December 2010

In the city of the famed Greek cheesemakers, a resplendent synagogue stands in sharp contrast to a neglected cemetery, testimony to the priorities of a small but unique community. The liturgy here preserved is the closest in existence to the ancienttradition of the Land of Israel | Tsur Ehrlich

ROMANIOTESThe Last

Yannina of

While other communities suffered repeated expulsions, the Jews of Yannina enjoyed years of stability, the reason perhaps for their typically Greek, laid-back character

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ROMANIOTESYannina

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It was more like a forest than a cemetery," Rebecca Salem recalls. "The thicker trees had been chopped down by the community

before our visit, but the place was still badly overgrown. We had to remove creepers deli-cately so as not to damage the gravestones. The whole area was riddled with animal burrows, and full of tortoises. There were four of us, all students, three of us female, not exactly experi-enced woodchoppers or the rough-and-tumble physical type, but our eagerness to uncover the distant past of the singular Jewish community of Ioannina was an excellent substitute for missing muscles."

"We discovered a wide variety of grave-stones hidden in the thickets. Some were in Hebrew, occasionally even including poetic verses and rhymes, while others were written in Greek script. There were gravestones that were decades old; others dated back hundreds of years. No apparent logical order reigned in this mixture of new and old, Hebrew and Geek, recent graves from the last century alongside ancient ones. Towards the end of our week's work, by which time we had become more se-lective about what to dig up and were no longer attempting to uncover everything, we saw a headstone poking out at the edge of the cem-etery and decided to take a look before deciding whether to proceed. Seeing large, coarsely chis-eled letters, we opted to dig. The letters were so faded that we had to blacken them with mud to read the inscription."

An Artifact of their Own"That's how we made our most thrilling

discovery: a gravestone from 1426, rare physi-cal evidence that the local Jewish Romaniote community predates the arrival of the Spanish exiles, just as its leaders claim. Wildly excited, we called over the rest of our group, and some-

how got word to the head of the community, who rushed over to see."

Salem adds: "Over the next few days the community elders arrived. It was crazy – they hobbled over stumps and stumbled over chopped branches to reach the site. Overwhelmed with excitement, some even wept. When the cem-etery was first built it was on the outskirts of the town, but the city expanded and now it's right in the middle. The local council has had its eye on the real estate value of the property for years, trying to buy it from the community for building projects, while the community, for its part, badgered the council for upkeep and repairs. Now they are the proud possessors of an

Overwhelmed with excitement, the community elders arrived

Above: The city's colorful facades

Photograph by Demitris Kilimis

Facing page: The local gabbai, a holocaust survivor who lost his grandson in the Second Lebanon War, locks the synagogue's doors.

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groups, each of which focused on a different loca-tion. Salem's group went to Ionnina in northwest Greece, one of the only remaining Romaniote Jew-ish communities in the world.

A Unique LiturgyThe Romaniotes are thus known because they

lived in the heart of the Eastern Roman or Byz-antine Empire, in places that nowadays form part of western Turkey, Greece, Bulgaria, and Albania. Their siddur (prayer-book) is sometimes called the Roman liturgy - neither Sephardic nor Ashkenazi, it reflects the ancient liturgy of the Land of Israel. This tradition is highly pronounced in the commu-nity of Ioannina, who claim to have arrived there directly from Israel without stopping elsewhere in the Diaspora. Some say they came as early as the Second Temple period, while others date their arrival to the years immediately following the De-struction. Citizens of Rome, their secular culture was Hellenistic in the main. They spoke an ancient Greek dialect called Yevanic (Judeo-Greek), which was similar to the dialect spoken by Greek Chris-tians, but with Hebrew elements and written in a version of the Hebrew alphabet.

"Only the Romaniote liturgy preserves a sub-stantial number of 7th and 8th century piyutim (liturgical poems) from the Land of Israel in the period following the Muslim conquest," explains Prof. Joseph Yahalom of the Hebrew University, who researches Medieval piyutim and poetry. Apart from the Cairo Geniza, the Romaniote lit-urgy is the only source we have for Hebrew liturgi-cal poetry composed in the Holy Land in a period which is essentially a "black hole" as far as written texts are concerned. "The poetry of Yochanan Ha-

romaniote, Neither Sephardic nor Ashkenazi

artifact. I feel our stay has left the community with a true gift. And that's apart from all our documentation work, the map of the cemetery, the synagogue and the pictures."

Today Salem is the Coordinator for Resource Development (she is responsible for raising funds) for the project that sent the delegation in the first place – the "Journey into Jewish Heritage" Project of the Zalman Shazar Center, supported by the Avi Chai Foundation. Then studying Jewish and Com-parative Folklore at the Hebrew University, she set out for Greece in the summer of 2006 as part of a delegation of 26 students. They visited the cities of Thessaloniki, Ionnina (or Yannina), Veroia, Drama, and Kavala, before dividing into smaller

Changing approach. The corner of the synagogue facing the old city was once the building's entrance (below). This entrance is no longer in use.

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Kohen ben Yehoshua features prominently in the Romaniote siddur, alongside many others," adds Yahalom.

"While the Romaniote liturgy can be compared with the more widely familiar Italian prayer book, which also favours piyutim, it was completed earlier; the ancient southern Italian community is actually Romaniote in origin, as the south of Italy was Byzantine. The Italian siddur was consolidated in Rome, in an effort to unite all Italian Jewry."

All But Swept Away Some six centuries later, the Spanish Expul-

sion of 1492 resulted in the arrival of countless Sephardic Jews in the Balkans. In most communi-ties, Sephardic Jewish culture became the domi-nant one, as the old Romaniotes were gradually assimilated by the recent arrivals – a process paral-leled over the entire expanse of North Africa, in Aleppo in Syria, and essentially in the majority of

places experiencing a large influx of Spanish exiles at this point in time. Sephardic Jewry, the product of a golden age of prosperity and culture only a few generations earlier, arrived well-equipped with a rich and established tradition. The customs of the Sephardic Jewish community, their halakhic prac-tices and siddur, including piyutim based on the compositions of the famed Spanish Jewish poets, displaced, if not wiped out, the local traditions. 'A harmonious merging of communities' might be a more positive way of describing the process of mutual assimilation through interethnic marriages which ensued.

The unique Romaniote tradition was almost destroyed. Almost, but not entirely. Isolated com-munities, such as that on the island of Corfu and in the city of Thessaloniki, continued to observe Romaniote customs and to preserve their liturgy. Prominent amongst these communities, which were almost entirely destroyed in the Holocaust, was that of Ioannina. Well-established and self-confident, the community was perhaps sufficient-ly uncompromising to retain its traditions. In the first decades after the Expulsion the leaders of the community insisted on maintaining a single syn-agogue serving the recent arrivals as well as the original community, with services based on solely on the Romaniote liturgy. When the Sephardim were finally able to build their own synagogue, halfway through the 16th century, they took the Romaniote prayer book with them. The liturgy of Byzantium had triumphed.

The only synagogue in the modern State of Is-rael to preserve certain Romaniote traditions was established by immigrants from Ionnina in the Nachlaot neighborhood of Jerusalem – further witness to the unique character of this com-munity. Yet even here the Sephardic siddur has won a belated victory: the main prayer service is the conducted according to Sephardic tradition, with Romaniote overtones in the piyutim and melodies. In the entire world there are apparently only three Romaniote synagogues: in Athens; in Chinatown, New York; and the synagogue in Ion-nina visited by the delegation (see box).

Five per cent survived Auschwitz The official name of the city is Ioannina, which

means "town of John" in Greek, after the Christian apostle John, which was a good reason for Jews to prefer the slightly easier to pronounce form of

A member of the community points out the names of her relatives on the community memorial wall.

Photograph by Dimitris Kilimis

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Yanina. The earliest traditions date Jewish set-tlement in the area to the days of Alexander the Great, but written testimonies to its existence – which now include the grave inscription discov-ered by the delegation – date from the 14th century onwards. In 1430, four years after that headstone was erected, the Ottomans captured the town,

Over the course of the 19th century the Jewish community of Yanina developed into one of the most important in Greece. Political tensions be-tween Greece and Turkey in the early 20th century, as well as economic difficulties, caused its numbers to decline rapidly. Those who remained were mainly craftsmen, especially cheese-makers – the area is well-known for its feta cheese. As of the be-ginning of the Second World War, the community had about two thousand members.

In 1943 the region was transferred from the relatively tolerant rule of fascist Italy to be under direct German control. On March 25 1944, Greece's Independence Day, the town's surviving Jews were all expelled to Auschwitz-Birkenau; the majority of them were murdered in the gas cham-bers on the same day. Only 164 Jews from Yanina survived, and about 100 returned after the war. Today the community numbers roughly 50 peo-ple: one-twentieth of a percent of the population of Yanina (about 100,000 residents).

"The community's days are numbered," states Rebecca Salem. "Not as a result of assimilation, but because only the elderly remain. The younger members have left, mainly for Athens and other large cities. Our delegation included a native of Yanina in her twenties who had made Aliyah; she shared her memories with us. But amongst the residents it is hard to find anyone younger than fifty. The current state of affairs is not encouraging. Not long before our visit, anti-Semitic graffiti was scrawled on the building where many of the elderly members of the community live. A year later, anti-Semitic slogans were sprayed on the cemetery walls, and an attempt was made to break in and damage the tombstones. Anti-Semitism is alive throughout Greece, including Yanina.

She claims that compared to Thessaloniki, the community is relatively insulated. "Many people in Thessaloniki understood Hebrew; some even had relatives living in Israel. In Yanina we had to use an interpreter." Salem sounds enchanted by the com-munity residents and their gentle ways, perhaps even more than she is charmed by the picturesque

beauty of Yanina itself. The town lies on the banks of Lake Pamvotis, looking out from the turrets of its churches and castles towards a delightful islet in the middle of the lake and on to distant, snow-capped mountains beyond.

Folklore in the Cemetery Salem recalls the wonderful hospitality extended

by the community, and their unfailingly amiable reception. But she cannot evade the inevitable question: why was the cemetery neglected for so many years?

"The cemetery occupies a vast expanse of land, 17.5 dunams (roughly 3.4 acres), which they could not care for on their own. They had to choose between the upkeep of the synagogue and the cem-etery, as the maintenance of such a magnificent synagogue is no simple task for a small communi-ty. Its maintenance includes electricity bills, heat-ing for the winter, cooling for the summer months,

On Greece's Independence Day, 1944 the town's surviving Jews were all expelled to Auschwitz-Birkenau; only 164 Jews survived

The Jews of Yannina gathered for deportation to Aushwitz. This image is one of a series of photographs taken that day by a German officer

Photograph currently preserved in

Germany's National Archives

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Seeing large, coarsely chiseled letters, we opted to dig.

The letters were so faded that we had to blacken

them with mud to read the inscription

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The letters were so faded that we had to blacken

Forgotten memories preserved. Members of the delegation uncover and document ancient grave markers, which were apparently transferred from the city's ancient cemetery and date from the 15th century.

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ת ו ע ה ה י ר פ מ י א התבאי כלקיס

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as well as any necessary repairs. The synagogue was the logical choice. It is a poor community, as the people lost everything in the Holocaust."

It is not the only Jewish cemetery in the town. A piece of land was given to the Jews as a gift from Ali Pasha, the cruel ruler of the Albanian region as well as part of Greece, whose reign coincided with Yanina's most prosperous period. The ancient gravestones found in this cemetery were probably transferred there from the town's older graveyard; a fortunate development as it turned out, for the latter was destroyed soon afterwards, leaving no trace of its existence. It seems likely that the gravestones transferred – including the oldest one discovered by the delegation – were those of the community rabbis.

The delegation of Israeli students was split into three workgroups, who eitherexamined the cemetery, interviewed the members of the com-munity regarding their memories and customs,

or documented the synagogue. "Personally, I was not expecting to work in the cemetery," reveals Salem. "I very much enjoy interacting with people. Additionally, in my academic field of folklore we spent much time learning how to conduct docu-mentary interviews, with entire courses devoted to this discipline. But since lots of us wanted to do the interviews, and far fewer were interested in docu-menting the cemetery, I thought, why not?

"The experience was so positive it changed my outlook on cemeteries, which had not interested me before. I always used to look for a Jewish angle on my travels by entering synagogues and the like, but I would never venture into cemeteries. Ever since Yanina, whenever I find myself in a Jewish community outside Israel I ask about its graveyard. You can discover a whole world in a cemetery. I vividly recall a particular headstone which described, in Hebrew, how the young man interred there was killed. His entire story was inscribed in

A limited dispersion. Romaniote communities have been known to exist in Greece and the surrounding areas from the 15th century, before the Spanish exiles influence blurred the older traditions

Map: Super Mapping Ltd.

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Hebrew, and looking at it, suddenly you grasp the meaning of a vibrant Jewish community speaking Hebrew long before the rebirth of the language."

"My background in folklore allowed me to un-derstand certain connections. For example, Greek writing on a headstone indicates either that these people were disconnected from religion, which is why they chose to perpetuate the memory of their loved ones in Greek, or that it is a relatively new headstone from a period when the influence of religion was on the wane. Then take the symbols carved onto the gravestones: the sign of the Star of David was the most popular. Compared to other communities, the residents of Yanina did not invest in ornately decorated headstones. Most were simple, as it was not a wealthy community.”

Strengthening IdentitiesFor Salem, the social aspect of the trip was of

equal significance. It gave students from differ-ent sectors of Israeli society an opportunity to investigate their Jewish identities – "what are my roots, and where am I headed." Ironically, this encounter was only made possible by the fact that they had left both Israel and their own present temporarily behind, to undertake an expedition into the Jewish, pre-Israeli past. Ac-cording to Salem, this is one of the main aims of the "Journey into Jewish Heritage" initiative, no less than the goal of preserving and document-

ing Jewish communities. "Working together, day in, day out, with people

so different from myself, was simply a fantastic experience, despite the fact that we were in a cemetery, laboring physically from dawn until dusk. It was this experience that motivated me, a few years later, to agree to work for the Project. My team in the cemetery included a pair of archeol-ogy students from Haifa University of Haifa, both secular Jews, and a religious girl called Shari, then studying industrial design in Holon. I belong to the Conservative Movement, and made Aliyah from the States. While Shari and I had grown up with these things, it was a real eye-opener for the secular students: the first time they entered a synagogue and the first time they opened a siddur … they suddenly realized that the text is all in He-brew and that they can read it. Busy documenting a Diaspora community, we were actually strength-ening our own community in Israel as well.

The Land of Israel liturgy. The "Kol Nidre" prayer written in pure Hebrew, as opposed to the familiar Aramaic version of the Ashkenazi and Sephardic liturgy

Taken from an old Romaniote

mahzor preserved in the National

Library

The Journey into Jewish Heritage program is sponsored

by the Zalman Shazar Center for Jewish History (www.

jewish-heritage.org.il) with the support of the Avichai

Foundation. This unique educational/research project

trains and sends groups of students from a variety of

academic disciplines to document Jewish communities

and sites the world over. Program Director: Hannah

Holland

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Until midway through the 16th century the entire community of Yanina, including the recent Spanish Jewish arrivals, prayed in the Old Kehal Kadosh synagogue located within the Old City walls. However, as additional Jewish neighbor-hoods developed beyond the city walls, the Sephardic residents decided to build their own synagogue, outside the walls. They called it the New Kehal Kadosh.

Both synagogues were rebuilt after being dam-aged by fire – the old one in 1826 and the new one 15 years later. Unfortunately, the New Kehal Kadosh synagogue is no longer standing, as it was heavily damaged during the Second World War. With the aid of the JDC, a residential building for the members of the community was constructed in its place. The Old Kehal Kadosh building survived, having been designated by the town’s mayor to house the municipal library. After the war, it was restored to the community and renovated with funds raised through local dona-tions and the JDC. Nowadays the main hall of the synagogue is used by the community on ten im-portant dates each year. Since the ladies' gallery

The Old Kehal Kadosh ("The Old Holy Community") : the Story of a Synagogue

This synagogue, built on an Italian model, was among the first synagogues designed to enhance the congregants’ visual and audial experience of prayer | Efrat Godinger

Sketches by Efrat Godinger

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is unavailable (it requires extensive renovation), men and women sit together in the main hall. The men occupy the rows near the main aisle, while the women sit at the back, thus preserving a measure of separation.

The Old Kehal Kadosh synagogue was built according to the bipolar model developed mainly in Italy. In synagogues of this kind the Sanctuary, which holds the Torah Scrolls, is affixed to the wall facing Jerusalem, whereas the bima, the cantor’s platform, is not positioned in the middle of the hall, as in most synagogues we are familiar with, but right along the back wall. This perfectly bipolar design that follows authentic, artistic lines devel-oped only in Italy and within its sphere of immedi-ate geographical and cultural influence: southern France, a few coastal towns on the Adriatic Sea, and Yanina.

In the bipolar synagogues that remain standing today, the bima is tucked away in a small niche,

sunken into the western, back wall. Its arched ceiling functions as a kind of acoustic shell, enabling sound to resonate back into the central prayer hall.

This bipolar structure enables both the congre-gants and the cantor to see each other. The layout offers a balanced harmony between the Holy Ark, bima, and congregant. These were the first syna-gogues built according to a spatial plan designed to enhance the congregants’ visual and audial experi-ence of prayer. The space formed between the bima and the Holy Ark can comfortably accommodate and enhance dramatic, ceremonial rituals such as taking out the Torah Scroll and dancing round the synagogue on Simchat Torah.

The seating arrangements of this synagogue are also unique. The area between the bima and the Sanctuary, along the width of the synagogue (east to west), is left vacant as an aisle. Benches are arranged along both sides of the aisle – the

The Old Kehal Kadosh ("The Old Holy Community") : the Story of a Synagogue

The dome of the synagogue is invisible from the outside, as is the massive mezuzah affixed to the doors.

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front ones along its length, the ones behind them in a u-shaped pattern. There are a number of advantages to this seating arrangement. First, it provides the congregants with enough space to take three steps backwards at the conclusion of prayer, as customarily required. Secondly, the lack of significant difference between the seats (all can see both the Sanctuary and the bima) means that there is no way of using seating arrangements to stress the social gaps between the various congre-gants. Admittedly, those who sit in the rows on the two sides of the aisle have a certain advantage, but the length of these rows – which stretch along al-most the entire length of the synagogue – prevents them from turning into a subject of power strug-gles. Third, the benches are double-sided, so that the congregants sit essentially back to back. The overall effect is of small, intimate seating units, in which physical proximity and eye contact encour-age the formation of interpersonal ties (also known as talking during services).

Our aim was to document every aspect of the synagogue and the spiritual world of its commu-nity: the building as it stands and as it was before it was partly destroyed; the details which create its elegant air - the entrance gate and façade, the bima (platform for Torah reading), the pillars and memorial plates; and the life that flourished within the synagogue during its heyday, before the Nazis

destroyed the community. We even indexed the opening pages of books in the synagogue closets, to record any special writings or drawings inside. More than once we discovered a record of sales and purchases, attesting to commercial activity between the various members of the community (during prayer services!).

The dome of the synagogue dominates its inner space, forming the meeting point of the major axes of the interior. It is invisible from the outside, as the roof is made of standard rafters, and blends with the other rooves of the town. The massive mezuzah affixed to the doors cannot be seen from the outside either.

Possibly, the community preferred to down-play its presence as a result of political tensions that prevailed in the town during the rebellion against the Ottomans in the early decades of the 19th century. Greek nationalist sentiment ran high and on more than one occasion the Jews were accused of loyalty to the Turks; the inflamed atmosphere resulted in more than one death. It seems that Jews felt safer when their presence was not emphasized. But in that case, why is there a prominent Star of David on the entrance gate to the synagogue?

Efrat Godinger, an archeology student, was part of the delegation to Yanina. The following is an excerpt from her comprehensive report .

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