Prologue
Ancient ruins, a picturesque Mediterranean land of olive orchards and frisky mountain goats, spawning legend and mythology, geometry and philosophy, elegant Greek vases, the stately Pantheon atop the Acropolis.

Chorus
Jewish life has a rich but rocky history in this sun-baked peninsula, cradle of Western culture and civilization. The Chanukah saga is the most widely known interface of the Greeks and Jews. The battle for Jewish religious freedom occurred in the land of Israel, but it was the Syrian-Greek Empire that was forcing Israel to bow to Hellenistic culture and the Greek pantheon that spurred the Macabbean revolt. Zeus, Olympus, Dionysus, Artemis and Athena were an anathema to Jewish monotheism.

Episode 1
The Greek Jewish community has two historic threads. The first is the fascinating and little known Romaniote branch that predates the Ashkenazic and Sephardic branches. Dating back to Roman times, they may have arrived in Greece from Alexandria, North Africa as early as 2,300 years ago. The Hellenized Jews who spoke Greek and were familiar with Greek culture acclimated easily. Ioannina, in northeast Greece, became their center. As Greece turned into a commercial center, the Jewish community spread to Corfus, Thebes and Athens, and developed a unique tradition of liturgy, foods and traditions.

Romaniote Jews emigrated to America at the turn of the twentieth century; their Kehila Kedosha Janina shul on Manhattan’s Lower East Side is being restored as a NYC historic landmark. Hitler ravaged the 2,000 who remained in Ioannina, and today only about 40 Romaniote Jews still live in their native homeland.

Episode 2
The second thread of Greek Jews are Sephardim who came after the Spanish expulsion and the Inquisition. Over 20,000 Iberian Jews arrived in Thesaloniki in 1492. Within a few years more than 36,000 Jews left their first stop in Sicily to settle in the Balkans. At that time the Ottoman Empire, based on Islamic law, recognized Jews and Christians as a separate nation with remarkable religious and legal autonomy within their own communities. Many European Jews immigrated from the brunt of Christian persecution, and the Ottomans welcomed the economic stimulation. Jews published the first Hebrew book in Constantinople 200 years before the first Greek books were published in the Balkans.

Tragic protagonist
The Jews fared well until the 1821 Greek War of Independence. Since the Jewish community had a close association with the Ottoman administration, many were massacred along with the Turks. The remaining Sephardic community emigrated, or moved south to Athens.

Before WWII, the Romaniote and Sephardim Jews were distinct communities, with different customs, order and traditions of prayers, with little intermarrying between the groups. Since the war, however, the groups have blended, as the surviving remnants clung together to rebuild Jewish life after the destruction. Greek Jewry lost 87% of their community. The timing of Hitler’s occupation in 1944 spurred the Fuhrer to make the roundup and murder swift and efficient. Stalin’s Red Army and the American Army were approaching from opposite ends of the country, so the Nazis worked with zeal to finish their gruesome task.

Parados
The Greek Jewish community has been traditional, but assimilation became a problem in the post-war years and outlying areas. Can a Greek tragedy unfold- as the ancient proud community crumbles to the dust of the abounding archeological sites?

Episode 3
The curtains are not yet down on Greek Jewry. Hero of this drama is the indomitable and eternal Jewish spirit, ably assisted by Chabad’s Rabbi Mendel and Nechama Hendel who have been serving Greece’s 5,000 Jews since 2001. They are based in Athens, which has a community of about 3,000, mostly Holocaust survivors and their descendants.

Chabad offers dynamic programs for young and old, holiday celebrations, publications in Greek, as well as services for Jewish tourists, including Passover Seders on several Greek isles. During the summer, rabbinical students travel extensively to connect with isolated Jews scattered throughout the country.

The Hendels are raising Jewish pride and involvement in this ancient community. “We recently dedicated a new Torah scroll, donated by a Greek woman now living in Canada. The Torah welcoming celebration was very uplifting, showing that Jewish life here is alive and growing! During the 2004 Summer Olympics our kosher restaurant served many tourists, and was nicely covered by the NY Times and other media,” exclaimed Hendel.

Chorus
Information about Greek Jewish history, historic sites of interest, locations and schedules of synagogues can be accessed on the www.chabad.gr website. Many synagogues are open only on Friday nights and/or holidays, some just in the summer, and some only by appointment. Cemeteries and remnants of old Jewish quarters provide a glimpse into the varied architecture, trades (the trade symbols can be found on tombstones), Judaic and cultural customs of this community’s past.

Synagogues can be found in Rhodes, Corfu, Crete, Ioannina, Trikala, Volos, Chalkis, Larissa, Thesalonikki, Chalkida and, of course Athens, which has an ancient synagogue, a Jewish Museum, and two active synagogues, across each other on Melidoni Street. Rhodes, a modern port city on the island of the same name, has one of the oldest synagogues in Greece, built in 1575.

Exodus
The layers of civilizations, empires, conquerors and their conquerors fill this picturesque land with character. The epic odyssey of the Jews is far from over, and in the final analysis, far from tragic. Like the phoenix, they rise again from the ashes, drawing on their ancient heritage for hope and strength for the future.