Page 8 - Roxanne Aubrey Marina

PROFILE OF
JEWISh LIFE IN GREECE
Historical Background
Greece is home to an authentic group of Jews with a long history there. Although currently less than .3% of Greece’s population is Jewish—about 5,000 individuals--the country was once home to over 80,000 Jews who created an extremely vibrant and important community. This community was centered in Thessaloniki, also known as Salonika.
The majority of the Jews in Greece were
and are Sephardim whose ancestors were expelled from Spain, Portugal and Italy. They mostly settled in cities such as Thessaloniki, which at one point was called the “Mother
of Israel.” Until the Holocaust, the Sephardic community in Thessaloniki was a unique blend of Ottoman, Balkan and Hispanic influences, well known for its high level of education. The traditional language of Greek Sephardim was Ladino, a combination of Spanish, Greek and Hebrew.
Another population of Jews, known as the Romaniotes, thrived throughout Greece as well. These Greek Jews that are distinct from both Ashkenazim and Sephardim and speak the Yevanic Greek dialect and Greek.
The city of Thessaloniki was once a center of Torah learning that attracted Jews from around the world. The Jews in Thessaloniki developed a strong and active scholarly, intellectual and religious lifestyle. They
had control over the city’s economy and established 40 synagogues, a college, four high schools and 15 elementary schools.
The story of the Greek Holocaust is
essentially the tragic story of the destruction of Thessaloniki Jewry, as the city’s Jewish population almost completely disappeared. Many synagogues were destroyed and properties were lost. At the very beginning of World War II, more than 50,000 Jews lived there. From March to July of 1943, 96% of the Jewish population--over 46,000 people--were deported to Auschwitz. Only 1,200 survived. Meanwhile, Athens’ 3,000 Jews, who were located in the Italian Occupation Zone, had more time to prepare for the worst. Thanks to a strong resistance movement, the actions of the Greek Orthodox Church and the foresight of the chief rabbi of Athens, most of the
Jews hidden throughout Athens survived the Holocaust.
Jews in Greece Today
Today, approximately 3,700 Jews live in Athens, and 1,300 live in Thessaloniki. Communities of descendants of surviving Thessaloniki Jews– both Sephardic and Romaniote – live in the United States, Israel and other places.
The Jews of Thessaloniki are very tightly knit. The Jewish Community of Thessaloniki is
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