Cantor's Corner by Eric Miller

In past years, I’ve taken the opportunity during the Channukah season to expound upon the impact that Hellenistic society had on the Jews of ancient Israel. This, in turn, led to discussions about the pros and cons of Hellenization, which Jews in Maccabean times it affected, and to what degree. This year, I’d like to take some time to examine the other end of the historical spectrum, and briefly examine the actual Jewish community of Greece itself; how it developed, and where it is today.

The beginnings of Jewish history in Greece may stretch all the way back to the dispersion following the destruction of the First Temple in Jerusalem by Babylonian conquerors in 586 BCE. In the 2^nd century BCE, the Athenians had even erected a statue of the Jewish leader Hyrcanus on the Agora, honoring him for his expressed feelings towards the Athenian Republic! Certainly by the time of Paul (who preached several times at the synagogue in Salonika), most Greek cities had established Jewish communities, often blended successfully into the surrounding culture. Especially prominent was Salonika, also known as Thessaloniki in Greek or “Jerusalem of the Balkans” in Jewish sources. Salonika was a port city in northeastern Greece that was second in importance only to Constantinople in the Byzantine empire. Although life under Byzantine Christian rule was not perfect, the Greek Jews, known as “Romaniot,” were protected under law as descendants of the Chosen People, even if they had to endure various economic and social slights due to their refusal to accept the Christian faith. Many Jews engaged successfully in the silk trade, and the romaniots’ assimilation was often so thorough that they had to write their Greek translations of the Bible using Hebrew letters just to keep from forgetting the Hebrew alphabet completely!

Life for Jews in the Balkans improved under Muslim rule, as the Ottomans gained powering the region by the late 15^th century. Study was encouraged not only of Jewish texts, but in medicine, astronomy and philosophy as well. As was the case in Muslim Spain early in the millennium, the Jewish community was welcomed by the Ottoman Empire (albeit often for selfish economic reasons) and some Jews even rose to high positions within the ruling elite. Therefore, after the Spanish Inquisition and expulsion in 1492, over 20,000 Sephardic Jews fled to Greece, mainly to Salonika. In fact, Salonika, like the northern Israeli town of Safed, became a new center of Kabbalah (Jewish mysticism) as Jewish kabbalists fled the Iberian Peninsula. This, along with nearly 40,000 Jewish refugees from Sicily dramatically altered the face of Jewish culture in Greece. Just as the original Sephardic and German Jewish immigrants in America were overwhelmed by those of Eastern European descent at the turn of the 20^th century, so were the romaniot overwhelmed by the influx of Sephardic Jews, whose own brand of Jewish culture became the de-facto norm in the Balkans by the 16^th century. Suddenly, Hebrew and Ladino supplanted Greek as the lingua franca of Greek Jews.

The 19^th century, with its nationalistic overtones, was not as kind to the Jews of Greece. During the Greek War of Independence in 1821, many Jews were massacred along with the Turks as Ottoman sympathizers. By the end of the century, the mission to nationalize and “Hellenize” the country found the Jews, as an outside ethnic minority, under fire once again. Much more than the assimilated Romaniot, it was the Sephardic communities in northeastern Greece who suffered most, especially after the Balkan Wars of 1912/3.

Although the Greeks were successful at repelling an Italian invasion in 1941, they failed to push back the full-scale German invasion that same year. The country was divided into three parts, each controlled by either the Germans, Italians or Bulgarians. Under German occupation the Jews of Salonika suffered first the same anti-semitic Nurnberg laws as were passed in Germany, and then, by 1943, almost the entire community of nearly 50,000 perished at Auschwitz. Jews under Bulgarian rule in Thrace and Macedonia did not fair much better; many ending up at Treblinka. The Jews in Athens, under Italian rule, were very well assimilated into the life of the city, making it very difficult for the Nazis to round up and deport them. The community was largely spared the fate of their compatriots. As in the rest of Europe, the Jewish population of Greece shrunk dramatically from over 70,000 before WWII to just 10,000 at the conclusion of the War.

Although the fate of the Jews of Greece is a far cry from the military victory of the Macabbees, over 3,000 Jews live in Athens today, and 1,000 Jews still call Salonika their home, where we can find a successful Hebrew primary school, athletic club, men’s/women’s groups, a Jewish nursing home, three synagogues and even a Jewish summer camp in Plaka Litohorou, at the feet of Mt. Olympus. These Jewish communities point to the spiritual and cultural tenacity of the Jewish people to make a life for themselves even despite great adversity and hardship. May this spirit of renewal and resilience be an inspiration to us all during this Channuka season.