Community of Ioannina

Long before the Diaspora of 71 A.D., Greece was the gateway through which Jewish people reached the rest of Europe. Its Jewish population was made up mainly of Greek-speaking and Spanish-speaking Jews. Greek-speaking Jews, or Romaniotes, have lived in Greece continuously, since Hellenistic times (3rd century B.C.), as testified...

The Jewish community of Ioannina saw its heyday in the early days of the 19th century when the city was under the authority of Ali Pasha (1788-1822). Many members of the community worked in administration offices, trade flourished and manufacturing was promoted. The Jewish population increased in number, as...

When the fascist axis declared war on Greece late in October 1940, a lot of Jews, including many from Ioannina, were serving as ordinary military personnel, officers, or auxiliary personnel at the front, where they and their Christian compatriots gave the whole of Europe a lesson in the meaning...

There were 181 people in the Jewish community of Ioannina when World War II ended. Of these, 112 were Death Camp survivors and 69 survived by being hidden in the homes of Christian people or by taking to the mountains, where some fought with the Resistance. Despite the efforts...

The synagogue is the centre of a Jewish community and a place of communal prayer and study. Synagogue architecture obeyed certain religious dictates, called the halahot, and state building regulations, but was also influenced by architectural traditions in the local community. There are two main types of synagogue in...

In addition to being religious leaders of the community, rabbis were also its administrative leaders. They found solutions to internal problems, represented the community to local authorities, answered people's questions and were custodians of its laws and customs. From time to time, the extremely pious Romaniote Community of Ioannina was...

The holy book of Judaism is the Pentateuch and is called the Sefer Torah or Scroll of the Law, handwritten on parchment. It is always stored in an upright position in a special niche in the synagogue, in accordance with age-old dictates on the storage of precious books. Jews...

Shabbat Observance of the Sabbath day is one of the most fundamental requirements of Judaism. The Sabbath day is devoted to prayer, study of the Law and abstinence from any form of productive work. Every Friday afternoon the town crier walked through the Jewish neighbourhoods in Ioannina announcing the Time...

The Jewish identity is kept alive through specific customs pertaining to the three most important milestones in the lives of people in the community; marriage, birth and death. The Romaniote Jews of Ioannina maintained the demographic balance of their community by upholding strict customs regarding intermarriage which also applied to...

The purpose of marriage was always to produce children. For forty days following a birth, the new mother and her newborn child were protected from evil spirits, especially from Lilith, with various customs and talismans to ward them off. In the Romaniote community of Ioannina, as in every traditional...