accuracy in
England, Russia
and
Germany
than rivals such as Google Maps. I tried the site and found an
accurate drawing of my father's ancestral town
Tal'ne, Ukraine.
Almost every country is available as is most towns
http://openstreetmap.org
Pronounced roe-MAH-ni-ote, currently number somewhere around 8 to 10,000
people worldwide. This is a virtually unknown minority barely known by most
Jews. A book, "The Jews of Ioannina", published by Cadmus Press in 1990 and
authored by Rae Dalven, herself a Romaniote Jew, maintains that the first
Jews settled near what was eventually called Ioannina (Janina), Greece, in
70 C.E. after the destruction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem. The
Romaniotes are the original Jewish population of the eastern Mediterranean
and the Balkans and have lived in the area since antiquity.
The story told is that the Roman emperor, Titus, after capturing Jerusalem,
was transporting Jews to Rome, to serve as slaves, when his ship was driven
onto the Albanian coast. Titus, instead of killing the Jews, allowed them to
fend for themselves. Before WW II, the Jewish community in Janina numbered
around 1,850; after there were 163 and today 51 Jews still live in the town.
They speak their own Judeo-Greek language and have their own customs and
foods. They call themselves "Yinotes" - people from Janin.
http://www.mlahanas.de/Greece/History/Romaniotes.html
LingvoSoft Dictionary software English <-> Yiddish for Windows - 400,000
words
With this LingvoSoft smart dictionary software on your computer, you can
easily switch between English and Yiddish, (as well as Italian or Greek to
English) for prompt translations of 400,000 words both ways! Download Free
Trial now
Translating
There are many translating services, some for free, available to help with
your translating needs in most languages including Italian and Greek. One of
these sites is
http://www.dictionaries.travlang.com/
Just in case you didn't think of it, contact a nearby university or
college's foreign language department. They may offer to write letters and
translate letters into English.
A nominal fee is usually charged.
The Jews of Greece's largest city
were integrated into the Greek community and because of this fact, it helped
save many of the Jews from the Nazis. Today, it is the largest Jewish
community and dates from the first century C.E. After the sixth century,
Jewish life left, and in 1705, the city had 20 Jewish families, the
descendants of exiles from Spain. In 1834, after the Greek War of
Independence against the Ottoman Empire (1821-1829) it attracted some
families from Germany. In 1917, after the Balkan Wars and especially after
the great Thessalonica fire, more Jews came to Athens.
Several attempts were made by the Germans to deport the Jews, but were
thwarted by the Greek community by hiding Jews in their homes.
Unfortunately, 1,500 Athenian Jews were deported. After the war, there were
about 5,000 Jews in Athens; of these, 1,500 later emigrated to Israel.
A site in the ancient Greek agora (marketplace) is said to be a synagogue
from the third century, destroyed in the sixth century. Nearby are Athens'
two surviving synagogues facing each other on Melidoni Street in Thission, a
neighborhood once populated by Jews.
Etz Hayim Synagogue
Built in 1904, is at 8 Melidoni. It is also known as the 'Ioanniotiki
Synagogue (i.e. Jews from Ioannina). To visit, contact the Athens Jewish
Community on the ground floor (325-2773)
http://www.etz-hayyim-hania.org/_synag/reconstr.html
Jewish Cemetery
Located on Agios Giorgiou and is part of the city's Third
Cemetery in the Nikea quarter has a memorial to the Jewish soldiers who died
in the Greco-Italian War, 1940-41 and another to the Jewish communities of
Greece destroyed by the Nazis in WW II. It has been in continuous use since
the 1940s.
http://www.hadassah.org/news/content/per_hadassah/archive/2003/03_APR/traveler.htm
TheJewish Club
Headed by Rachel
Raphael-Sasson, holds lectures, Hebrew classes and community gatherings and
is located at
9 Vissarionos, corner Sina;
Telephone 360 8896.
Rachel can be reached at 211 3371
Cell Phone: 094 452
1848
E-mail
rasraf@hellasnet.gr
Jewish Museum of Greece
Founded in 1977, the museum has artifacts from more than two millennia,
reflecting the life, customs, rites and traditions of Greek Jews.
39 Nikis (near Syntagma Square)
Telephone 30-210-322 5582; fax 323 1577;
Interesting and colorful site
http://www.jewishmuseum.gr
An island in the Aegean Sea that
at one time had a Jewish Community. Also review my Rhodes information.
Search this site for information http://sephardichouse.org/
Euboca (Evia)
A one hour bus ride northeast of
Athens and is an island where the Jews of Chalkis (today Chalkida) claim
theirs is the oldest Jewish community in Europe, dating back to the Second
Temple period. There are about 150 members and they have a white stucco
synagogue and community headquarters at 35 Kotsou as well as a cemetery on
Mesapion Street. Some graves are as old as 1539. Jossif Ovadia can arrange a
visit to the synagogue and cemetery. Telephone 0221 74567 or 24990 http://tinyurl.com/6ey4z6
When the Jews of Spain were
expelled centuries ago, by Ferdinand and Isabella, a goodly number of them
found refuge in Greece. The city of Salonika became one of the most
prosperous Jewish centers.
Territorial shifts in the Balkans throughout the early twentieth century
brought changes in the composition and character of the Jewish communities
of Greece. Salonika, a Jewish city throughout Ottoman times, became part of
Greece in 1913 after the Balkans Wars weakened the Ottoman Empire
strategically and territorially. During the 16th century, the city was known
as the "Jerusalem of the Balkans".
In 1900 there were approximately 80,000 Jews out of a total population of
173,000. There were 31 Jewish communities in Greece, during the 1930s. The
largest, in Salonika, had more than 50,000 people and no fewer than 60
synagogues and midrashim (oratories) to serve a diverse population with
roots all across the Mediterranean and Eastern Europe. On April 9, 1941,the
Nazi army occupied the city and in early 1943, the Germans annihilated 87
percent of the country's Jews (48.500) and destroyed most of the synagogues.
Ninety five percent of the Salonikan Jewish population were deported to
concentration camps.
One thousand of Greece's 5,000 Jews live here today. The synagogue has a
regular Minyan. Before WWII, there were more than 20 Zionist organizations
in the city.
Andrea Sefiha was the President of Salonika's Jewish Community as of 4/2000
As of 2008, David Saltiel is the President. A photograph of the interior of
the Italia Synagogue of Salonika and the exterior of the Monastirlis
synagogue are available at
http://www.he.net/~archaeol/online/features/greece/index.html
In July, 1942, the Jewish Community was forced to pay several million to the
Nazis to ransom Jewish men who were forced into working for the Germans,
with the understanding that they would be freed later and the community
would be left alone. Predictably, 46,091 Jews from Salonika were later
deported to the death camps.
"The Holocaust in Salonika - Eyewitness Accounts"
The first official
witness of the final solution to the Salonikan Jews. Yomtov Yacoel was the
lawyer for the community and liaison with the Nazi civilian representatives.
Dr. Matarasso was the post-war physician for the survivors in Salonika. His
report includes the earliest eyewitness stores of the fate of the Jews in
Auschwitz. Dr. Isaac Benmayor translated the text from the original Greek
and Judeo-Spanish and St4een B. Bowman did the editing.
http://www.bh.org.il/Communities/Archive/Salonika.asp
"Matsevot Saloniki"
Authored by Isaac Samuel Emmanuel and published in Hebrew in 1963-58.
Contains 1,858 inscriptions taken from the Jewish cemetery in
Thessalonike (Salonika), Greece, one of the largest and oldest Sephardic
communities in Europe before the Holocaust. A copy exists in the UCLA
Library
A Holocaust memorial was established in this city. Nearly 90 percent of
Greece's 80,000 strong pre-war Jewish community perished in Nazi death
camps.
When the port of Haifa was built under the British Mandate in the early
1930s, Abba Khoushi wanted Jewish laborers to do the work. The future mayor
persuaded some 500 Jewish dockworkers from Thessalonica to come. Thus they
were spared the fate of their compatriots, most of whom died in Nazi
concentration camps.
Ponte Vecchio Bridge - Jews own(ed) many of the shops located on this bridge
Jews were known to live in Italy from the days of the Maccabees, but the
best years for Jews was during the time of Lorenzo de Medici (1437 to 1494).
In an article in the December issue of Hadassah Magazine, the writer (Aelion
Brooks) states that "As many as 50 percent of southern Italians may have
Jewish blood, notes Vincenzo Villella, author of The Jews of Calabria.
Jewish intellectual life blossomed in the rich achievements of the Italian
culture. During this period, Jewish literature, poetry and learning
flourished, even though the Medici duke, named Cosimo I, banished the Jews
to ghettos. The community was enriched in the late 15th and 16th centuries
by Sephardic refugees from Spain and Portugal and also over the centuries by
Ashkenazi newcomers from Central Europe.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jews_in_Italy
An article, written by Andree Aelion Brooks, offers more detailed
information about the Jews of Italy and can be found in the December
2008 issue of Hadassah Magazine.
Jewish communities flourished in South Italy during the Roman time and the
Middle Ages. After the persecutions (1492-1541) Jews abandoned South
Italy and also Sicily. The area south of Naples was once a
separate nation called the Kingdom of Naples and teemed with Jewish
artisans and merchants during Roman times and for more than 1,000 years
thereafter, when it served as the geographic center of Mediterranean
commerce. Jews, however, were expelled while Spain ruled the area in the
16th century -- unless they agreed to convert, which some did, taking their
Judaism underground. Today the only community in South Italy is
Napoli (Naples), and few Jews live in the southern part of the country (Sicily
and Puglia). In 2009, the Rabbi is Pier Paulo Punturello, who represents
the Orthodox Jews of Naples. For these reasons it is very difficult to
research on Jews of South Italy: most resources are not in
Communities and most documents concern oldest times.
The first ghetto was located in Venice, which is north of Florence
and existed from 1516 to 1797. Ghetto, the word, originated in Venice. It is
easy to find the ghetto and I would suggest you 'get lost' purposely
in this part of the city. The area is called 'the Cannaregio district'.
The various Jewish ethnic groups that settled in the ghetto nearly five
centuries ago, lived in extremely crowded conditions and preserved their
identities in their cuisine.
The ghetto was a lively, dynamic melting pot of distinctly different
European and Mediterranean cultures, including Jews from other areas of
Italy including Sicily and Calabria, Spain, Portugal, Germany
and the Ottoman Empire. In the district, one would hear many distinct
languages spoken, including German, Portuguese, Spanish, Turkish, Hebrew,
Yiddish and Giudeo-Veneziano, the Jewish-Venetian dialect that survived
into the 21st century.
http://www.doge.it/ghetto/indexi.htm
Amos Luzzatto is the president of the Union of Italian Jewish Communities,
located in Rome. Dr. Riccardo Di Segni, a practicing physician and rabbi, is
the new chief rabbi of Rome replacing Elio Toaff, who retired at age 86
after 50 years in Italy's most prominent Jewish religious post.. Leone
Paserman is the president of the 15,000 member community.
Jews lived in many small towns during the past two millennia, and often left
their traces in hundreds of towns, cities and villages up and down the
peninsula including remnants of synagogues and cemeteries. Some 8,000
Italian Jews were deported to their deaths in the Holocaust. Today, the
small Italian Jewish community consists of about 38,000 souls. The total
population of Italy is 60 million.
Annie Sacerdoti, a Jewish writer based in Milan, wrote a Jewish
guidebook to Italy in 1986 and, throughout the 1990s, edited a series of
separate guide books dedicated to Jewish heritage in individual Italian
regions. She is the editor of Milan's monthly Jewish magazine, Il
Bullettino
Thousands of Libyan Jews fled the country in 1967 and many
arrived in Italy. They were fleeing because of the fallout
of the six-day war
"For Them, Life in America Began in 1944, Behind a Fence".
It is about a group of about 1,000 Jews brought to the US from
Italy in 1944 and kept in an internment camp in upstate New York
for seven months after the war was over until President Truman allowed
them to apply for citizenship. The article mentions the emotions of the
US official charged with choosing who would be allowed to travel on the
ship. I believe a free registration is required to view articles on the
NY Times web site http://tinyurl.com/hmcm From a posting by Andrew Blumberg
"Finding Italian Roots: The Complete Guide for Americans"
Authored by John Philip Colletta
and published by Genealogical Publishing Co., in 1993 in Baltimore
"Guide to Jewish Italy"
Authored by Annie Sacerdoti and
published in 1989. a systematic survey of Jewish settlements in Italy,
broken down first by region, then by city. Describes the synagogues,
museums, cemeteries and other cultural or historical sites for each location
listed. Includes numerous photographs, a bibliography, a glossary and an
index.
"History of the Jews in Italy"
Authored by Cecil Roth. In his book, he states that "While Jews may have
settled in Rome in the third century BCE, it was the Maccabees' successful
revolt against the Syrian king Antiochus in the second century BCE that put
the community on the map." The festival of Hanukah was established on the
25th of Kislev, 165 BCE, when Judah Maccabee, his brothers and his volunteer
army held a ceremony to rededicate the Temple after their victory."
"Only four years later, in 161 BCE, Judah sent a diplomatic mission to
Rome in an attempt to forge an alliance against the Syrians and preserve
the Jews' precarious independence. "it was natural to solicit the
sympathy and support of the great new power in the west." Check with my
link to Amazon.com for this and other books on the subject by clicking
here
Genealogy
http://www.jewishgen.org/InfoFiles/Italy/italian.htm
"Jewish Family Names and their
Origin"
Authored by Eva H. Guggenheimer - 1992 http://tinyurl.com/64rrsl
"La Comunita Ebraica di
Pitigliano dal XVI al XX Secolor"
Authored by R. G. Salvadori, Giuntina, Firenze in 1991. There is an index of
about nine pages and a short family trees of some families from
Pitigliano, Italy for the period 1880-1960
"Mangiare alla Giudia" (Eating
the Jewish Way)
Authored by Ariel Toaff, a professor at Bar-Ilan University, who is the son
of Rome's chief rabbi. It is not a cookbook and does not include recipes.
Rather, it details the history and development of Italian Jewish cuisine
from the Renaissance to modern times
"Memoirs Of A Jewish Italian Holocaust Refugee" Authored by Steven C. Levi and available on Kindle
Almost every small town of
southern Italy and Sicily has a street named "della
Sinagoga" or "della Scuola" or "Judecca", or something that
otherwise refers to the existence of Jews there, even though there
may not have been any Jews present there since the late fifteen or
early sixteen century http://www.worldjewishcongress.org/en/communities/show?id=103
There was a
Jewish presence in the
18th century. An account dating from 1683 indicated that the "rich" matzo
baked in this Adriatic port was so renowned for its quality that wealthy
Jews in Venice spared no expense to import it for their Seder tables.
There was once a Jewish presence
in the city. It was also the site of the first university in Europe to offer
a Jewish studies program which was founded years ago and continues to
function. http://www.jewishitaly.org/
Calabria
Rabbi Barbara Aiello's father with the Lodge Band of The Italian Sons &
Daughters of America in Pittsburg, PA
Italian anousim find warmth and
acceptance as they learn about their Jewish heritage and
experience Jewish ritual and observance at the first active synagogue in Calabria and
Sicily in 500 years, since Inquisition times.
http://eduplanet.net/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=1356
Located in southern Italy
where a Jewish community existed for many centuries since Roman times until
the Jews were expelled from all of southern Italian peninsula in the
first half of the 1500s. In the 1490s and first decade of the 1500s, the
cities in southern Italy (Kingdom of Naples) received considerable
numbers of Sephardi refugees from the expulsions of the 1490s from the
Spanish kingdoms of Aragon, Castille and probably Navarre, and
to some extent from Portugal (though most of the Jews were not initially
permitted to leave Portugal and were instead subjected to a mass forced
conversion in Lisbon). From a posting by Leon TarantoLBTEPT@aol.com http://www.italian-family-history.com/jewish/Livorno.html
Carpi
A small town located near the city
of Modena in northern Italy. The Jewish community can be traced back to the
14th century; a contract for the first synagogue dates to 1488. The current
synagogue was inaugurated in 1861.
Nearby is the former concentration camp at Fossoli. Created by the Mussolini
government for use as a prisoner of war camp, it was used to detain
political opponents and later, when the Nazis took control, Italy's Jews
were brought here before being deported. During the seven months of 1944
that the German SS controlled the camp, eight trains left the station at
Carpi, five of which went directly to Auschwitz-Birkenau. About half of the
approximately 5,000 deportees at Fossoli were Jews. Further information may
be available by E-mail to levchadash@libero.it
www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/index.php?ModuleId=10005411
A number of WWII Jewish soldiers
are buried here in the cemetery. The list of known Jews are:
J. Segal London Scottish 8th November1943
age 21; T. Waldman 51st Leeds Rifles Royal Tank Regt. R. A .C.
23rd May 1944;;
L. Savitt Royal Artillery 13th May 1944 age 29; L. Paul British Columbia Dragoons 25th May 1944 age 21;
M.S. De Vries, DCM The Irish Regiment of Canada 26th
May 1944 age 41; S. Isenstein The Irish Regiment of Canada 3rd June 1944;
J. Moskowitz The Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire Regiment
12th May 1944 age 35; M. Flowers, BSC Royal Artillery 25th May 1944 age 38 From a posting by
Karen Zale
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish_cemetery_at_Monte_Cassino
This city was known as the 'first
city of the Renaissance' and is well known for its art collection. One
art piece of Jewish themed art dominates this beautiful city ... David,
created by the artist Michelangelo. There are about 35,000 Jews in all of
Italy today with about 1,000 living in Florence.
Beth Laknesset Firenze was built
in 1882
There are two kosher butchers and one kosher restaurant (Il Cuscussu at
Via Farini 2/A) The center of the Jewish community is located at Via
Luigi Carlo Farni 4. This is where the Florence Synagogue, one of the
most beautiful in Europe, is located. There is a Jewish day school and
offices of the Jewish community, along with a mikva'ot'oth and the
headquarters of B'nai Brith and other Jewish organizations.
The synagogue has successfully withstood wars, barbarism and floods. The
Germans tried to blow up the structure during WW II, but the main building
withstood their efforts. Bayonet marks are still visible on the doors of the
Holy Ark which the Nazis used as a garage to repair their tanks.
On the second floor is the Jewish Museum of Florence which was opened in
1987. It offers a collection of Kiddush cups, prayer shawls, silver
ornaments and embroidered vestments along with a pictorial display which is
occasionally changed.
Outside of the synagogue, there is a stone monument. with the names of 248
Jewish deportees engraved on the face.
Just across the Ponte Vecchio, in the maze of old lanes that face the Pitti
Palace, is the via Ramagliau (once called Via dei Giudei or "Street of
the Jews") which remains unchanged from the Renaissance. The streets are
about 10 feet wide and are framed in by gray and yellow, three story houses
with brown shutters.
The famous Duomo, was started in 1296, and what most people don't see, are
the wooden side doors on the south side of the cathedral, where one can see
one Tablet of the Law with the first five commandments written in Hebrew.
Another set of carved doors were started in 1425 and finished in 1452. They
are the 10 carved panels on the doors of the Baptistery, which represent 10
scenes from the Bible as carved by Lorenzo Ghiberti.
Lecce
was the capital of what was formerly known as
Terra d’Otranto.
It had one of the most prominent
Jewish settlements
in the Neapolitan kingdom before the expulsion of the
Jews.
Though there is no evidence of a
Jewish
presence prior to the 15th century, there are traces its existence in
Lecce
at the time of the Normans (G.
T. Tanzi, “Gli Statuti della Città di Lecce,” p. 19, Lecce, 1898).
Their occupations were mostly textile dyeing (silk
and wool),
cattle-raising and money-lending. They were not allowed to own real
estate or engage in the higher callings. They were also forced to wear
distinguishing badges on their dress. Still, the
Jews
were protected by the law and seem to have been free from persecutions.
When the last Count of Lecce, Giannantonio del Balzo-Orsini, died in
1463 and the city came under the direct rule of Ferdinand the 1st, King
of Aragon, there was an outbreak of violence against the
Jews.
During this time the ghetto was sacked, a number of
Jews
were killed, and the remainder driven away.
http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/9702-lecce
Le Marche Region
Urbino Synagogue
Le Marche region has a
long and interesting Jewish history and many towns still have a
lively Jewish community, such
as Senigallia and Ancona. In Pesaro, the
Sephardic synagogue can be visited some Thursdays and Fridays in July
and August.
http://vallenuova.blogspot.com/2010/03/new-le-marche-tourism-website.html
"Ebrei di Livorno tra due
Censimenti" (Community of Livorno) - authored by Michele Luzatti and
published in 1990. The book is based on the 1841 census taken in Livorno.
All (over 4,000 Jewish inhabitants at that time, are listed with their
places of origin, addresses, occupations, age, and family members).
Genealogies and short family histories for a dozen or so local families are
included and there is a wealth of demographic information which adds up to a
very complete picture of Jewish life in Livorno between 18411 to 1938".
From
a posting by Fred Straus http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/vjw/Livorno.html
An island town in the greater
Venice area , has some Jews buried in the Italy Lutheran Cemetery. There
was no Jewish Community registered at the time, so they were buried in this
cemetery and were classified as either Lutherans or Greek Orthodox in the
registers For further information, refer to the JewishGen Digest of 2/14/00
on Page 11 http://www.jewishgen.org
There are about 10,000 Jews in the
capital city of Lombardy region.
Italy's first-ever non-orthodox congregation was recently formed in
this city. The Jewish community of Italy is composed of both
Ashkenazi and Sephardic congregations. Now, there is a new organization
known as Italian Association for Progressive Judaism which has created a new
congregation. Rabbi David J. Goldberg senior rabbi of The Liberal Jewish
Synagogue in London is helping with the formation. For additional
information, contact:
jspeckror@yahoo.it
A city and commune in the
Province of Asti in the Piedmont region about 45 km E of Turin
and about 15 km NE of Asti on the national road SS 547 that links
Asti to Casale Monferrato and Vercelli.
Historically part of the state of Montferrat. Jewish
historyin "Memories
of Jewish life: from Italy to Jerusalem, 1918-1960" by Augusto
Segre, Steve Siporin. Jews settled there after their expulsion
from France. Moncalvo, like Astiand
Fossano retained the old
French ritual and still uses the German Makzor with several
additions. The history of the community is similar to that of the other
communities of Savoy. 1866 Jewish population: 220
persons (many artisans in various trades, but it is now considerably
smaller)
Source. [October 2011]
http://www.iajgs.org/cemetery/italy/moncalvo.html
The
most ancient graves date from 1700; the epitaphs send back to the local
families: Luzzati, Sacerdoti, Foa and Norzi, today the only Jewish
family still living in Moncalvo. The oldest part, constituted
by ten graves, is very evocative, encircled by big trees. In the new
area, no less touching with its simplicity, forty people are buried
http://jewisheurope.org/detail.asp?ID=245
PESARO, city in
north-central Italy on the Adriatic Sea. A rabbinical responsum
attests to the existence of a Jewish community there in 1214. We
can assume that Jews had settled in the city even earlier,
attracted by its commercial importance. Pesaro's Jewish residents
were engaged in crafts, money lending, and local and regional trade
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0016_0_15647.html
Cemetery The old Jewish cemetery of Pesaro was just outside
Porta Fano. Its earliest mention dates from 1214 and the oldest
surviving fragment of a tomb stone is dated 1415.
A second cemetery was inaugurated after 1550, on the San Bartolo hill,
where it still stands. The new cemetery, completely enclosed by walls,
can be accessed through a large gate. After the Holy See took control of
the Duchy of Urbino, Jews were prohibited to use burial stones
and inscriptions. Yet, amidst the thick vegetation covering the hill
today, one can stills see headstones and memorial inscriptions in the
most varied styles. The higher up the hill, the oldest and most
elaborate
http://www.j-italy.org/treasures/type/cemeteries/pesaro-cemetery
Synagogue The synagogue overlooks a street named for a famous Jewish
native, Sara Levi Nathan, who was a friend of Garibaldi's and the mother
of Ernesto Nathan, mayor of Rome from 1907 to 1913. No
Jews live today in the town
http://www.jewishitaly.org/city.asp?Type=7&City=Pesaro
Pisa - famous for it's leaning tower, but Shirley and I discovered a very
old Jewish cemetery located right behind the tower. If the gates are locked,
you can see a good portion through the convenient holes in the back side
brick walls that surround it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leaning_Tower_of_Pisa
A town that once had a thriving
Jewish community and was known as "Little Jerusalem" ("La Piccola
Gerusalemme". Jews settled here in the 15th century and once numbered
over 300 - now down to three. There is a restored synagogue, butcher, Mikvah
and a matzo bakery that can still be seen. http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/vjw/Pitigliano.html
The first city to reach a population of 1 million people was Rome in
133 B.C. There is a city called Rome on every continent.
The city holds the largest concentration of Jews in Italy - over
15,000. The Main Synagogue Tempio Israelitico is beautiful and well worth a
visit. It was completed in 1904 and also house the Jewish Museum of Rome.
The Jewish Roman community was much bigger in ancient times. It
swelled to some 50,000, or 10 percent of the population, after the arrival
of Jewish slaves and prisoners brought back after the Romans - led by the
Emperor Vespasian and his son Titus - conquered Jerusalem and destroyed the
Temple. Those Jewish slaves were used in the building of the Coliseum. The
Roman Forum's Arch of Titus, which commemorates the attack on Jerusalem,
has become one of the most powerful symbols of the Diaspora. Its carvings
depict the emperor's triumphant procession carrying loot from the Temple,
including a large, seven-branched menorah. The arch became such a powerful
symbol that Roman Jews refused to walk under it until the founding of
the State of Israel in 1948.
The menorah on the arch became the model for the one used on the emblem of
the State of Israel. Other archeological remains include a synagogue
and Jewish catacombs. The synagogue, located at the site of Rome's ancient
port, Ostia Antica, was discovered in 1961. It is believed to date from the
latter part of the first century C.E., and was remodeled at the end of the
third century. The ruined synagogue has a clearly visible ark decorated with
carvings of a menorah, lulav and shofar. There also is a room with an oven
which may have been used to bake matzos.
Oil lamps decorated with menorahs also were found. One of the most
interesting finds was a Greek inscription on a table, in which a local Jew
named Mindi Faustos praises himself for having donated the ark.
Chief Rabbi of Rome is Riccardo Di Segni.
Ernesto Nathan, mayor of Rome
from 1907 to 1913
The Vatican Museum has the largest collection of Hebrew inscriptions and
epitaphs from the Jewish catacombs. Nearly 200 are currently on display. It
was discovered that the Jewish catacombs predate the Christian sites by at
least a century, according to an article by Dutch scientists in the journal
Nature. The finding suggests that early Christian burial practices may have
modeled after Jewish practice.
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v436/n7049/full/436339a.html
Santa Maria al Bagno,
(near Nardo)
Museum commemorating tens of thousands of
Jewish Holocaust refugees
was opened -- theMuseum
of Memory
and Welcome
(Museo
della Memoria e dell'Accoglienza).
Between 1943 and 1947 as many as 150,000
Jews
fleeing Europe for
Palestine,
then still under
British
control, found shelter in and around
Nardo.
The museum, designed by the
Rome
architect Luca Zevi, was opened in
Santa Maria
al
Bagno,
which was one of the main refugee centers. Here, Jewish institutions
including a synagogue, canteen, orphanage and hospital were set up.
Senegallia
There was once a
Jewish presence
in this coastal town on the Adriatic Coast. There was an active community of
650 but now there are only four Jewish families. In a closet in the
synagogue are nine Torah scrolls of unknown age and origin and three tzedaka
boxes embedded in the foyer wall
http://infomotions.com/etexts/gutenberg/dirs/1/3/4/5/13459/13459.txt
Cemetery The old cemetery was located near St. Maria del Portone. A
certificate of land purchase in Campo Vecchio del Portone from 1512 is
the first reference to the Jewish cemetery of Senigallia. In 1567 the
Duke of Urbino accepted a request to extend the area.
In 1869 the Municipality of
Senigallia designated the land of the former Convento delle Grazie
for the city cemetery, reserving a separate section for a new Jewish
cemetery. The first Jewish burial in the new cemetery
occurred in 1878, while the old cemetery of Portone continued to
be used until 1893. What remains of the old burial field are a few
memorial stones, arranged today in the corner of a park dedicated to
Anne Frank. The rest of the land was taken over by the expansion of the
city. Recent excavations brought to light several 17th and 18th century
burial stones and numerous 19th century headstones that have been
re-arranged along the pathway that leads to the Jewish cemetery
http://www.j-italy.org/treasures/type/cemeteries/senigallia
Located about 150 miles southwest
of Trani, there is evidence of another synagogue. The building is now
known as Ner Tamid del Sud (Eternal Light of the South) and has a
congregation of about 80 people
http://www.folk.it/serrastretta/serr_eng.html
A city in Apulia, southwest
Italy. It was here that Titus brought the captives from Jerusalem, a
Mogen David on a 6th century tombstone is the first known use of the Star of
David in a specifically Jewish context.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taranto
Trani
Scola Nova Synagogue
There is a 13th century stone
synagogue in this walled seaport on the southern Adriatic coast near Bari
and services are held within the synagogue. It was known originally as Santa
Maria Scolanova, the Gothic structure was built in 1247 to serve the port's
thriving Jewish quarter. after the Jews were expelled, the church was
turned over to the church. Now it serves as a synagogue for a combination of
northern Italian Jews who have relocated here, recent returnees to Judaism
and a few Israeli expatriates. In the February/March 2013 issue of
Hadassah Magazine, Elin Schoen Brockman writes about Francesco Lotor, a
pianist and musicologist who has collected and recorded 4,000
compositions written by prisoners in concentration and detention camps
from 1933 to 1945
http://www.musicaconcentrationaria.org
At the cross roads of the past and
of today, of Central and Southern Europe, Trieste is a fine city with
a long history. It was founded in the ancient times and has been the subject
of dispute between all Central European and Balkan powers, seeking a passage
to the Mediterranean.
It has been influenced by numerous cultures and has known periods of
prominent glory. The monuments of the city are of enormous sightseeing
attraction; moreover, the city is a major commercial hub, since it provides
direct access to the major central European highways to Milan and
Venice.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_Community_of_Trieste
Trieste is home to
Europe's largest synagogue and has a rich Jewish history that can
be felt in the most curious of places! Writers Italo Svevo and poet
Umberto Saba are celebrated in statue form in the streets of downtown
Trieste along with their Irish literary contemporary, James
Joyce, who lived in Trieste for ten years. Svevo, one of Joyce's
students at the Berlitz school, and later a close friend, became the
basis for the character of Leopold Bloom in Joyce's Ulysses. The
Jewish community contributed to the financial sector in Trieste
by founding the first insurance companies, including Generali Group,
which is still in existence today.
The Carlo and Vera Wagner museum is housed in a historically
significant building which was originally intended as a Jewish hospital,
used as a primary school, and, later, as a shelter for Jewish
refugees fleeing the Nazis, as well as a Polish Ashkenazi
oratory. It was opened as a museum in 1993 in order to showcase objects
belonging to the community, and as an oratory. Headstones from the
original
Jewish cemetery can be
found in the museum's courtyard. The original cemetery, mentioned in
Saba's poetry, became the Park of Remembrance in 1909. The current
Jewish cemetery is located at the cemetery of Sant'Anna.
Some of the buildings from the two ghettos in Trieste still
survive and have been restored.
Risiera San Saba, Italy's only extermination camp during WWII, is
now a museum just 10 minutes from the center of the city.
http://www.jewishitaly.org/detail.asp?ID=252
Turin
Turin was the
capital of the duchy of Savoy and later of the Kingdom of
Sardinia; it is now the capital of Piedmontprovince.
The presence of Jews in Turin was recorded by Bishop
Maximus of Turin in the fourth century, but thereafter there is
no evidence of Jews until 1424 when the French Jewish
physicians and bankers Elias Alamanni and Amedeo
Foa moved there with their families. They received a ducal privilege and
a pontifical patent. The Turin Communal Council gave them the
final authorization to settle there. Two documents dated to 1424 confirm
it.
The first document is a
permission to live in the city and open a bank. The second mentions that
the Jews could not be injured or insulted. Also a plot was
purchased for a burial ground. Other Jewish bankers followed and
a small group was formed. In 1425 the Jews were compelled to live
in a restricted area where they could be watched more easily and
prevented from lending money at excessive rates of interest. In 1430
Duke Amadeus VIII of Savoy issued
statutes regulating Jewish residence, synagogues, civil and
criminal jurisdiction, and relations with Christians. In addition, the
statutes required Jewish men to wear a *badge in the shape
of a disk, four fingers in width and red and white in color. For the
following four centuries the interpretation of these regulations by the
various rulers of Savoy ranged from literal to lenient. When in 1436
Ludovico of Savoy had the Studium, or university, erected, he
decreed that the mansions of the Jews would be used by the
students. At the same time the Jewish scholar and banker Bonafé
de Chalon was invited to make low-interest loans to the university's
students. During the pestilence of 1450–51 the care of the sick was
given over to a Jewish doctor, Bono.
Jewish money lending was
permitted in Turin for a longer time than anywhere else in
Italy. The taxes paid by the Jews were particularly high and
the imposition of new taxes threatened the Jews with ruin or
expulsion. In 1560 and 1566 Duke Emmanuel Philibert decreed that the
Jews be expelled, but the decrees were canceled because of the
intervention of influential people and the annual payment by the Jews
of 20,000 florins
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0020_0_20107.html
Umbria
A beautiful region, but a region
where few Jews have lived since the Middle ages
There was once a
Jewish presence
and there are still a few Jews living here. Maria Luisa Moscati's family
has lived here since the 16th century. It was also the home of
Raphael and his La Muta casts her Mon Lisa-like spell over the Galleria
Nazionale delle Marche..
Check out this link
http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com
Venice not only has several synagogues, but also a mikva'ot'oth. Both
are located in the ghetto district. The ghetto was established in 1516
during a war between most of the powers of Europe against Venice.
Jews were among those refugees from Venetian-controlled territory in
northern Italy who were able to escape to Venice in front of the
armies that came as close to the lagoon that has always protected the city.
It did it again this time.
http://www.italian-family-history.com/jewish/_Venezia.html
Until that time, Jews were not allowed to live permanently within the city,
but because of their loan and banking services, they were especially needed
during the time of war, and in the aftermath, as well. This was the reason
that the authorities dropped their rules against Jews living in Venice,
and allowed those who were already there, to remain, but confined to the one
part of the city - an area called the 'ghetto', meaning foundry,
because it had been an iron foundry at one time.
The ghetto expanded over time and included two adjoining neighborhoods Jews
were allowed to come and go as long as they identified themselves as Jews by
wearing a Jewish badge and they had to return to be locked with the ghetto
gates each day at sunset.
The baroque synagogues were built as monuments to their distinct ethnic
minhagim (liturgies) and identities. There are two functioning
Sephardic synagogues (the Scuola Levantine and the Scuola Spagnola)The
two Ashkenazic synagogues (Scuola Todesca and Scuola Canton) and the
Italian Synagogue (Scuola Italiano) have been restored and serve as
museums today.
Jews who died in WW I have been memorialized in the outer stone wall of the
Scuola Levantina. You will find names such as Polacco (from Poland),
Sarfatti (from France), Calimani (Good Name" in Greek, from the
Hebrew "Shemtov") Ottolenghi (from Ettlingen, in Germany),
Navarro ( a Spanish name ), Todesco (literally "German") and
more.
A good resource on the Jews and Marranos in Venice are the books of
P.C. Ioly Zorattini Between others, he published fifteen (!) volumes of
"Processi
del Sant' Uffizio di Venezia ontro Ebrei e Giudaizzanti"
(Criminal
Trials of the Holy (?) Office of Venice against Jews and Judizants).
These volumes, not easy to find, were published from 1984 to 1999 and cover
trials against Jews from 1570 to 1734. Ioly Zorattini is an expert of
history of Marranos in North-East Italy (Venezia, Padova, Verona, Udine,
etc.).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7CPlbA6LLzo
ETSI - Sephardi Genealogical and
Historical Society
The purpose of "ETSI" is to
help people interested in Jewish Genealogical and Historical Research in the
Sephardi World. "ETSI's" field of study covers the Ottoman Empire (Turkey,
Greece, Palestine, Syria, Libya, Egypt); North Africa (Algeria,
Morocco, Tunisia) Spain, Portugal, Italy and Gibraltar. The study of
every Sephardi community or family who lived in other regions is equally
within the society's aim.
E-mail
laurphil@wanadoo.fr
There are records available in
Italy and John P. Colleta, author of 'Finding Italian Roots',
mentioned this site http://www.Italiangen.org
Italian Jews
Marc Margarit has developed a web
site that offers 7,800 bibliographic notes representing 20 years of personal
effort. From what I can determine, the links include an Archive Guide;
Family Names, Emigration, Family History, Local Authority Archives,
Franco-Italian Connections, Public Notaries, Local History, Jews, Private
Archives, Archives of Public Notaries concerning naturalizations, State
Archives, Biographies, Places, Bibliography and information on Corsica,
Tessin, San Marino and Malta. The site, however is in French
http://www.geneaita.org/emi/search.htm
There are Regional Special
Interest Groups that have Italian information and links. The site includes
links to Bohemia-Moravia SIG, Denmark SIG, German-Jewish SIG, Hungary SIG
and Stammbaum - German SIG at
http://www.jewishgen.org/Shtetlinks/W_Europe.html
Lev Chadash - (A New Heart )
Italy's first and, to date, only
non-Orthodox synagogue. Associazione italiana per l'ebraismo progressivo -
Jonathan Specktor, formerly of Minneapolis, now lives in Milan and
he, or the organization Lev Chadash, may be a helpful source http://www.levchadash.info/
Contact Rivka Nessim. There are
Regional Special Interest Groups that have Italian information and links.
The site includes links to Bohemia-Moravia SIG, Denmark SIG, German-Jewish
SIG, Hungary SIG and Stammbaum - German SIG at
http://www.jewishgen.org/Shtetlinks/W_Europe.html
Open Street Maps
The crowd-sourced mapping projectOpenStreetMaphas
amassed a million contributors since its inception in 2005 and, according to
navigation app maker Skobbler, boasts greater accuracy in
England, Russia
and
Germany
than rivals such as Google Maps. I tried the site and found an
accurate drawing of my father's ancestral town
Tal'ne, Ukraine.
Almost every country is available as is most towns
http://openstreetmap.org
There are about 70 synagogue
buildings, including the ruins of two from ancient Roman times. In addition,
there are Jewish museums throughout the country. The Piedmont area probably
has the most well-preserved synagogues. Rome boasts the largest and most
ornate structure with a distinctive square dome that towers above the Tiber
River at the edge of the old Jewish ghetto. The three best known are
the Moorish-style synagogue in Florence built in 1870-1882, several
restored synagogues in the old ghetto in Venice and the Grand Rome
synagogue. http://www.jewishitaly.org/
In Your Pocket Guide - a wonderful, detailed commercial travel site that
offers much information about the history and current traveling conditions
in the country, along with city map information http://www.inyourpocket.com
Most books, CDs, etc. can be ordered through my link to Amazon.com by
clicking here > Books
There is a reference to a book
about this family. The article can be found in the Winter issue of ETSI
(Sephardi Genealogical and Historical Review of 1999
http://arts.jrank.org/pages/13231/Medici.html
White Pages (Italian Telephone
Book) in Italian.
You can research for a family name
in towns (Comune) or in a province (Provincia). The option "Provincia"
includes also the towns that are in the province selected
A Ghetto House on Corfu
February/March 2012 issue of Hadassah Magazine
This Ionian isle offer extant multistory gabled houses packed tightly
together. Jews have lived here since 1160 coming first from the Balkan
peninsula, and from Romaniote (Greek speaking) communities. There is an
article authored by Esther Hecht in the February/March 2012 issue of
Hadassah Magazine from which I have gleaned a lot of the following
information.
http://www.hadassahmagazine.org/site/apps/nlnet/content.aspx?c=twI6LmN7IzF&b=5698175&ct=11617659
After the
expulsion of Jews from Spain and Portugal, some settled in
Corfu. They and Jews expelled from Naples joined the small
Italian community, which was mainly from Sicily and Apulia.
Until WW II, there was constant friction between the Romaniote and
Italian Jews in Corfu; they even maintained separate cemeteries.
Until
the 15th century, Jews lived within the Old Fortress, as did other
residents, but later were forbidden to worship there. Newcomers
lived outside the fortress in an area called Jews' Mountain.
Napoleon
conquered Corfu in 1797, he gave the Jews equal rights.
More Jews came from Italy and the Ottoman Empire, and by
1802, the community had grown to 1,229 (of 45,000 inhabitants).
Corfu
became a British protectorate in 1815 and the Jews lost their
civil and political rights. In 1864, the Jews supported Greece's
unification and were given equal rights. Three Jews joined the
city council, one became a deputy mayor and one became mayor.
In 1891,
a second blood libel was spread against the Jews with a month-long
pogrom and about one quarter of Corfu's Jews immigrated to other
parts of Greece and to Turkey, Italy, Egypt and England.
Early on the morning of June 9,
1944, the Germans woke up the some 1800 Jews and forcibly marched them to
the Old Fortress where they were pushed into confiscated small boats to be
deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau. Most never returned.
There is a
Jewish presence today of some 85 Jews. Only a few Jews live in the
ghetto still called Evraiki (Jewish). Before Jews lived in the
ghetto, they lived in a part of the Campielo quarter that was known as
Evreo Vuni (Jews Mountain).
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/loc/Corfu.html
Isaac Dostis is working on a documentary "Farewell My Island" which
is about the deportation from Corfu and is to be finished soon.
Contact Isaac at 1 212 431 1619
Maps
Open Street Maps
The crowd-sourced mapping projectOpenStreetMaphas
amassed a million contributors since its inception in 2005 and,
according to navigation app maker Skobbler, boasts greater accuracy in
England, Russia
and
Germany
than rivals such as Google Maps. I tried the site and found an
accurate drawing of my father's ancestral town
Tal'ne, Ukraine.
Almost every country is available as is most towns
http://openstreetmap.org
Synagogues on Corfu
Of the four synagogues that existed in the ghetto before WW II, only the
Greek one - La Scuola Greca remains. Next door lie the ruins of
the Talmud Torah
http://www.mavensearch.com/synagogues/C3391Y41696RX
Books
Crete
Etz Hayyim Synagogue Door
Crete is the largest of the
Greek islands and also home to one of the oldest Jewish Communities
in Europe. There is an excellent article about this island's Jewish
community - past and present - in the February 2004 issue of Hadassah
Magazine.
Crete is known as the home of the Philistines and was once the home of
Jewish scholars and merchants. It was also the home to one of Europe's
oldest Jewish communities and a stop-over for travelers en route to the Holy
Land. Jews are mentioned as early as 142 B.C.E. in a letter in support of
them sent to the capital city of Gortys, 29 miles south of Heraklion, at the
request of Simon, the Hasmonean ruler of Judea, according to the article in
Hadassah Magazine authored by Esther Hecht.
http://www.etz-hayyim-hania.org/_commun/hist06.html
Around 1204 the island was sold to the
Venetians and became an important commercial center. From 1416 they were
forbidden to own land. In 1858 there were 907 Jews on the island but only
647 in 1881
Maps
Open Street Maps
The crowd-sourced mapping projectOpenStreetMaphas
amassed a million contributors since its inception in 2005 and,
according to navigation app maker Skobbler, boasts greater accuracy in
England, Russia
and
Germany
than rivals such as Google Maps. I tried the site and found an
accurate drawing of my father's ancestral town
Tal'ne, Ukraine.
Almost every country is available as is most towns
http://openstreetmap.org
Central Board of Jewish Communities 36 Voulis Street
Athens, Greece
Phone: 011 30 210 324 4315
E-mail:
hhkis@hellasnet.gr www.kis.gr
Etz Hayyim Synagogue was originally a fifteenth century church and is
located in the old Jewish quarter (Ovraiki) in the city of Hania
Parodos Kondylaki Str
731 10 Hania
Crete, Hellas (GR)
Telephone/Fax: 30 282 108 6286; 30 694 243 9741;
E-mail: dori@grecian.et www.etz-hayyim-hania.org
In 1941, there were 314 Jews.
During WW II, the Jews of Hania were rounded up, taken to
Heraklion and put on a ship bound for Piraeus; a death camp was
their ultimate destination, however a British sub sank the ship and
no Jews survived.
http://www.etz-hayyim-hania.org/_synag/faqs.html
Offers an exhibit entitled 'The
Romaniotes of Crete' which tells the story of the Jews of Crete
and the resurrection of the Romaniote synagogue there. More information can
be found at the museum's web site www.kkjsm.org/home.html
Open Street Maps
The crowd-sourced mapping projectOpenStreetMaphas
amassed a million contributors since its inception in 2005 and,
according to navigation app maker Skobbler, boasts greater accuracy in
England, Russia
and
Germany
than rivals such as Google Maps. I tried the site and found an
accurate drawing of my father's ancestral town
Tal'ne, Ukraine.
Almost every country is available as is most towns
http://openstreetmap.org
An
Ionian Island. Author Avraham Cohen, who was born on Corfu,
wrote a masterpiece, "Belle du Seigneur". It appeared in
English as "Her Lover" (Penguin Books)
Malta
About 28 km by 12 km and is part
of an archipelago made up of another three islands, which are Gozo,
Comino, Cominotto and Filfla, each having their unique features.
The mother language is Maltese, which is semantically based together
with some romantic vocabulary. Most residents speak fluent English as
well. As a country, it dates from thousands of years before Christ and has
been conquered and
colonized by many civilizations and countries, namely Phoenicians, Romans,
Arabs, Normans, French, British and the Knights of St. John. The oldest
known landmark is the Neolithic temples dating from the same era as the
pyramids. Religiously, most of the population is Catholic since the island
was colonized by Britain for over 200 years. Currency is euros. The
history of the Jews in Malta can be traced back to approximately 62
CE. Most contemporary Maltese Jews are
Sefardic,
however an
Ashkenazic
prayer book is use
TheMalta Archdiocese of the Catholic Church
has a digital archive.
“Numerous diocesan" and parish manuscripts dating back to the 15th
century are now freely available online …The publications that have been
made available include marriage, baptism and funeral records, pastoral
visits, church inventories, property registers and various other
publications and records collected by the Catholic Church in Malta over
centuries.”
http://archives.maltadiocese.org/
Books
"The Jews of Malta In The Late Middle Ages"
The book has no ISBN number and written by Godfrey Wettinger of Midsea Books
Ltd. in Malta in 1985. It contains among other things, an Index of Persons
and Index of Places and an Index of Subjects and contains a wealth of
information. Various subject covered include the economic activity of the
Jewish community, Militia lists containing Jewish names, Civil Proceedings
concerning the Jews of Malta and other sundry items - all from the
fifteenth century (1400-1500). Basil Samuels offers to
do looks ups for anyone interested in a posting on 12/10/1997
basilindasamuels@compuserve.com
Jews of Malta
Interior view of the New Synagogue in
Valetta, Malta. Beit Hatefutsoth - Visual Documentation Center.
Courtesy of Stanley L. Davis - Jewish Community of Malta.
Open Street Maps
The crowd-sourced mapping projectOpenStreetMaphas
amassed a million contributors since its inception in 2005 and, according to
navigation app maker Skobbler, boasts greater accuracy in
England, Russia
and
Germany
than rivals such as Google Maps. I tried the site and found an
accurate drawing of my father's ancestral town
Tal'ne, Ukraine.
Almost every country is available as is most towns
http://openstreetmap.org
Valetta
A Democratic government is in
place and Valetta is the capital of the country
There is an excellent article,
authored by Esther Hecht, detailing the Jewish presence in Rhodes. It
is available in the August/September 2002 issue of Hadassah Magazine. I am
quoting some of the highlights from that article.
The Jews of Rhodes call themselves 'Rhodeslis'. The lives of
Rhodeslis are bound up with the sea. Their homes and synagogues were
near the harbor; as silk merchants they sent and received exotic cargoes.
And it was by sea that they left the Island of roses to seek their fortunes
in distant lands: the Belgian Congo (today Zaire), Rhodesia (which is now
Zimbabwe and Zambia) and the United States."
Jews may have been living on the island since the second century B.C.E. They
are mention in 653 C.E. when the Arab conquerors ordered the destruction of
the remains of the Colossus, a gigantic bronze statue of Helios, toppled by
an
earthquake eight centuries before. In the 12th century there were 400 Jews
according to a writing by Benjamin of Tudela, when he visited the Island.
Jews were expelled in early 1500 but were brought back as slaves by the
knights in 1522 and freed by the Turks. These were the Jews who had fled the
Spanish and Portuguese Inquisitions, and their customs and language (Judeo-Spanish)
quickly supplanted those of the earlier Romaniote (Greek-speaking)
community.
Rhodes came under Italian rule in 1912, after the Balkan
wars. Jews then started to seek their fortunes in Africa,
especially in the Belgian Congo. So many men left that the women
would become engaged by mail, then leave to join their husbands. At its peak
in the 1920s, the Jewish population was about 4,000, one third of the total.
While under German occupation in WW II, over 1,604 Jews were taken to
Auschwitz and murdered on July 23, 1944. Only 151 of them survived the
Holocaust. At
present there are fewer than 40 Jews on the island which came under Greek
dominion in 1947. Bella Restis-Angel is their first President of the
Jewish Community which is administered by the Central board of Jewish
Communities in Athens.
In the early 20th century, the rabbi of the largest synagogue was Yaacov
Capuia,
the Kahal Gadol
Most of the founding members of Or Ve Shalom Congregation in Atlanta,
Georgia originated from Rhodes. The women of the congregation
have created a Sephardic cookbook. See my Cooking page for recipes.
http://www.jewishrhodes.org/html/index.php
"Histoire des Juifs de Rhodes", Chio, Cos, etc."
Authored by Abraham Galante and published in Istanbul, in French, by
the Societe Anonyme de Papeterie et d'Imprimerie, 1935.
According to Daniel Kazez, "it is an excellent book, of value to all
Sephardic Jews". It is the history of the Jews of Greece, Rhodes,
Aegean Island, and Turkey The author is working on an English index that
will have about 600 entries indexed. These libraries have the French
version: Hebrew Union College - Ohio; The Ohio State University; The Library
of Congress in Washington; the University of Iowa Library; The Brandeis
University Library in Massachusetts; The Harvard University Library in
Massachusetts; The University of Pennsylvania, Center for Judaic Studies.
The book deals with Rhodes and smaller communities of Chio, Cos,
Lemnos, Metelin, Cassos, Castellorizo, Halki, Patmos, Calymnos, Symi,
Carpathos, Leors, and Nyssiros The index has 648 entries and
requires Adobe PDF program http://www.sephardichouse.org/
"TheJewish Martyrs of
Rhodes and Cos"
Authored by Hizkia M. Franco who was the former President of the Jewish
Community of Rhodes, and published in 1984 by Harper Collins Publishers,
3rd floor, Regal Star House, 26 George Silundika Ave. Harare, Zimbabwe.
This book provides a history of the Jews of Rhodes from the 1930s through
the end of WW II and includes a list of the 1,674 Jews of Rhodes and
Cos who were deported in 1944 by the Nazis, and the 54 Jews who
escaped deportation. Also identified are those who died in the bombing
of Rhodes.
ISBN 1 77904 004 0
"TheJewish Quarter of
Rhodes"
A self-published guide book by Aron Hasson
"Jewish Rhodes: A Lost Culture"
Authored by Isaac Jack Levy and published in 1989 by Judah L. Magnes Museum,
2911 Russell Street, Berkeley, CA 94705
"The Jews of Rhodes"
Authored by Marc Angel and published by Sepher Hermon Press provides a
history
of the community and its customs. It is out of print.
"TheJuderia"
Authored by Laura Varon - is an account of life before the German occupation
and her struggle to survive in a concentration camp.
General Rhodes
Information
Rhodes Jewish cemetery
Jewish Cemetery
Located between the Christian and Muslim burial grounds on the road to
Faliraki, on the southeastern edge of the city. A massive pointed arch
marks the entrance.
http://www.rhodesjewishmuseum.org/cemetery.htm
The home of the
Paccifici family is pictured in the back of the photograph.
Emanuele Pacifici is
the son of Rabbi Riccardo Pacifici and Vanda Abenaim Pacifici. His
father
was born February 18, 1902 in Florence, and his mother was born
on May 6, 1907 in Pisa. Emanuele was born on June 15, 1931. After
receiving his rabbinical ordination in Florence, Rabbi Pacifici
served as the assistant rabbi of Venice from 1929 to 1930.
http://resources.ushmm.org/inquery/uia_doc.php/query/6?uf=uia_nPKYUR
Near the Archaeological Museum
5 Polydorou
Telephone: 30 241 22364
E-mail jcrhodes@otenet.gr
The office has a list of graves in
the cemetery and an archive for genealogical study that is open Monday
through Friday from 9 to 2.
http://www.isjm.org/jhr/nos3-4/rhodes.htm
Jewish Museum of Rhodes
This is the actual stamp used by the
Italians to recognize, and to discriminate against, a person’s
Jewish heritage. It was used on
legal documents
as well as Identification Cards, like this one
belonging to Lucia Turiel Capelluto.
A sixteenth-century synagogue
built in 1577. Samuel Modiano, one of the few Rhodeslis to have
survived the Holocaust, was to have had his bar mitzvah in the synagogue in
1944, but instead 'celebrated' it in Auschwitz. Today, he
leads tours of the synagogue and La Juderia, the neighborhood that
housed thousands of Jews before WW II.
http://www.rhodesjewishmuseum.org/kahal.htm
Kol Hakehila
A quarterly publication about the
Jewish communities in Greece as well as Jewish heritage tours http://www.yvelia.com
La Juderia and Square of
the Jewish Martyrs La Juderia
Located in the eastern corner of
the town and was home for Jews for centuries. The square is now called
Plateia Martyron Evreion: the Square of the Jewish Martyrs of the
Holocaust.
http://www.rhodesjewishmuseum.org/news.htm
Open Street Maps
The crowd-sourced mapping projectOpenStreetMaphas
amassed a million contributors since its inception in 2005 and, according to
navigation app maker Skobbler, boasts greater accuracy in
England, Russia
and
Germany
than rivals such as Google Maps. I tried the site and found an
accurate drawing of my father's ancestral town
Tal'ne, Ukraine.
Almost every country is available as is most towns
http://openstreetmap.org
The
Jews of Alghero
(Sardinia) were mostly engaged in trade, but there were also many
scholars and physicians among them, the best known being: Isaac Eymies,
who was pensioned by the governor of
Lugodoro
and by the city of
Alghero,
and who was called in 1406 to the post of city physician of
Cagliari;
Ḥayyim of Hipre, author of a work on the medicinal plants of
Sardinia;
and Solomon Averonques, renowned for his surgical operations. The
Jews of Alghero
were not excluded from official positions. Mention is made of a Jew
named Moses Sofer who occupied in 1467 the position of tax-collector.
Another, named Moses di Carcassona, was appointed by the vice-king
Carroz in 1467 as the general sheriff’s officer of the court of
Alghero.
http://www.j-italy.org/treasures/location/sardinia/alghero
The southernmost of the Ionian
islands. In gratitude for the islanders' help during WW II,
the local Jewish community donated the stained-glass windows of the
church. Jews lived here, on the island, from at least the start of
the 15th century and had strong commercial and family ties with the
Jewish community in Corfu.
The Germans occupied the
island in 1943, appointed Lucas Karrer mayor and demanded a list of the
Jews. Instead, Metropolitan Chrysostemos Demetrious bribed the
German commander, and the partisans threatened to attack. Bishop
Vasily Stravolmos wired Hitler, asking him not to deport the Jews.
The Germans again demanded a list.
This time they received one, but it bore only two names: Karrer's and
the metropolitan's. When the Germans nevertheless brought
boats to deport the Jews, Karrer told them to flee, and nearly the
entire community was saved.
Open Street Maps
The crowd-sourced mapping projectOpenStreetMaphas
amassed a million contributors since its inception in 2005 and,
according to navigation app maker Skobbler, boasts greater accuracy in
England, Russia
and
Germany
than rivals such as Google Maps. I tried the site and found an
accurate drawing of my father's ancestral town
Tal'ne, Ukraine.
Almost every country is available as is most towns
http://openstreetmap.org
Open Street Maps
The crowd-sourced mapping projectOpenStreetMaphas
amassed a million contributors since its inception in 2005 and,
according to navigation app maker Skobbler, boasts greater accuracy in
England, Russia
and
Germany
than rivals such as Google Maps. I tried the site and found an
accurate drawing of my father's ancestral town
Tal'ne, Ukraine.
Almost every country is available as is most towns
http://openstreetmap.org
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