The origins of the Jewish heritage of Greece are lost in antiquity. According to the ancient historian Strabo, there were organized Jewish communities in most major Greek cities. These communities had functioning synagogues, as archaeological findings indicate. The oldest-known Greek synagogue, dating from the first century BCE, was unearthed in Delos, although its Jewish origins have been disputed. Magnificent synagogue mosaic floors dating from the fourth century CE have been discovered on the islands of Aegina and lately in Chios. The Metroon, at the foot of the Hephaesteion (Theseion) in the Agora of Athens, has also been suggested by the American School of Classical Studies, to be a synagogue from the beginning of the fifth century CE.
Upon the outbreak of World War II, there were 27 Jewish communities and a small concentration of Jewish congregations in several more cities, numbering over 70,000 Jews in Greece, including Romaniotes, Sepharadim, and Ashkenazim. These diverse communities prayed in more than 100 synagogues, originating from antiquity, Medieval Spain, Italy, Eastern Europe, the Balkans, and North Africa.
In WWII, the Nazis and the Bulgarians in Thrace and parts of Macedonia arrested, deported, and annihilated 87% of the Jews of Greece. The synagogues were demolished, destroyed, pillaged or converted to other uses. Jewish cemeteries and institutions were also destroyed. In Thessaloniki (Salonika), the Nazis allowed the pillaging of the ancient cemetery for construction throughout the city. The extension of the Aristotle University was later built on the site.
Upon Liberation, we know of 38 synagogues surviving in 25 cities in Greece. Most of them were either ruined or abandoned, or had been converted into homes, warehouses, and stables, before being returned to the Jewish people. In many cases, lacking a Jewish community, meant that these synagogues were sold and then torn down during the modern reconstruction of cities. Only a few synagogues were saved, like on the island of Kos, thanks to the intervention of the local authorities.
Today, 15 synagogues stand in 12 cities throughout Greece. Two synagogues in Athens (Beit Shalom and the Etz Hayyim - Yanniotiki), and three in Thessaloniki (Monastirioton, Yad LeZikaron, and Yoshua Salem at the Shaul Modiano Retirement Home). One synagogue also stands in each of these cities: Corfu (Scuola Greca), Chalkis, Chania (Etz HaHayim), Ioannina (Kahal Kadosh Yashan), Kos (Kahal Shalom), Larissa (Etz HaHayim), Rhodes (Kahal Kadosh Shalom), Trikala (Yavanim), Volos, and Veroia. The former Jewish community center in Kavala that served as a prayer hall, was demolished circa 2020.
The survey and study of the synagogues of Greece was initiated in 1993. Upon graduating from the Yale School of Architecture and after practicing in architectural offices in New York, he undertook the project not only as a young Jewish architect looking for a meaningful start in his career, but also to fulfill the need to document what survived the Holocaust, making this material available for exhibitions and further study. The survey project started in Chalkis, the city where the author’s grandmother Eftihia Negrin (nee Forni) was born and raised, before moving to Ioannina with her husband Elias Negrin. The survey of the synagogue in Chalkis was made possible thanks to a seed contribution by the late Minos Mordochai, board member of the Jewish Museum of Greece in Athens, and reimbursement of photographic costs by the World Monuments Fund, thanks to Samuel Gruber, Director of the International Survey of Jewish Monuments. The survey project, which encompassed all cities with standing synagogues, also included visits to cities without synagogues and Jewish communities, where local non-Jews kept the narrative alive.
In 1998, Kol haKEHILA, the newsletter of the Jewish monuments of Greece (kolhakehila.org), was created by the author, as a resource for research and information on the synagogues of Greece and genealogy of the Jews of Greece. The site has been accessible online since 2001.
Upon completion of the restoration of Monastirioton and Yad LeZikaron synagogues in Thessaloniki and the Yavanim synagogue in Trikala, the author, together with Yvette Nahmia-Messinas, undertook a campaign for the preservation of the mosaic of the ancient synagogue in Aegina. The exhibition, which was curated by the author at the Archaeological Museum of Aegina, where the mosaic is located today, presented for the first time to the general public, the importance of the Romaniote heritage of the Jewish community of Aegina, and the human history between the German Archaeologist Franz Gabriel Welter and American Jewish Archaeologist Belle Mazur who studied and published it. Thanks to a donation by Samuel-Makis Matsas, a protective roof will be erected over the mosaic. In addition, the Hellenic Ministry of Culture will restore the mosaic. In 2022 the author was also called to undertake the restoration of the interior of the Shalom synagogue in Kos, to function once again as a synagogue.
This year, as interest in the Jewish heritage of Greece and the synagogues of Greece is increasing, the author published two new books on the subject.
The book The Synagogues of Greece: A Study of Synagogues in Macedonia and Thrace: With Architectural Drawings of all Synagogues of Greece is the second edition of the book published in 2011 in The Sephardi and Greek Holocaust Library by the series editor Steven Bowman. The new edition (2022) is an updated, corrected, and enlarged republication of the first printing, covering the continuing research and architectural restorations of nearly three decades by the author. It includes the first-ever full scale in-situ survey and the architectural drawings of the synagogues of Greece, drafted by the author since 1993, some of which have since been demolished. The book traces the history of nearly 100 synagogues in Jewish quarters, most of which no longer exist. The book is currently available online at Amazon.
The second book, The Synagogue (‘Η Συναγωγή’, Infognomon Editions, 2022) is the new novel by the author, bringing to the front, the human story behind the research. The texts are based on many years of research on the synagogues themselves, on published and unpublished archival documents, in Greece, Israel and elsewhere, and on interviews from the time of the survey to the present day. For example, in one chapter, the author, serving his army duty in Northern Greece, visited Didimoticho searching for the ruins of the demolished synagogue, by asking the locals to direct him. The story reveals heroes who still keep the Jewish narrative alive. The book is published in Greek, but a Hebrew translation and publication in Israel is currently under review.
This year, the author has also created a digitized collection of his rich archive of the Synagogues of Greece to enrich and serve archives, libraries and institutions. The digital archive of the synagogues of Greece, includes more than 1500 images and 200 architectural drawings, adding to existing collections and enabling comparative study, research, exhibition and publication. Details may be provided upon request.
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