by VICTOR I. ELIEZER, EJP May 04, 2017
The first Greek Jew known by name was "Moschos, son of Moschion the Jew", a slave identified in an inscription dated approximately 300 - 250 B.C. found in Oropos, a small coastal town 40 klm from Athens. It could be assumed that as a result of frequent Jewish movement through Greece, a Jewish Community was eventually established. This community is believed to have grown further after the Hasmonean uprising (142 B.C.) when many Jews were sold into slavery in Greece.
In the early Christian era, the fact that Paul the Apostle, upon his arrival in Greece, preached in the Jewish Synagogues in Athens, Corinth, Veria, Kavala (Philipus) gives proof of the existence of many Jewish Communities in this Country. These Greek Jews were known as Romaniote and had developed their own customs and language (Judeo-Greek). Remnants of this unique tradition survived to our days.
From the end of the 14th century Jewish refugees emigrated from Spain and Portugal to the Greek mainland and adjacent islands. Mainly in Thessaloniki, the Jews known as the Shephardim introduced their own language (Judeo-Espagnol) and customs. During the 16th-18th centuries, Thessaloniki had one of the largest Jewish communities in the World and a solid rabbinical tradition.
Today, the Jews in Greece are organized in eight active Jewish Communities. In Athens, with almost 3000 Jews, there are two synagogues and the Lauder elementary school. In Thessaloniki (Salonika), with 1000 Jews, there are two synagogues and one elementary school while another 1000 Greek Jews are living in six different cities, having a synagogue which is the center of the Jewish life, in Larissa, Chalkis, Volos, Corfu, Trikala, and Ioannina. There are also synagogues located in Greek cities where no Jewish Communities exist, as in the islands of Rhodes and Crete in Chania, which are open for visitors and special services for Yiamim Noraim and Pessach as well as weddings and Bar Mitsva. There are also two Jewish Museums, one in Athens which preserves the heritage of the Greek Jewry and one in Thessaloniki preserving the history of the local Community. The Holocaust Museum and Research center of Human rights is going to be opened in Thessaloniki in 2017 by the Municipality headed by the Mayor John Boutaris and the local Jewish community headed by David Saltiel.
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