OUR HISTORY
Oral tradition in loannina maintains that the first Jews who settled in the
area did so in 70 CE, after the destruction of the Second Temple in
Jerusalem.
According to the tradition, the Roman emperor Titus, after capturing Jerusalem
in September 70, was transporting many jews to Rome as slaves when his ship
was driven by a storm onto the Albanian coast.
Instead of throwing his captives into the sea, he allowed them to disembark,
and they eventually made their way to the area in which loannina later was
established.
Rae Dalven
JANINA
According to an old tradition, there was a jewish community in Janina as
early as the ninth century; the archaic Greek spoken by the jewish
inhabitants suggests that this may be true. The janina community is the
largest and most representative Romaniote Greek jewish community,whose
members are descendants of the Greek Jews living in the Byzantine Empire.
The jews of janina reigned over the now extinct jewish communities in Arta,
Preveza, and Parga.
During the first half of the 13th century the town was part of the despotate
of Epirus and the jewish community suffered from persecutions.
Jewish serfs are mentioned in two bulls, dated 1319 and 1321 respectively,
issued by Emperor Andronicus II Palaeologus (1282-1328).
During his reign the emperor placed the Jews under his direct protection.
In 1431 when the town was taken by the Turks, there was a sizable Jewish
community which continued to grow in succeeding generations. When jewis
refugees from Spain settled there, they assimilated into the local Romaniote
population and adopted their Greek dialect. There were two synagogues,
one known as the "old community", the other as the "new". In 1612 the Jews
were falsely accused of having handed Bishop Dionysios, the leader of a
revolt, over to the Turkish authorities,who executed him. Ali Pasha, who
as governor of the area from 1788 to 1822, imposed a heavy tax burden on
the wealthy Jews.In 1821 when the Greek rebellion broke out, some jews
found refuge in Janina.
In 1872 there were anti-Jewish riots in the town. In 1919 the jewish
population was 3,000, and on the eve of the Holocaust it was 1,950.
On March 25, 1944,1,860 Jews were seized by the Nazis and deported to
Auschwitz.
In 1948 there were 170 jews living in the town, and by 1967 their number
had dwindled to 92. By the 1990's only approximately 45 remained.
In the past Janina Jews maintained trade relations with Europe and the
East, and also engaged in silk weaving and the manufacture of scarves, veils
and silver belts; there were also goldsmiths, dyers, glaziers, tinsmiths,
fishermen, and coachmen among them.
The jewish quarter is located within the walls of the old city. it includes
the area to the right of Joseph Eliyia Street. It was also named
"Megali Rouga", which means "Big Road".
The old synagogue within the fortress walls is preserved by loanniote jews
from around the world.
janina (French spelling) is also spelled loannina (purist Greek), Yannina
(Demotic Greek) and Yanya (Turkish).
kahal Kadosh Yashan
Janina (Ioannina)
Oral history claims that Jews inhabited the Epirus area from the period
just after the destruction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem in 7OCE.
The earliest documented evidence of a Jewish presence in janina is recorded
from the 9th century.
When Sephardim arrived after the expulsion from Spain, there was so much
friction with the Romaniote community that the original community petitioned
the high rabbi in Constantinople to forbid other jews from settling or
doing business in janina.
The original synagogue just within the fortress walls was built in the
17th century.
Kahal Kadosh Yashan was built on the same site in 1829. The wall and gate
surrounding the building and its courtyard were built in the late 19th century.
The Romaniote building has some typical features: An arbor was naturally
built in the courtyard as a supporting frame for a Sukkah; the ehal is on
the east wall with the bimah on the west; women had an outside entrance
to the balcony; the seating arrangement is along the central axis, east-west.
During the German occupation the synagogue was turned into a municipal
library. Much of the synagogue's artifacts were hidden in a crypt until
the war was over.
A second synagogue, Kahal Kadosh Hadash, was built in 1841 as the jewish
community expanded outside the castro. The Nazis turned that into a stable
and it was razed around the end of the war.
Most of the remaining Jewish population resides in the building constructed
on the site on Joseph Eliyia Street.
Kehia Kedosha janina and Bet Abraham and Ohel Sarah each have a torah
donated by the janina jewish community.
Kehila Kedosha Janina
New York City
At the turn of the century, a group of our parents and grandparents began
to emigrate to the United States. In 1906, they organized themselves by
forming a minyan group to perpetuate their heritage and traditions.
The second important facet to the community was a burial society.
The congregation was called Kehila Kedosha janina, so named after the
town of loannina in Greece, from whence they came. The benevolent society
was originally called Society of Love and Brotherhood. The Kehila still
bears its original name and the benevolent society is now known as the
United Brotherhood/Good Hope Society of Janina.
After many years of conducting services in temporary facilities,
Joseph I. josephs, the founder of our Kehi Ia, with the financial support
of the community, finally found and built the permanent synagogue at its
current address.
There are elements of Romaniote and Sephardic background in the building,
yet it's polar-axial is north-south and not the traditional east-west.
(That may have been a prior restriction because the lot is narrow east-west)
The bimah facing the ark from a center position is Sephardic. The seats
running parallel along the sides of the bimah is reminiscent of the Janina
synagogue. The women's section taking up three sides of the balcony is
Romaniote.
The torahs are encased in ornate olive wood or metal tiks, distinctly
Romaniote. One originally was brought as a gift from Janina(another Sefer
Torah from janina is in the jerusalem Synagogue.)
The years from 1927 to the beginning of World War II were the most
successful for the Kehi Ia. There were three rabbis conducting services:
jessula Mordechai Levy, Simon Menachem Asser and Jessula Moshe HaCohen
The services drew a goodly crowd so much so that during the high holy days
it was standing room only. After the war, however, there was an exodus to
the other boroughs and Long Island and membership dwindled. But, there was
an influx of new immigrants who came to our shores after surviving World
War II and the Holocaust, who helped augment our congregation once again.
Kehila Kedosha Janina is still a functioning synagogue. In fact, the ONLY
one conducting services in the Greek/Judeo minhag in the country. Services,
are held every Saturday morning and all holidays. Without a rabbi, the
congregation, led by President Hy Genee, conducts its own service.
As the Romaniote community expanded, a minyan spread to Harlem and later,
a synagogue to The Bronx. In Brooklyn, the Sephardic Jewish Center synagogue
in the Maplewood section was opened by Romaniotes. Both synagogues have
since closed.
The Holocaust and Greek Jewry
Greece did not necessarily want to enter the war, but with the incursion
of Italy into Epirus from Albania in 1940, the country had no choice.
President Metaxa's famous "Oxi", no, became the rallying cry to push the
Italians back into their own province and became the main reason for
Germany's attack. Swooping through Yugoslavia in ten days, it took a month to
overwhelm Greece.
The Country was split into three areas. Germany took Macedonia, including
Salonica, and the very Eastern part of Thrace, some of the Northern islands,
Crete, and coadministered Athens with Italy. Most of Thrace and part of
Macedonia was ceded to Bulgaria, while the rest of Greece came under Italian
control.
While Italy remained in the war, its Jews were relatively safe. It was
another story in the Bulgarian and German sectors. In trying to "Bulgarize"
the sector, Jews in that section had a choice to renounce their faith or
face expulsion. Most chose the latter. (Many of the Jews in Bulgaria itself
were saved which is an irony in itself.)
On the night of March 3, 1943, 4,200 Jews in the Bulgarian sector were
rounded up and sent to Kavala. From there they were transported through
Gorna Dzhumaya to Lom, Bulgaria, put on boats headed up the Danube to
Vienna, where they were transferred to German authority. Final destination:
Treblinka.
The Germans, between March 15, 1943, and the end of August, 1943, decimated
the Jewish population in their sector including the approximately 56,000
living in Salonica. From the Baron Hirsch Concentration Camp, the railway
route led to Vienna as well. The jews of the Italian zone fared better
until Italy surrendered in September of 1943. It was then that the complete
extermination of Greek Jewry began its final phase.
March 25 (Greek Independence Day) 1944 is remembered quite vividly by the
jews of Athens and most all of the provincial towns formally administered
by Italian forces. Most Jews were sent to the Haidari Concentration Camp
in Athens and by rail north to Auschwitz.
Others from janina went through Trikkala to Larissa and then north by rail
to the same destination. The 20-day trip from Corfu (roundup in June of 1944)
was by boat and rail and in some areas like Zakinthos, most of the jews
were saved by righteous, yet the community was completely devastated by
earthquakes in the 1950's.
Athens gained in numbers after the war as victims returned to the capital.
The total statistics vary. Some sources say that 89% of all Greek Jews
perished. The statistics posted in the janina jewish community office are
slightly different since they hadn't included some of the cities.
The Greek Language
Although Greek was spoken in the synagogue outside of the actual service
which was in Hebrew, a judeo-Greek language had evolved where:
1)Many Hebrew words had Greek endings ie: Chanukkah was the root for
Chanukaria (menorah) and chanukaria (candles).
2)It contains elements of Aramaic and later, Turkish.
3)It was written with Hebrew characters.
During the Nazi occupation of Greece, some Jews communicated with each
other in Judeo-Greek as a protective measure. Romaniote jews, post
World War II, spoke standard Greek with a Hebrew influence.
There are several collections of judeoGreek hymns one of which is
"Yanniotika Evraika Traghoudhia" compiled by Joseph Matsas.
Below are some views of our Synagogue and Museum,
(the only Romaniote Synagogue in America).
1) An Outside View
2) The Ark, and the Ten Commandments
3) A view of the Ark.
Kehila Kedosha Janina
Synagogue and Museum
PRESS RELEASE CONTACT: ISAAC DOSTIS
IMMEDIATE RELEASE MUSEUM COORDINATOR
NOVEMBER 25,1997 (212) 431-1619
Kehila Kedosha Janina Synagogue and Museum presents Michael Matsas,
survivor of the Greek Holocaust, and author of THE ILLUSION OF SAFETY
at a lecture and book signing ceremony to be held at the Synagogue
(The Only Romaniote Synagogue in America) on Sunday, January 18,1998
at 3:30 p.m. The Synagogue/Museum is located at 280 Broome Street
(off Allen Street) on the Lower East Side of New York. Admission is
by contribution.
Michael Matsas was born in loannina, Greece, in 1930. His father was
transferred from loannina, to Arta, to Preveza, and finally to
Agrinion.
The immediate family survived in Agrinion, while 89% of all Greek Jews
perished at the hands of the Nazis.
THE iLLUSION OF SAFETY recounts Matsas' life as a hidden child, his
experiences helping the resistance, and equally important, his
exploration of State Department and OSS war time reports exposing
the hypocrisy that ignored the already sealed fate of the Greek Jews
transported to the concentration camps.
People know little of the Holocaust that engulfed Greece.
THE ILLUSION OF SAFETY adds to the body of literature of this
undertold story. Books will be available for purchase.
Mr. Matsas will also be part of the Sephardic House's celebration
of Greek-Judaic culture to be held at the Spanish-Portugese Synagogue
over the weekend of January 1 6-18. It includes Friday night dinner
with Rabbi Marc Angel; music of Joe Elias; an exhibit of Salonica
synagogues; a panel discussion of Jewish life in Greece, various
speakers; and tours of theKehila Kedosha Synagogue/Museum and the
Tenement Museum.
For more information, please call Kehila Kedosha Janina Synagogue
and Museum at (212) 431-1619.
Kehila Kedosha Janina
Synagogue and Museum
280 Broome st.
New York, ny 10002
Mailing Address
Cooper Station.Po Box 240
New York,NY 10276
