Sephardic Jewish Genealogy in Greece

Timeline of Jews in Greece

  • 70 CE: Earliest evidence of Jewish presence in Greece; Jewish prisoners brought after the destruction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem.
  • 1170: Benjamin of Tudela visits Greece, reporting on Jewish communities in Thebes, Corinth, and Patras.
  • 1376: Byzantine Emperor John V Palaeologus grants protection to the Jews of Thessaloniki.
  • 1423: Venetians sell many Jews from Thessaloniki as slaves, disrupting the community.
  • 1430: Ottoman conquest of Thessaloniki; Sultan Murad II invites Jews to resettle, leading to community growth.
  • 1492: Expulsion of Jews from Spain; many Sephardic Jews settle in Ottoman-controlled Greece.
  • 1496: Jews expelled from Portugal; some settle in Greece.
  • 1522: Ottoman conquest of Rhodes; Sephardic Jews settle there.
  • 1529: Sephardic Jews establish community in Thessaloniki (Salonica).
  • 1536: Joseph Nasi, influential Sephardic figure, settles in Thessaloniki.
  • 1545: First Hebrew printing press established in Thessaloniki.
  • 1620s: Sabbatai Zevi, false Messiah, born in Smyrna (now Izmir, Turkey), influences Greek Jewish communities.
  • 1821-1832: Greek War of Independence.
  • 1826: Pogrom against Jews in Patras during Greek War of Independence.
  • 1830: Modern Greek state established, excluding areas with significant Jewish populations.
  • 1881: Thessaloniki remains under Ottoman rule, with a thriving Sephardic community.
  • 1912-1913: Balkan Wars; Greece annexes Thessaloniki and other areas with Jewish populations.
  • 1917: Great Fire of Thessaloniki destroys much of the Jewish quarter.
  • 1922: Greece-Turkey population exchange; some Turkish-speaking Jews leave Greece.
  • 1936-1941: Metaxas Regime in Greece.
  • 1940-1941: Greco-Italian War and German invasion of Greece.
  • 1941-1944: Axis occupation of Greece; severe persecution of Jews.
  • 1943: Deportation of Thessaloniki’s Jews to Auschwitz begins.
  • 1944: Deportation of Jews from other Greek cities, including Athens and Ioannina.
  • 1944-1945: Liberation of Greece; few Jews survive the Holocaust.
  • 1946-1949: Greek Civil War.
  • 1951: Jewish restitution laws passed in Greece.
  • 1967-1974: Military junta rules Greece.
  • 1979: Judaism recognized as a legal religion in Greece.

Jews of Greece

Jews have lived in what is now Greece since ancient times. The established Greek-speaking Jewish community were called Romaniote (after the Eastern Roman Empire). Sephardic Jews arrived in the decades after their expulsion from Spain in 1492.

Major Sephardic communities developed in Thessaloniki (formerly Salonika), Rhodes, and Corfu. Our focus is genealogical resources for researching Sephardic Jewish ancestry in Greece, with a particular emphasis on Thessaloniki, but hopefully this will also be useful to Romaniote researchers.

Initially, Sephardic Jews thrived under Ottoman rule, playing key roles in trade between the Ottoman Empire and Christian powers. However, their position declined along with the empire in the 18th-19th centuries. From the mid-19th century onward, many Jews emigrated due to economic pressures and rising nationalisms in the region.

Genealogical Resources for Jews in Greece

Due to the loss of many primary records, researchers often rely on secondary sources for Greek Jewish genealogy. Key resources include:

General Jewish Archives and Resources for Greece

Ottoman Archive

See the Turkey page. Hopefully useful material will emerge from the Ottoman State Archives. This may include the Ottoman census of Salonika of 1902.

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.

Greek Archives

Foreign Consular Records

Archives of foreign consulates may contain information on Jews with foreign citizenship.

Genealogical Resources for Locations in Greece

Salonika – Thessaloniki

Introduction

Thessaloniki, known as “la madre de Israel,” had a Judeo-Spanish-speaking Jewish majority for much of its history until the early 20th century. The city was annexed by Greece in 1912, leading to Hellenization efforts that were unpopular with the Jewish population. A devastating fire in 1917 destroyed much of the Jewish quarter and community records. The resettlement of Greek refugees from Turkey in 1922 further altered the city’s demographics. The Holocaust devastated what remained.

Early History of Sephardim in Salonika

Sephardic Jews arrived in Salonika in the decades following the Expulsion in 1492. Possibly they had transited via Italy and North Africa. There is no evidence to support the account that the Ottoman Sultan sent ships to rescue Iberian Jews. Salonika became the most important centre of Sephardic settlement in the eastern Mediterranean, and was largely a Judeo-Spanish or Ladino-speaking city.

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 Dönmeh (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. 

Greek annexation of Salonika in 1912

Greece annexed Salonika after the first Balkan War in 1912. This was followed by immediate Hellenisation of the city, which was not popular with the Jews. The Greek annexation of Salonica cut the port city off from its Balkans hinterland which caused economic problems and was a further cause of migration.

After conquering the city, the Greek government wanted population details. The archdiocese provided information on Christians and, reportedly, a list of 26,542 Jewish men. The Austro-Hungarian consulate told them about an Ottoman census in 1902.

A Greek census conducted by the General Administration of Macedonia in 1913 reported 61,439 Jews in Salonica, representing 39% of the population. This was felt to be under-reporting, and the Jewish population was estimated to be 45%. What survives of the census is in the Historical Archive of Macedonia, Archive of the General Administration of Macedonia, file 45.

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

The Great Fire of 1917

A massive fire on 18 August 1917 destroyed a large part of the city, including most of the Jewish quarter. 32 synagogues, 10 rabbinic libraries, 8 Jewish schools, the Jewish community archives, and a significant number of Jewish institutions, businesses, and clubs were reduced to ashes. 10,000 Jewish families were left homeless. The restoration of the city was used to impose further Hellenization, including expropriation of Jewish properties and dispersing the Jewish community throughout the city. Some sources blamed the fire on the Greek government.

Population Transfer of 1922

The resettlement of 100,000 Greeks from Turkey in the city in 1922 turned the Jews into a minority. At the same time the Turkish Muslim and Dönmeh communities were transferred to Turkey. Perhaps more than the Fire, the whole nature of the city changed in 1922.

AIU Jewish schools taught in French, and France became the major destination for Jewish emigrants. Migrants also went to the Americas and, I think, Egypt.

A 1924 law forced Sunday closing on Jewish-owned businesses, which damaged their income.

1931 Pogrom

Anti-Semitic riots broke out on 29 June 1931. The Camp Campbell area, the poorest Jewish neighbourhood, was destroyed and 500 Jewish families made homeless. The pogrom was carried out by Greek refugees from Asia Minor. The Greek government stated the attack was not anti-Semitic!

Jewish refugees leave Camp Campbell in 1931 in fear of further attacks

Second World War

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.

Video: The Destruction of Salonica’s Jewish Community: The First Hand Account of Dr. Albert Menache

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. 

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

Resources for Jewish Genealogy in Thessaloniki

Jewish Newspapers in Salonika

Salonica was a centre of Jewish publishing. See the National Library of Israel Newspaper Collection. Also note:

  • Journal de Salonique. Some copies of Journal de Salonique have been digitised by Gallica. The Journal de Salonique was a French-language Jewish newspaper published in Salonica between 1895 and 1910.
  • El Avenir (also called El Futuro or El Porvenir) was a Zionist newspaper published between 1900 and 1918.
  • Le Progrès de Salonique was a French-language newspaper.
  • La Epoca, El Shamar (איל שאמאר) and El Rizon were Judeo-Spanish newspapers published in Salonica. I don’t know what copies survive.
  • Aksiyon was published from 1928 under Greek rule.

The Central Municipal Library of the Municipality of Thessaloniki has a project to digitise local newspapers.

Books on Jewish Salonika

  1. Joseph Nehama’s “Histoire des Israelites de Salonique” (7 volumes)
  2. Naar, D. E. (2016). Jewish Salonica: Between the Ottoman Empire and Modern Greece. Stanford University Press.
  3. Jewish Salonica by Devin E Naar
  4. Pallini, C., & Scaccabarozzi, A. R. (2009). In Search of Salonika’s Lost Synagogues. An Open Question Concerning Intangible Heritage.
  5. Ginio, E. (2011). Jews and European Subjects in Eighteenth-Century Salonica: The Ottoman Perspective.

Synagogues in Salonika

Below is a list of synagogues in Salonika that used to exist 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

Rhodes

The island had been captured by the Turks from the Christians in 1522. Rhodes becomes an important centre of Sephardic culture and commerce. In 1840 there was a blood libel against the Jews of Rhodes. The community spoke Judeo-Spanish (Ladino) and maintained strong Sephardic traditions. At its peak in the 1920s, the Jewish population of Rhodes numbered around 4,000. The community was known for its rabbinical scholarship and printing industry.

Italy took the island from the Turks in 1911. Italy’s racial laws were imposed in 1938. The Germans took the island from the Italians in 1943.  In 1944, most of the population were deported to Auschwitz, where they were murdered. 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. A small Jewish community was re-established.

As well as the Americas and western Europe, Jews from Gibraltar emigrated to Egypt and other parts of Africa.

Genealogical Resources for Rhodes

Books on the Jews of Rhodes

Corfu

The Jewish community of Corfu had a diverse history, including both Romaniote (Greek-speaking) and Sephardic Jews. The earliest records of Jews in Corfu date from the 12th century, with Sephardim arriving post-1492. The Venetians who controlled the island establish a ghetto (the Evraiki) in Corfu in 1516. The island came first under French rule in 1797, and then Britain in 1815 (United States of the Ionian Islands). The British gave the island to Greece in 1864. There were anti-Jewish riots in Corfu in 1891, causing many Jews to emigrate. Most of Corfu’s Jews were deported to Auschwitz in 1944, and murdered there. Only one of the four synagogues, the Scuola Greca, remains.

Key facts:The Jewish community of Corfu included both Romaniote and Sephardic Jew. Corfu had a unique Jewish dialect called Italkian, a mix of Greek, Italian, and Hebrew. At its peak in the early 20th century, the Jewish population of Corfu numbered around 5,000

Genealogical Resources for Corfu

  1. The Jews of Corfu: Between the Adriatic and the Ionian
  2. Central Archives for the History of the Jewish People (CAHJP)
  3. “The Jews of Corfu” by Pearl Preschel
  4. Corfu Old Sephardic Jewish Cemetery. Oldest gravestone is from 1702.
  5. Documents referring to the threatened expulsion of the Jews of Corfu in 1572 : manuscript
  6. Documents referring to the threatened expulsion of the Jews of Corfu in 1572 : manuscript
  7. Sephardic prayerbook published in Corfu

Other Sephardic Communities in Greece

Kastoria

Kastoria is a small town in western Macedonia – in northern Greece – midway between Salonica and the Albanian coast. The Jewish population was mainly Romaniote but had a Sephardic community until the 20th Century. This has been researched by Michael Coffield.

Ioannina

While primarily a Romaniote community, Ioannina did have some Sephardic influence. Most of the community was murdered in 1944. Resources include Kehila Kedosha Janina Synagogue and Museum (New York) and “The Jews of Ioannina” by Rae Dalven.

Volos

Volos was a significant Sephardic community in central Greece. A Sephardic community was established in the 16th Century. In 1944 many Jews were saved by the local Greek population. Resource: The Jewish Community of Volos.

Larissa

A city in Thessaly with a Sephardic history. Resource: The Jewish Community of Larissa.

    Chalcis (Halkida)

    Chalcis (Halkida) is the capital of the island of Euboea. It had a mixed Romaniote and Sephardic community. The small Jewish population was poor, followed the Sephardic rite but had Greek surnames such as Marzoukos, Kosty, Moschonas, Sakkys, Politi, and Daskalaki.

    Trade and Business Directories

    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.

    Other Resources

    A couple of non-Jewish Greek genealogical sources

    Professional Genealogist

    I am a professional Sephardic genealogist. You are welcome to get in touch if you need professional help with your Greek Jewish family tree.

    If you have found this page useful, please consider making a small donation to support this site and my work.