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Explore the diverse Jewish communities in Greece, from the ancient Romaniotes and Sephardim to the struggles faced by Greek Jews during the Holocaust. Learn about the Gypsies in Greece and modern governmental initiatives. Discover the rich cultural tapestry that is part of the modern Greek identity.
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Romaniotes • A Jewish population who have lived in the geographical territory of Greece for more than 2000 years. • They spoke Yevanic a dialect of Greek. This dialect has not survived since today the Romaniotes speak Greek.
Sephardim • The Sephardim Jews were expelled from Spain in 1492 and moved to Northern Greece. • Most of them settled in Thessaloniki, the city which they called "Mother of Israel“. • Their language was called Ladino.
Jews in Greece • In Peloponnese During the Greek War of Independence the Jews, on account of their close association with the Ottoman administration were massacred along with the Turks • However many Jews fought the Turks together with the Greeks • By the late 19th c. when National consciousness became the ideal, the Jews, along with the other non – “Hellenic” peoples of the country, found themselves in the process of Hellenization.
Jews in Greece • Thessaloniki-a major center of the Sepharadim Jews. • "La Madre de Israel," the most populous city of Sephardic Jewry in the world. • At the turn of the century its population was approximately one-third Greek and more than one-half Jewish, with the balance made up of Turks, Bulgars, and other nationalities. • By the late 1930’s Hellenization required the official imposition of the Greek language; of the establishment of Sunday, not Saturday as the day of rest; and the considerable re-organization of the traditional religious life of the Jews according to the laws of the Greek state.
Jews in Greece • Ioannina in Northern Greece was another center of Greek Jews. • The Ioannina Jews formed a Romaniote community, composed of Greek Jews already settled in the city, before the influx of Sephardim in the 15th and 16th centuries. Unlike other Jewish communities of the period, the Jews in Ioannina preserved their Romanioteculture and maintain this culture and special liturgyto this day.
Jews in Greece • In 1943, 60,000 Greek Jews died in the Holocaust • Conversion, or the appearance of conversion, to Christianity could obtain new identity cards; the Greek Orthodox Church issued valid or false baptismal papers with new names accordingly. New identity cards with Christian names were also possible, although extremely difficult to obtain, through the acting chief of police, Angelos Evert. His courageous and consistent aid to desperate Jews, as well as that of Damaskinos and other clerics in the face of immediate death sentences had they been caught, was extraordinary.
Jews in Greece • Immediately after the Liberation, the Greek government appointed the Jewish communities as administrators of all property whose owners had died or been lost without a trace during the war. • This did not happen in other European countries.
Black Saturday: Jews in Elefteria square are made to do humiliating calisthenics in the July heat.
Gypsies • The Gypsies were considered enemies of the organized human society and state security. • Europe had the same attitude in the past and today. • Gypsies were never considered to be members of the Greek nation
Modern Greek Identity • More than 120,000 gypsies live in Greece, according to government estimates, and almost half live in tents and shacks at settlements outside cities across the country, some with poor sanitation and no electricity or running water. • Although the Gypsies in Greece speak the same language as the rest of the population, they have a different culture and some, but not all have a different religion
Modern Greek Identity • Governmental programs to improve the situation of the Roma Gypsies- such as the 1996 Program of Social Integration of Greek Gypsies - have stumbled in the past • The first successful resettlement of Greece's largest destitute Roma community took place in October 2000. The group, who had been living in the Gallikos Riverbed after their 1998 eviction from the Evosmos district of Thessalonica, were relocated to the former military barracks of Gonos, near Thessaloniki. The settlement, designed to accommodate approximately 2,500 people, is the first self-managed dwelling unit created in Greece
A six-year, GDR100-billion program • In the area of housing, the new action plan provides for: a) the creation of 100 settlements of 4,000 dwellings each, b) the improvement of existing settlements, and c) the establishment of sixty campsites around the country for nomadic gypsy populations. Half of Greece's approximately 300,000-strong Roma population are tent-dwellers, though in recent years the numbers of nomadic gypsies are reported to be decreasing.
