Editing Romaniote Jews (section)

==History==
{{Further|History of the Jews in Greece}}
Jews have lived in Greece since at least the [[Second Temple period|Second Temple era]] (516 BCE – 70 CE). Recorded Jewish presence in Greece dates back over 2,300 years to the time of [[Alexander the Great]].<ref>[https://www.myjewishlearning.com/jewish-and/taking-greek-jewish-life-to-the-streets-of-new-york/ ''Taking Greek Jewish Life to the Streets of New York.''] ''My Jewish Learning'' (by Ethan Marcus), 24 April 2018; retrieved on 10 May 2018.</ref> The earliest reference to a [[Greek Jew]] is an inscription dated {{circa|300–250 BCE}}, found in [[Oropos]], a small coastal town between [[Athens]] and [[Boeotia]], which refers to "Moschos, son of Moschion the Jew", who may have been a [[Slavery in antiquity|slave]].<ref>{{cite book|title=Selected Papers in Greek and Near Eastern History|year=2002|publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]]|location=[[Cambridge]]|isbn=0-521-46564-8|page=381|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=V_w5AaqqiGAC&q=moschos&pg=PA381|author=David M. Lewis|author-link=David Malcolm Lewis|editor1-first=P.J.|editor1-last=Rhodes}}</ref>

[[File:Mosaic Floor of a Jewish Synagogue in Greece - 300 CE.JPG|thumb|upright=1.2|Mosaic floor of a Jewish synagogue in Greece, built 300 AD, [[Aegina]].]]

A [[Hellenistic Judaism|Hellenistic Jewish]] synagogue was discovered in 1829 near the ancient military port of the capital of the island of [[Aegina]] by the Scottish-German historian [[Ludwig Ross]], who was working for the court of King [[Otto of Greece]]. The floor was covered for protection and was studied again by [[Friedrich Thiersch|Thiersch]] in 1901, [[Adolf Furtwängler|Furtwängler]] in 1904, [[Eliezer Sukenik|E. Sukenik]] in 1928 and  [[Gabriel Welter]] in 1932 under the auspices of the National Archaeological Service. Based on the quality of the floor's mosaic, the building is believed to have been constructed in the 4th century CE (300–350 CE) and used until the 7th century. The mosaic floor of the synagogue consists of multi-colored [[tesserae]] that create the impression of a carpet, in a geometric pattern of blue, gray, red and white. Two Greek inscriptions were found in front of the synagogue's entrance, on the western side of the building. Today, only part of the synagogue's mosaic floor is extant, and it has been moved from its original location to the courtyard of [[Archaeological Museum of Aegina|the island's Archaeological Museum]].

In 1977 another ancient synagogue was discovered in Athens, the [[Synagogue in the Agora of Athens]], which may be the synagogue in which [[Paul the Apostle]] preached. Inscriptions in the [[Samaritan alphabet|Samaritan]] and [[Greek alphabet]]s found in Thessaloniki may originate from [[Samaritans|Samaritan]] synagogues. Concurrently the oldest synagogue found in the [[Jewish diaspora|diaspora]] is also the oldest Samaritan synagogue: it is the [[Delos]] [[Delos Synagogue|Synagogue]], which has an inscription dated between 250 and 175 BCE<ref>Pummer, R. ''Biblical Archaeology Review (BAR).'' May–June 1998 (24:03), via Center for Online Judaic Studies, cojs.org.</ref><ref>Monika Trümper, "The Oldest Original Synagogue Building in the Diaspora: The Delos Synagogue Reconsidered." ''Hesperia'', Vol. 73, No. 4 (October–December, 2004), pp. 513–598.</ref>

The Romaniotes are Greek Jews, distinct from both [[Ashkenazim]] and [[Sephardim]], who trace back their history to the times of the Greek-speaking [[History of the Jews in the Byzantine Empire|Byzantine Jews]] and can be subdivided in a wider sense in a Rabbanite community and in the Greco-Karaite community of the [[Constantinopolitan Karaites]] which still survives to this day.<ref>{{cite book |last=Bowman |first=Steven |title=The Jews of Byzantium 1204-1453 |chapter=Language and Literature |location=Tuscaloosa, Alabama |publisher=University of Alabama Press |year=1985|page=758}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Steiner |first=Richard C. |chapter=The Byzantine biblical commentaries from the Genizah: Rabbanite vs. Karaite |editor1=Moshe Bar-Asherz |title=Shai le-Sara Japhet: Studies in the Bible, its exegesis and its language |language=he |location=Jerusalem |publisher=The Bialik Institute |year=2007 |pages=243–262}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last=Danon |first=A. |year=1912 |title=Notice sur la littérature gréco-caraïte |journal=Revue des Études Grecques |language=fr |volume=127 |pages=147–151}}</ref><ref>''Istanbul Karaylari Istanbul Enstitüsü Dergisi'' 3 (1957): 97–102.</ref> A Romaniote oral tradition says that the first Jews arrived in [[Ioannina]] shortly after the [[Siege of Jerusalem (70 CE)|destruction]] of the [[Second Temple]] in [[Jerusalem]] in 70 CE. Before the migration of the Ashkenazi and the Sephardi Jews into the Balkans and Eastern Europe, the Jewish culture in these areas consisted primarily of Romaniote Jews.<ref>{{cite book |last=Bonfil |first=Robert |title=Jews in Byzantium: Dialectics of Minority and Majority Cultures |url=https://archive.org/details/jewsbyzantiumdia00bonf_914 |url-access=limited |series=Jerusalem Studies in Religion and Culture |publisher=Brill |year=2011 |isbn=9789004203556 |page=[https://archive.org/details/jewsbyzantiumdia00bonf_914/page/n153 105]}}</ref>

The Romaniote [[Minhag|rites]] represent those of the Greek-speaking Jews of the Byzantine (or former Byzantine) Empire, ranging from southern Italy (in a narrower sense the [[History of the Jews in Apulia|Apulian]], the [[History of the Jews in Calabria|Calabrian]] and the [[History of the Jews in Sicily|Sicilian]] Jewish communities) in the west, to much of Turkey in the east, Crete to the south, Crimea (the [[Krymchaks]]) to the north and the Jews of the early medieval [[Balkans]] and [[Eastern Europe]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Langer |first=Ruth |title=Cursing The Christians? A History of the Birkat HaMinim |year=2012 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=9780199783175 |page=203 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bzkjPew09eIC&pg=PA203}}</ref>

The [[Josippon|Sefer Yosippon]] was written down in the 10th century in Byzantine [[Catepanate of Italy|Southern Italy]] by the Greek-speaking Jewish community there. [[Judah Leon ben Moses Mosconi]], a Romaniote Jew from [[Ohrid|Achrida]] edited and expanded the Sefer Josippon later.<ref>Norman Roth, ''Medieval Jewish Civilisation: An Encyclopedia'', 2014 p. 127.</ref><ref>{{cite book |authorlink=Robert Bonfil|last=Bonfil |first=Robert |title=Jews in Byzantium: Dialectics of Minority and Majority Cultures |url=https://archive.org/details/jewsbyzantiumdia00bonf_914 |url-access=limited |series=Jerusalem Studies in Religion and Culture |publisher=Brill |year=2011 |isbn=9789004203556 |page=[https://archive.org/details/jewsbyzantiumdia00bonf_914/page/n170 122]}}</ref> This community of Byzantine Jews of southern Italy produced such prominent works like the Sefer Ahimaaz of [[Ahimaaz ben Paltiel]], the Sefer Hachmoni of [[Shabbethai Donnolo]], the Aggadath Bereshit and many [[Piyyut]]im.<ref>Magdalino, P. and Mavroudi, M. ''The Occult Sciences in Byzantium'', 2006, p. 293</ref><ref>Kohen, E. ''History of the Byzantine Jews: A Microcosmos in the Thousand Year Empire'', 2007, p. 91</ref><ref>Dönitz, S. ''Historiography among Byzantine Jews: The case of Sefer Yosippon''</ref><ref>Bowman, S. Jewish Responses to Byzantine Polemics from the Ninth through the Eleventh Centuries, 2010</ref><ref>Howell, H. and Rogers, Z. ''A Companion to Josephus'', 2016</ref> The liturgical writings of these Romaniote Jews, especially the piyyut were eminent for the development of the [[Nusach Ashkenaz|Ashkenazi]] [[Mahzor]], as they found their way through Italy to [[Ashkenaz]] and are preserved to this day in the most Ashkenazi mahzorim.<ref>Bowman, S. ''Jews of Byzantium'', p. 153; cf. ''Hebrew Studies'' by Yonah David, Shirei Zebadiah (Jerusalem 1972), Shirei Amitai (Jerusalem, 1975) and Shirei Elya bar Schemaya (New York and Jerusalem 1977); and the material in the Chronicle of Ahima'az.</ref>

The Jews of Southern Italy (where they were living together with their Greek-speaking [[Griko people|Christian counterparts]]) continued to be Greek-speakers until the 15th century. When they were expelled and went to different regions of Greece, especially [[Corfu]], [[Epirus]] and [[Thessaloniki]], they could continue to speak their Greek language, even if this language was somewhat different from that of Greece.<ref>{{cite book|first=Linda|last=Safran|title=The Medieval Salento: Art and Identity in Southern Italy|year=2014|isbn=9780812245547|publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press}}</ref>{{page needed|date=July 2017}}

In the 12th century, [[Benjamin of Tudela]] travelled through the [[Byzantine Empire]] and recorded details about communities of Jews in [[Corfu]], [[Arta, Greece|Arta]], Aphilon, [[Patras]], [[Corinth]], [[Thebes, Greece|Thebes]], [[Chalkis]], [[Thessaloniki]], and [[Drama, Greece|Drama]]. The largest community in Greece at that time was in Thebes, where he found about 2000 Jews. They were engaged mostly in [[Dyeing|cloth dyeing]], [[weaving]], in the production of [[Silversmith|silverware]] and [[Silk|silk garments]]. At the time, they were already known as "Romaniotes".

The first Romaniote synagogue coming under [[Ottoman Empire|Ottoman]] rule was ''Etz ha-Hayyim'' ([[Hebrew language|Hebrew]]: עץ החיים, lit. "Tree of Life", frequently a name of Romaniote synagogues) in [[Bursa|Prousa]] in [[Asia Minor]] which passed to Ottoman authority in 1324.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.jewishgen.org/cemetery/mem/turkey.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110607101127/http://www.jewishgen.org/cemetery/mem/turkey.html|url-status=dead|title=International Jewish Cemetery Project – Turkey|archive-date=June 7, 2011}}</ref> After the [[Fall of Constantinople]] on 29 May 1453, [[Sultan]] [[Mehmed II]] found the city in a state of disarray. The city had indeed suffered [[List of sieges of Constantinople|many sieges]], [[Siege of Constantinople (1204)|a devastating conquest]] by [[Catholicism|Catholic]] [[Crusades|Crusaders]] in 1204 and even a case of the [[Black Death]] in 1347,<ref>[http://www.channel4.com/history/microsites/H/history/a-b/blackdeath.html ''The Black Death''], ''Channel 4 – History''.</ref> and now had been long cut off from its [[hinterland]], so the city was a shade of its former glory. The event of the conquest of Constantinople was written down by a Romaniote Payetan in a lament hymn, composed with several phrases from the Old Testament in the ''shibusi style''.<ref>A. Sharon: ''A Hebrew lament from Venetian Crete on the fall of Constantinople'', 1999.</ref>

As Mehmed wanted to make the city his new capital, he decreed its rebuilding.<ref name="Inalcik, Halil 1969 pg236">Inalcik, Halil. "The Policy of Mehmed II toward the Greek Population of Istanbul and the Byzantine Buildings of the City." ''Dumbarton Oaks Papers'' 23 (1969): 229–249, specifically 236.</ref> And in order to revivify Constantinople he ordered that [[Muslim]]s, [[Christians]] and [[Jew]]s from all over his empire be resettled in the new capital.<ref name="Inalcik, Halil 1969 pg236"/> Within months most of the Empire's Romaniote Jews, from the [[Balkans]] and [[Anatolia]], were concentrated in Constantinople, where they made up 10% of the city's population.<ref name="Avigdor Levy 1994">Avigdor Levy; The Jews of the Ottoman Empire, New Jersey, (1994)</ref> The forced resettlement, though not intended as an [[Antisemitism|anti-Jewish measure]], was perceived as an "expulsion" by the Jews.<ref>J. Hacker, Ottoman policies towards the Jews and Jewish attitudes towards Ottomans during the Fifteenth Century in "Christians and Jews in the Ottoman Empire", New York (1982)</ref> Nevertheless, the Romaniotes would remain the most influential Jewish community in the Empire for decades to come, determining the [[Chief Rabbi]]s of the towns and the [[Hakham Bashi]] of the Ottoman Empire until their leading position was lost to a wave of new Jewish arrivals. These events initiated the first great numerical decline of the Romaniote community.

The number of Jews was soon bolstered by small groups of [[Ashkenazi Jews]] that immigrated to the Ottoman Empire between 1421 and 1453.<ref name="Avigdor Levy 1994"/> Waves of Sephardi Jews were expelled from [[Spain]] in 1492; many settled in [[Ottoman Empire|Ottoman]]-ruled Greece. They spoke a separate language, [[Ladino language|Ladino]]. Thessaloniki had one of the largest (mostly Sephardi) Jewish communities in the world and a solid rabbinical tradition. On the island of [[Crete]], the Jews historically played an important part in the transport trade. In the centuries following 1492 most of the Romaniote communities were assimilated by the more numerous Sephardim.

[[File:Mordechai Frizis Romaniote Greek Jew.JPG|thumb|left|Colonel [[Mordechai Frizis]] (1893–1940) from the ancient Romaniote Greek Jewish community of [[Chalkis]]<ref name="Detrez, Raymond 2005 159">{{cite book |last=Krivoruchko |first=J. |year=2005 |chapter=A case of divergent convergence: the cultural identity of Romaniote Jewry |editor1-last=Detrez |editor1-first=Raymond |editor1-link=Raymond Detrez |editor2=Pieter Plas |title=Developing cultural identity in the Balkans: convergence vs divergence |publisher=Peter Lang |page=159 |isbn=978-90-5201-297-1 |quote=…but the fact that the most prominent hero of Jewish origin, Colonel Mordechai Frizis (1893–1940), originated from the ancient Romaniote community of Chalkis, speaks for itself. }}</ref> with his wife Victoria.]]

The status of [[Jews|Jewry]] in the [[Ottoman Empire]] often hinged on the whims of the [[sultan]]. [[Murad III]] for example ordered that the attitude of all non-Muslims should be one of "humility and abjection" and should not "live near Mosques or in tall buildings" or own slaves.<ref>M. J. Akbar, "The shade of swords: jihad and the conflict between Islam and Christianity", 2003, (p. 89)</ref>

After the liberation of Ioannina on February 21, 1913, the Rabbi and the Romaniote community of Ioannina welcomed at the New Synagogue of Ioannina the liberator of the city, Crown Prince Constantine, the future [[List of kings of Greece|King of the Hellenes]] [[Constantine I of Greece|Constantine I]].<ref>The Jewish Museum of Greece, The Jewish Community of Ioannina: ''The Memory of Artefacts'', 2017, p. 4 (booklet).</ref>

At the beginning of the 20th century, the Romaniote community of Ioannina numbered about 4,000 people, mostly lower-class tradesmen and craftsmen. Their numbers dwindled after that due to economic emigration; after the Holocaust and in the wake of [[World War II]], there were approximately 1,950 Romaniotes left in Ioannina. Centered around the old fortified part of the city (or Kastro), where the community had been living for centuries, they maintained two synagogues, one of which, the Kehila Kedosha Yashan Synagogue still remains today.

A strong Romaniote community was present in Corfu until the late 19th century, when a [[pogrom]] sparked by [[blood libel]] charges forced most of the Jewish community to leave the island.