Greece

Sephardic Jews in Greece

Jews have lived in the territory of what is now Greece since ancient times. Most of the Sephardic population did not become residents of a country called Greece until 1912 or later.

The indigenous Jews of Greece are called Romaniote, a name derived from the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire that existed before the Turks. Sephardic Jews arrived after 1492. Major communities include Salonika (now called Thessaloniki), Rhodes and Corfu. Salonika was also home to the Dönmeh community, followers of the false messiah, Sabbatai Zevi.

Initially the Sephardic Jews thrived under the Ottoman Empire. Up to the mid-18th Century, Jews played a key role in the trade between the Ottoman Empire and Christian powers, but this reduced as political relationships normalised. As the empire declined, so their position worsened. Jews also found themselves squeezed between the competing nationalisms of Greece, Turkey, Bulgaria and Serbia, as well as Italian encroachment into the region. From the mid-19th Century there was mass emigration, including to the United States, western Europe and Egypt.

Jews in Salonika / Thessaloniki

Salonika, la madre de Israel, was a city that had a Judeo-Spanish-speaking Jewish majority for much of its history. Businesses closed on Shabbat, the Jewish Sabbath. Wool spinning was a significant local industry. The local business community was involved in trade between the Ottoman Empire and the Christendom, first through Venice and Genoa, and later the Dutch, French and English. However, with the decline of Venice, the Jewish businesses lost ground to Greeks to Armenians.

Below is a list of synagogues in Salonika. Note that many have the names of the community’s place of origin. Not just ‘Spain’, but Portugal, Germany, Italy, France and North Africa.

Name of SynagogueDate
Ets ha Chaim1st century
Ashkenaz or Varnak1376
Mayorka1391
Provincia1394
Italia Yashan1423
Guerush Sfarad1492
Kastilla1492–3
Aragon1492–3
Katallan Yashan1492
Kalabria Yashan1497
Sicilia Yashan1497
Monastirlis1927
Apulia1502
Lisbon Yashan1510
Talmud Torah Hagadol1520
Portugal1525
Evora1535
Estrug1535
Lisbon Chadash1536
Otranto1537
Ishmael1537
Tcina1545
Nevei Tsedek1550
Yahia1560
Sicilia Hadash1562
Beit Aron1575
Italia Hadash1582
Mayorka Sheni16th century
Katallan Chadash16th century
Italia Sheni1606
Shalom1606
Har Gavoa1663
Mograbis17th century

Sabbatai Zevi, the false messiah, caused division in the community in the mid-17th Century. Some of his followers later followed him in becoming Muslim, and are today known as Dönme (Turkish: Renegades). This community moved to Turkey in the population exchange after the Greco-Turkish war.

Some Francos, French and Livornese Jews, arrived in the city in the 19th Century, but – despite industrialisation – it was principally a period of decline and emigration, including to Egypt, western Europe and America. 

Greece annexed Salonika after the first Balkan War in 1912. This was not well received by many local Jews. The Great Fire of 1917 destroyed much of the Jewish part of the city, leaving 52,000 Jews homeless. The Chief Rabbinate and 16 of the city’s 33 synagogues were destroyed. The communal archives were housed at the Chief Rabbinate and were destroyed. The Great Fire and increasing official antisemitism from Greek authorities encouraged further Jewish emigration. An antisemitic riot in 1931 left 500 Jews homeless.

By the outbreak of the Second World War, the Jewish population of Salonika had decreased from 93,000 to 53,000 people. The Germans occupied the city on  9 April 1941. There was a mass deportation of the Jewish population in 1943. 90% of the Salonika’s Jews died in the Holocaust. Today the Jewish population is 1,300. Most of the Jewish cemetery was destroyed first by the Nazis, and then to build a university.

In barely a generation the Spanish-speaking Jewish city of Salonika became the Greek city of Thessaloniki, with four hundred years of Jewish history largely destroyed and then forgotten. .

Jews of Salonika
Some buildings still smoulder after the Great Fire of 1917

Jews in Rhodes

The island had been captured by the Turks from the Christians in 1522. In 1840 there was a blood libel against the Jews of Rhodes. Italy took the island from the Turks in 1911. The Germans took the island from the Italians in 1943.  During the Holocaust, the Turkish consul Selahattin Ülkümen saved forty two Jewish families, many of whom had Turkish citizenship. Rhodes was occupied by the British in 1945, and handed to Greece in 1947.

Below is Valerie McGuire’s talk to Sephardic World on the The Jews of Rhodes: Between Ottomans and Italians.

Jews in Corfu

Jews in Kastoria

Kastoria is a small town in western Macedonia – in northern Greece – midway between Salonica and the Albanian coast. The town had a Sephardic community until the 20th Century. This has been researched by Michael Coffield. His home page reports:

This tree is an almost complete lineage of ALL Sephardic Jews who stem from Kastoria, Greece (formerly under Ottoman Empire/Turkish rule) Family names are: Elias (Eliaou) Lias – Ellis – Cohen (Koen) – Confino (Coffield) – Hazan – Russo – Rousso – Pesserilo (var spellings) – Nahmias – Camhi – Kamhi – Zacharia – Cassuto – Capsuto – Ovadia – Mayo – Albala – Albahae – Cassorla – Sadicario – Alboher – Crespi – DiMayo – De Mayo – Hasson – Lias – Kaplan -Copio – Levy – Matza – Matsas – Messistrano – Metrano – Mevorah – Mevorach – Mordoh – Paparo – Pardo.There are also MANY people from nearby Monastir (formerly Yugoslavia – now called Bitola) as well as from Salonika (Thessaloniki) and Rhodes and Athens. There are also some “offshoots” of various family branches
Included are Baruch – Calderon – Negrin – Cassorla – Kassorla – Colonomos – Condiotti – Cresy/Crespi – Elhai – Eskenasi/Eskenazi – Ezra – Farragi – Farash – Fils – Frances -Franco – Galano – Honan – Mizrahi – Moshe – Navon – Oriel – Ovadia – Passo – Pesso – Perahia – Perachia – Romano – Safarty – Sarfatty – Sedaka – Shemaria – Sulam – Tarica – Tiano – Varon – Ventura – Yahney – Yohai – Yousha – Zalma

Jewish Genealogy in Greece

For Greek Jewish genealogy we often find ourselves relying on secondary sources, including the AIU, USHMM, Yad Vashem, records of foreign consulates and émigré communities, newspapers, groups and organisations, trade records. I do not know what may be in the Ottoman and Greek national archives. Yivo have records for 1917 to 1939. It is possible that one of the foreign Jewish charities that rendered assistance after the 1917 fire has a list of people helped.

Ottoman Sources. A friend and I (mainly the friend…) are starting to review the Ottoman Archives in Istanbul for new sources of information on the empire’s Jewish subjects. We shall be updating the Turkey page as we learn more.

Unfortunately, Ottoman records often exclude surnames. These records are written the Arabic/Persian alphabet in an old form of Turkish, and not easily accessible to non-Turkish citizens. The Sephardic Genealogical Society is seeking financial support to develop this research. In the Ottoman Empire communities of different religions had a degree of internal autonomy, these groups were known as millets. It is not known if Sharia (Islamic) court records survive in Greece, but Jews often appear in them. The Islamic courts took precedence over the Christian and Jewish ones.

Official Greek Sources. Major national archives in Greece include:

Family Search – Thessaloniki County. It is reported that the Municipal Archives hold records from 1925.

Greek Military Records. The source information below comes from FamilySearch. All Greek men over 21 were liable for military conscription. Probably people who were not Greek Orthodox were liable for conscription, but I don’t know. Language and religion rather than borders dictated identity, and the Greek state was not totally friendly to its Jewish population. These conscription registers may only be consulted with the permission of the Greek Ministry of Defence. They are kept in conscription offices (Stratologia). They include the name of each male, parents’ names, and birth date and place. Possibly there are surviving pre-Second World War records for Salonika and other towns and cities that had Jewish populations.

In 1941, when the Germans invaded, the military archives included:

  • Incomplete general military records since 1863
  • Complete military records of the periods 1912-13, 1918-19, 1921-22
  • Records of the period 1940-41
  • Complete record of military hospitals since 1920

I am not clear if these documents survive. Assuming Jews are listed, the records of 1921-22 presumably include men born circa 1900-1901, and will include the names of their parents born circa 1865-1880. Many of these earlier records should link to families who migrated, and who knows what we might find in the Ottoman archives? Probably many of the same names will appear in the Yad Vashem archives.

A number of Jews had foreign citizenship, notably of Italy, France, Britain and Spain. If your ancestor was one of these, it is worth checking the national archives of those countries. There is a List of Jews in Greece entitled to Spanish protection under Orden Circular nº 2217 de 11 de febrero de 1949.

A couple of non-Jewish Greek genealogical sources: Gregory Kontos at Greek Ancestry is at the cutting edge of genealogy in Greece. While the focus is Church records, they are also digitising city directories, voter and military lists, etc. Also, check out the Hellenic Genealogy Geek .

Jewish Sources. As discussed above, most of the Jewish records from within Greece have been lost to us. However, resources survived better outside.

  • Alliance Israélite Universelle ran French-language schools throughout the Jewish world. Their Paris archive rarely have lists of students, as those were kept locally, but will contain details of officials and teachers.
  • Sadly, the Yad Vashem website listing people murdered in the Holocaust is a major resource in researching Greek Jews.
  • Jewish newspapers around the world would occasionally carry news of Greek communities.

Below are resources specific to individual Jewish communities in Greece:

Salonika/Thessalonika – Jewish Genealogical Resources

Jewish cemetery of Salonica
Before the Germans in 1942, the Jewish cemetery had an estimated 500,000 graves. It may have been the largest Jewish cemetery in the world.

Rhodes – Jewish Genealogical Resources

Miscellaneous Resources Jewish Genealogy in Greece

Some historic business directories for Greece:

Annuaire Commercial et Industriel de la Grèce, published in French by Noulis & Chryssides, Athens. I have not yet located a copy of this guide.

Οδηγός την Ελλάδασ – Odigos tis Ellados (Guide of Greece), published by Pyrsos Publishing Co. This was a biannual 1,700 page publication. It included sections on Saloniki and corporations. I have not yet located a copy of this guide.

Gallica has Le Guide Sam : pour l’expansion économique française dans le Levant

Annuaire de Commerce, published by Theo. T. Ioannides, secretary of the Greek Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Athens, 1929. This is about 730 pages. The Bank of Greece has a copy in their collection.

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