Sunday, May 19, 2013

Greece - June 2013 - Part 1

Greece June 2013 Part 1 - Introduction



We flew on May 12 from Toronto to Israel and after spending a wonderful Shavuot, flew very early on Sunday May 19th from Tel Aviv to Athens, via Aegean Airlines, a Star Alliance partner.

We got up this morning at 4 am and returned our rented car before heading out to the airport. We checked in and made our way to the lounge where we davened shacharit before boarding our flight for Athens.

We are joined on this trip by our good friends Irving and Ruchama Alter of Ramot and over the next two and a half weeks, we will visit Athens, Mykonos, Santorini, Crete, back to Athens for Shabbat, Kalampaka and the Monasteries of Meteora and Thessaloniki. The Alters will be leaving after the Shabbat in Athens and we will be driving north alone.
We are joined on this trip by our good friends Irving and Ruchama Alter of Ramot and over the next two and a half weeks, we will visit Athens, Mykonos, Santorini, Crete, back to Athens for Shabbat, Kalampaka and the Monasteries of Meteora and Thessaloniki. The Alters will be leaving after the Shabbat in Athens and we will be driving north alone.

But first, here are a few facts on Greece.

Greece is a country in Southeast Europe, strategically located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and Africa, bordering on Albania, the Republic of Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to the northeast.  According to the 2011 census, Greece's population is around 11 million. Athens is the nation's capital and largest city, with its greater metropolitan area being home to nearly a third of the population.


Greece Map

Greece has the 11th longest coastline in the world featuring approximately 1400 islands, of which 227 are inhabited.

Eighty percent of Greece consists of mountains, of which Mount Olympus is the highest at 2,917 m (9,570 ft).

Modern Greece traces its roots to the civilization of Ancient Greece, generally considered the cradle of Western civilization. As such, it is the birthplace of democracy, Western philosophy, the Olympic Games, mathematical principles, and Western drama, including both tragedy and comedy. 


The modern Greek state was established in 1830, following the Greek War of Independence from the Ottoman Empire.

Jews, primarily from South Western Asia, have been present in Greece for a little more than two thousand years; the first recorded mention of Judaism in Greece dates from 300-250 Before Common Era (BCE) on the island of Rhodes. Aristotle (who lived in the 4th century BCE) mentions a conversation with a Jew in Asia Minor.

Archaeologists have discovered ancient synagogues in Greece, including the Synagogue in the Agora of Athens (
The remains consist of a part of the mosaic floor and an inscribed plaque depicting a Menorah with a lulav (myrtle branch) on it) and the Delos Synagogue, dating to the 2nd century BCE.

 
The oldest and the most characteristic Jewish group that has inhabited Greece are the Romaniotes, a distinct Jewish population that historically lived in communities throughout Greece for more than 2000 years, 
as far back as the Babylonian exile. Their historic language was Yevanic, a dialect of the Greek language. Yevanic has no surviving speakers today.

Romaniotes’ customs were distinct from those of Sephardic Jews, more similar to those of Italian Jews. A possible explanation being that they used the Jerusalem Talmud instead of the Babylonian Talmud. They also mostly spoke Greek and not Hebrew. 

Greece has also had a large population of Sefaradic Jews who settled in Greece after the 1492 expulsion of the Jews from Spain with between fifteen and twenty thousand Sephardim settling in Thessaloniki, the city which was to be named "Mother of Israel" in the years to come, though much of that community was decimated by the Nazis. 

The first settlement of Ashkenazi Jews in Greece occurred in 1376, heralding an Ashkenazi immigration from Hungary and Germany to avoid the persecution of Jews throughout the 15th century. Jewish immigrants from France and Venice also arrived in Greece, and created new Jewish communities in Thessaloniki.

The White Tower on the waterfront of Thessaloniki was for centuries part of the walls of the old city, and separated the Jewish quarter of the city from the cemeteries of the Muslims and Jews. 

Thessaloniki's Jewish community comprised more than half of the city's population by the early 1900s. As a result of the Jewish influence on the city, many non-Jewish inhabitants of Thessaloniki spoke Judeo Espaniol, the language of the Sephardic Jews, and the city virtually shut down on Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath, given it sometimes the name of 'Little Jerusalem".

Many sea-travellers reaching the port of Thessaloniki humorously recalled that Thessaloniki was a city where people worked only four days while resting three consecutive days. This was due to the three major religions the population adhered to and their respective resting days: Friday for Muslims Saturday for Jews and Sundays for Christians.

This graph of the Population of Thessaloniki is self explanatory.
Year    Total Population    Jewish Population    Jewish Percentage
1842           70,000               36,000                       51%
1870           90,000               50,000                       56%
1882           85,000               48,000                       56%
1902          126,000               62,000                       49%
1913          157,889               61,439                       39%
1943            53,000                    --                           --
2000          363,987                 1,400                       0.3%

During World War II, Greece was conquered by Nazi Germany.  12,898 Greek Jews fought in the Greek army against the Nazis. 

Some 60,000-70,000 Greek Jews,  or at least 81% of the country's Jewish population, were murdered. Thousands of Jews were saved by the Greek Orthodox Church hierarchy due to a proclamation by Archbishop Damaskinos (featured below on the cover of Time Magazine), instructing the church to issue false baptismal certificates to all Jews who requested them. 

 
He wrote to the Nazi occupiers: " 
In our national consciousness, all the children of Mother Greece are an inseparable unity: they are equal members of the national body irrespective of religion... Our holy religion does not recognize superior or inferior qualities based on race or religion, as it is stated: 'There is neither Jew nor Greek' and thus condemns any attempt to discriminate or create racial or religious differences."  He has been named one of the "Righteous among the Nations".

As well, all of the 275 Jews of the island of Zakynthos survived the Holocaust. When the island's mayor, Carrer, was presented with the German order to hand over a list of Jews, Bishop Chrysostomos returned to the Germans with a list of two names; his and the mayor's. The island's population hid every member of the Jewish community. 

This amazing story was featured in a Jerusalem Post Feature Story: 

 Mayor Loukas Karrer

                      Picture of Bishop Chrysostomos of Zakynthos

In 1947, a large number of the Jews of Zakynthos made aliyah to Palestine, while others moved to Athens. When the island was almost levelled by the great earthquake of 1953, the first relief came from Israel, with a message that read "The Jews of Zakynthos have never forgotten their Mayor or their beloved Bishop and what they did for us."

Although the Germans deported a great number of Greek Jews, others were successfully hidden by their Greek neighbours.

On July 11, 1942, the Jews of Thessaloniki were rounded up in preparation for slave labour. 46,091 people were sent to Auschwitz, and most of their sixty synagogues and schools were destroyed. Only 1,950 survived.  

Many survivors emigrated to Israel and the United States. Today the Jewish population of Thessaloniki numbers roughly 1,000, and maintains two synagogues.

The Jewish community in Greece currently amounts to roughly 8,000 people, concentrated mainly in Athens and Thessaloniki and they  largely "live side by side in harmony" with Christian Greeks



We thank you for joining us on this trip....more to come soon

All the best

Fran and David