Most books, CDs, etc. can be ordered through my link to Amazon.com by clicking here > Jewish Genealogy
Maps
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 is 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 www.calle.com/world/
Art Source International offers a selection of antique maps, prints and globes at Art Source
International
Greece
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
Most books, CDs, etc. can be ordered through my link to Amazon.com by clicking here > Jewish Genealogy
"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
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), which is 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.
The Association of Friends of Greek Jewry (AFGJ) is an organization established to help preserve what is left of the Jewish presence in Greece. Marcia Haddad Ikonomopoulos is the AFGJ president. E-mail AFGJ@msn.com http://www.kkjsm.org/association/association.html
Athens -
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.
Beth Shalom Synagogue - is Athens 'old' synagogue and is at 5 Melidoni. Telephone 325 2773. Rabbi is Jacob Arar, chief rabbi of Athens since 1968. http://www.isjm.org/country/greece/bethshalom.htm
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
Part of the Jewish Cemetery in Athens
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. Located at 39 Nikis
near Syntagma Square. Telephone 30-210-322 5582; fax 323 1577; Interesting and colorful site www.jewishmuseum.gr
Chios - 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
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 http://www.geocities.com/EnchantedForest/1321
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
Florina - "List of Jews Deported From Florina by the Nazis"; "Florina, Remembrance of a Forgotten Community"; "Florina - Nostalgia de Una Communidad Olvidada" - http://www.jewishgen.org/yizkor/translations.html
"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
"Preserving Jewish Heritage in Greece" - an interesting site featuring an article detailing, from an archaeological view, remnants of Jewish life in ancient and recent times in Greece http://www.he.net/~archaeol/online/features/greece/index.html
Romaniote Jews -
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
Salonika (Thessalonica) -
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
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.
Central Archives for the History of the Jewish People (CAHJP) - http://www.orthohelp.com/geneal/sefardim.htm there is the Thessalonica Community Archives (1913-1946) at this site.
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.
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.
Translation Service - a commercial site offering many language translating programs http://www.worldlanguage.com
Italy
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). 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
Jewish communities flourished in South Italy during the Roman time and the Middle Ages. After the persecutions (1492-1541) Jews abandoned South Italy. Today the only community in South Italy is Napoli (Naples), and few Jews live in the southern part of the country (Sicily and Puglia). 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.
"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 New York Times http://tinyurl.com/hmcm From a posting to JewishGen by Andrew Blumberg on 7/21/03
Most books, CDs, etc. can be ordered through my link to Amazon.com by clicking here > Jewish Genealogy
"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.
"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.
Bologna - 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/
Capua - 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 Taranto LBTEPT@aol.comon Jul 28, 2000 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
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 http://www.geocities.com/EnchantedForest/1321
Florence (Firenze) - 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.
Click on photo to enlarge 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.
"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 > Jewish Genealogy http://www.jewishgen.org/InfoFiles/Italy/italian.htm
Italiangen - 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
Italian Library of "Nos Ancestres Italiens" - in both English and French http://genami.org
Italian Oral History Institute - PO Box 241553, Los Angeles, CA 90024-1553 has an interesting and informative web site dealing with Italian Jewry http://www.iohi.org/pages/itjews.htm
"Jewish Family Names and their Origin" - authored by Eva H. Guggenheimer - 1992 http://tinyurl.com/64rrsl
The Jews of Italy - 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
Livorno - "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 www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/vjw/Livorno.html
Lugo - 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
Merano, an Island town in the greater Venice area, has some Jews buried in the Italy LutheranCemetery. 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
Milan - 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 http://.www.jewishencyclopedia.com/
ooops! 'Torre Pendente (The Leaning Tower) In the upper right hand corner there are Jewish graves
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.
Pitigliano - 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. www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/vjw/Pitigliano.html
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.
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
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. http://infomotions.com/etexts/gutenberg/dirs/1/3/4/5/13459/13459.txt
Synagogues - thee 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/
With this LingvoSoft smart dictionary software on your computer, you can easily switch between English and Yiddish, (and many other languages including Italian) for prompt translations of 400,000 words both ways! Download Free Trial now
Trieste - 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
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
Umbria
A beautiful
region, but a region where few Jews have lived since the Middle ages.
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 (?) Ofice 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.). A list of P.C. Ioly Zorattini's publications can be find at: http://www.humnet.unipi.it/medievistica/aisg/AISG_Ioly/Ioly.html
Volterra bankers family of Tuscany - 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://www.geocities.com/EnchantedForest/1321/
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. http://elenco.virgilio.it/pb/home/
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 > Jewish Genealogy
Corfu
Early on the morning of June 9, 1944, the Germans woke up the Jewish population 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. 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
Most books, CDs, etc. can be ordered through my link to Amazon.com by clicking here > Jewish Genealogy
Crete
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.
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
Hania - 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
The Kehila Kedosha Janina Synagogueand Museum 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
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 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 12/10/1997basilindasamuels@compuserve.com
A Democratic
government is in place and Valetta is the capital of the country.
New Synagogue in Valetta, Malta. Beth Hatefutsoth - Visual Documentation Center Courtesy of Stanley L. Davis - Jewish Community of Malta
Rhodes Click on Map to Enlarge
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 Cookingpage for recipes.
Books
Most books, CDs, etc. can be ordered through my link to Amazon.com by clicking here > Jewish Genealogy
"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 Quarter of Rhodes" - a self-published guide book by Aron Hasson
"TheJews of Rhodes" - authored by Marc Angel and published by Sepher Hermon Press provides a history of the community and its customs
"The Juderia" - authored by Laura Varon - is an account of life before the German occupation and her struggle to survive in a concentration camp.
General Information
Jewish Cemetery - is between 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
Jewish Community - near the Archaeological Museum at 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
Kahal Shalom Synagogue - 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, is 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
The Rhodes Jewish Historical Foundation - 10850 Wilshire Blvd. # 750 Los Angeles, CA 90024 Phone: 310-475-4779 Fax: 310-475-8144 http://www.rhodesjewishmuseum.org
Books
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.
ooops! 'Torre Pendente (The Leaning Tower)
Jewish funeral in Venice
Click on photo to see an enlarged view
Valetta 
