Romaniotes

this article introduces the reader to the considerations that had to be taken when cleaning and refreshing two of its large display cases at the Jewish Museum of Greece. The staff of the museum planned in advance, ensuring the safety of the objects and staff. eventually it is natural for unpredicted problems to occur in the real time process. The Museum acknowledged the convenience of the visitor pathway and, moreover, granted visual access to the treatment actions by encouraging communication with the working staff, enriching the visitor experience. The process was beneficial for evaluating the staff's teamwork and the production of a record, and a methodology to be followed for other display cases of the museum and potentially by other institutions.

More than 2 millennia of Jewish presence in Thessaloniki have shaped both the city and its Jews.  The Jews of Thessaloniki, in most instances, were subject to the fortunes and misfortunes of their coreligionists in the realms of the Kingdom of Macedonia, the Roman Empire, the Eastern Roman Empire – Byzantium and the Ottoman Empire.  A new and current chapter in their history is the birth of the modern Hellenic state and its foundation on civil rights.  In the second decade of the 20th century the Jews of Thessaloniki finally belong, on equal par with the overwhelming Christian majority, as Hellenes in Greece.  The tumultuous events of the previous century, both worldwide and locally, had profound consequences for Jewish Thessaloniki.  Still the community is in search of its current identity and of a vision for the future.  Our presence here enhances my optimism.

[Attention:  The attachments contain correct download links to the accompanying presentation in both pptx and ppsx (presentation & show)]
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Jewish Salonika is unique: the most cataclysmic and momentous event in its two thousand year history is its near total obliteration. The year 1943 CE witnessed unfathomable events of human annihilation that took place within the time frame of just a few months. These events have been only superficially researched. Such superficiality is exemplified in the research on the interplay of circumstances and powers that allowed them to take place and the degree and speed to which they occurred. At odds with such feeble research is the existence of documentary evidence demonstrating the bureaucratic efficiency of the perpetrators. Given such documentary evidence, the events of the Holocaust of the Jews of Salonika should be correlated with the history of the Community before and after the destruction. Proceeding in this manner should be done in keeping with the framework of concurrent Hellenic history in particular and European–world history in general. The inquiry partially catalyzing such a correlation is twofold: first, could more human beings have been saved and second, irrespective of the outcome, what was the moral standing of the Society at large? The latter, for objective purposes, can only be deduced by the behavior, attitude, actions, reactions and/or omissions of the non-Jewish community as a whole and as individuals before and after the Holocaust. Deducing as such must occur with cognizance. Mainly, there is difficulty in judging the behavior of bystanders when it is impossible to ascertain how the critic would have behaved under similar circumstances. Mindful of possible ambiguity, the general Holocaust calculus nevertheless has two parts: the first operation states that it takes only a few evil persons to assassinate many. The second operation states that many righteous humans may save, at most, a finite number of fellow beings.

Informed by such evidence and caveats, my objective is to present a glimpse of Jewish Thessaloniki with special emphasis to the Holocaust. This vast topic may be broadly divided into the following subtopics: 1) The history of Jewish Thessaloniki up to the Holocaust, 2) The Holocaust of the Jews of Thessaloniki and 3) The post war aftermath encompassing the current status and future of Jewish Thessaloniki in general and the preservation of the remnants of Sephardic heritage and traditions.

The goal to which I aspire is to provide a sequence of historical events and by so doing, to attempt to stimulate interest in further research. A cursory non-web or web based search lays bare both the surprising little we know, as well as the fact that scholarly or non-scholarly published work, in most instances, employs the repetition of a bare minimum of facts and data. Informed by such a reality, one might be tempted to believe that a particular subject especially that of the annihilation is taboo. Gaps in the historiography of Greece do a disservice both to the remaining Jewish Greeks in particular and the whole Hellenic nation in general. It is encouraging that research has recently accelerated, albeit at a slow pace. These endeavors are nevertheless a welcome step in the right direction. The main reason that research should accelerate at full speed is the inescapable reality of the biological attrition of the ranks of eyewitnesses and Holocaust survivors.3

Η Ιστορία των Ιουδαίων της και στη Θεσσαλονίκη είναι ένα ευρύ πεδίο με το οποίο έχουν ασχοληθεί κατά καιρούς ένας αριθμός ιστορικών και ερευνητών.  Επιπλέον, είναι άρρηκτα συνδεδεμένη (η Ιστορία) με την Ιστορία των άλλων λαών της γεωγραφικής περιοχής και καλύπτει διάστημα πλέον των 2000 ετών, κοσμοϊστορικά γεγονότα και 3 αυτοκρατορίες.  Αν και το κτύπημα και η καταστροφή που υπέστη η Ιουδαϊκή Θεσσαλονίκη από το Γερμανικό Ράιχ ήταν συντριπτικό και, ουσιαστικά, έσβησε τον Ιουδαϊσμό στην πόλη, εν τούτοις οι προκλήσεις του μέλλοντος της σήμερον μικρής αλλά γεμάτης ζωής Ιουδαϊκής παρουσίας μας επιβάλλουν να κτίσουμε πάνω στα θεμέλια του πλούσιου και δοξασμένου παρελθόντος.

The Jewish community of Ioannina, Greece is a microcosm of the Greek-speaking Romaniote Jews of the Balkans. Jews have lived in what is now Greece since antiquity.Romaniote communities established in the Peloponnesus were decimated in the 19th century struggle for independence from Ottoman rule.The old communities located primarily in Ioannina, Arta and Chalkida remained as the mainstays of Romaniote life.
What makes these smaller Jewish communities, especially the more populous community of Ioannina, important in the scheme of Jewish history and culture?Because the Jews of Epirus were removed from the more numerous Sephardic Jews who resettled in Ottoman Greek cities and towns from the 16th century and onwards, the Greek aspects of their cultural expressions were maintained.Their cultural heritage was influenced and colored by the customs and traditions of their Greek Christian neighbors.Most notably, while Hebrew remained the language of sacred usage, demotic Greek was the everyday language in comparison to the Judeo-Spanish used by Jews elsewhere in the region. Underlying their practices, however, was a strict adherence to Jewish law.
Here, the history of the Jewish community of Ioannina, particularly in the 19th and 20th century, is outlined. The cultural traditions of community members during this time period are detailed to illustrate its unique Greek nature and characteristics.

More than 2 millennia of Jewish presence in Thessaloniki have shaped both the city and its Jews.  The Jews of Thessaloniki, in most instances, were subject to the fortunes and misfortunes of their coreligionists in the realms of the Kingdom of Macedonia, the Roman Empire, the Eastern Roman Empire – Byzantium and the Ottoman Empire.  A new and current chapter in their history is the birth of the modern Hellenic state and its foundation on civil rights.  In the second decade of the 20th century the Jews of Thessaloniki finally belong, on equal par with the overwhelming Christian majority, as Hellenes in Greece.  The tumultuous events of the previous century, both worldwide and locally, had profound consequences for Jewish Thessaloniki.  Still the community is in search of its current identity and of a vision for the future.  Our presence here enhances my optimism.

The history of the Jews of and in Thessaloniki is a vast topic that has been addressed by a number of historians and researchers over the years.  After all, it is inexorably linked with the history of the other people of the geographic area, spanning more than 2000 years, tumultuous historical events and 3 Empires.  Even though the blow that was meted to Jewish Thessaloniki by the German Reich during the Second World War essentially wiped out Judaism in the city, the challenges of the future of the now small, but vibrant, Jewish presence force us to build on our rich and glorious past.

Greek Jews have lived in Greece for over 2000 years. Despite the uniqueness and importance of this group-few studies have been devoted to understand their identity, their integration/assimilation into the Greek society and their attitudes and experiences in regards to Anti-Semitism. Greek Jews today still struggle to assert their legitimacy as Greeks. They are often suspected of having divided loyalties between Greece and Israel or are told that Greekness and Orthodox Christianity are conterminous. It has become more urgent to explore this issue given the rise of Anti-Semitism in Europe and the advent of Golden Dawn in Greece, a far right neo Nazi party whose leaders have openly denied the Holocaust and blame Jews for Greece's economic difficulties. To explore this, a mixed-method study is proposed to acquire quantitative and qualitative data on Greek Jews: The questions raised will focus on how they assimilated and integrated into the larger Greek Orthodox community and will measure the current state of Antisemitism from their perspective in Greece. The data will include survey questionnaires in conjunction with semi-structured interviews. The participants will be selected in random from the existing Greek Jewish communities (approx. 5,500).

23 – 25 Haziran 2016 tarihinde düzenlenen "Dördüncü Uluslararası Sevgi Gönül Bizans Araştırmaları Sempozyumu" için poster sunumu olarak hazırlanmıştır.

Fourth International Sevgi Gönül Byzantine Studies Symposium
23 – 25 June 2016
Byzantine Identity and the Other in Geographical and Ethnic Imagination

This article introduces the reader to the considerations that had to be taken when cleaning and refreshing two of its large display cases at the Jewish Museum of Greece. Those display cases contain a mixed collection of variable items namely costumes, photographs, prints and wa-tercolours. The staff of the museum planned in advance, ensuring the safety of the objects and staff. Eventually it is natural for unpredicted problems to occur in the real time process. The Museum acknowledged the convenience of the visitor pathway and, moreover, granted visual access to the treatment actions by encouraging communication with the working staff, enriching the visitor experience. Finally the process was beneficial for evaluating the staff's teamwork and the production of a record, and a methodology to be followed for other display cases of the museum and potentially by other institutions.

The study of the origins of the Karaites in the Byzantine Empire and of its development
is hindered through the lack of proper historiographical sources. The actual work
is to be considered as an introduction in the matter of the Karaite studies through
the analyzing of the history of the settlements and the successive development of
the Karaite communal structures. Through the knowledge of the establishment of
the community the later spiritual development and literary creativity not only of the
Karaites but also these of their environment, the Romaniotic, and Sephardic Jewish
communities can be merely understood.