OY CHANUKAH! – WITH A LITTLE GREEK SALAD TO GO!

This past summer, Melissa and I were privileged to travel to the sites of a once thriving Jewish population.  It seems fitting to share my adventures in Greece at a time when we recall how Judaism was victorious over the threat of Antiochus and the Hellenists.  The fate of Judaism was threatened by Greek idols, statues and the outlawing of Jewish observance.  The Torah was deemed a forbidden book; Shabbat, festivals and holy days could no longer be celebrated in public.  Kashrut could no longer be observed, and circumcision, the very mark of the Jew, was forbidden.  Fortunately, the most famous confrontation between Greeks and Jews, better known as the ‘Maccabean Revolt’, returned to the Jewish people a prize of untold value – their freedom. 

On the Shabbat preceding Tisha B’Av I davened on my balcony overlooking the Aegean Sea.  I could not help but think of the difference between the luxury cruise liners I saw passing by to the ships of war that fought our ancestors on these same waters.   

Prior to our trip I spent much time researching the Jewish Communities of Greece.   For example, I was deeply saddened by the following statistics:

Jewish Population:

Early 1900’s  pre-war post-war Today

Athens  90,000   56,000    3,000
Rhodes   4,000     4,500       151         7   
Crete          400           7  “token few”
GREECE 100,000    10,000  5,000

During the 1930’s there were 31 Jewish communities in Greece.  The Holocaust resulted in the annihilation of 93% of the country’s Jews and the destruction of most of its synagogues and midrashim.  Today there are approximately 5,000 Jews remaining in Greece. 

Throughout our journey, Melissa and I pursued our Jewish heritage by seeking out whatever was left of a once thriving Jewish community.  We spent Tisha B’Av in Athens and were welcomed warmly by the 13 people who were in shul.  In Rhodes, we had the privilege of touring the Kahal Shalom Synagogue built in 1577.  Sadly, it is only used for services when visitors or former residents visit the island.

Traces of Greece’s Jewish community go back as far as 400 BCE following the Babylonian exile.  The community flourished and Jewish immigrants flooded Hellenist cities along the Aegean Coast and the Greek mainland.  During the past 500 years, the background of the Jewish people was made up principally of the Jews who were forced to leave Spain at the time of the Spanish Inquisition of 1492.  My mother’s family, also of Sephardic decent, was fortunate enough to emigrate to Turkey and later Mexico, thus spared the horrors of the holocaust which befell the Greek community.  Ladino is still spoken amongst some community elders and I felt fortunate to be able to converse with them and learn about their experiences. 

As the festival of lights approaches and we sit with our children and grandchildren to spin the dreidel, eat a latke, and sing our favourite Chanukah songs, it is with hope that the miracle of our survival will long power the illumination of the Chanukah lights.  Let the joys of Chanukah bring us a sense of pride for who we are as Jewish people – unified, determined, and bound together by the same sense of purpose.  

Happy Chanukah