Athens--Last Day


Wednesday, October 17, 2018
Athens

We started the day at the small but vibrant Jewish Museum of Athens.  We’ve been here before.  The thrust of the museum is more to explain Judaism to non-Jewish visitors than to educate those who are Jewish.  The displays explain holidays, rituals, etc., with some historic content.

We had a lovely, long meeting with the museum director, Zanet Battinon, who answered our questions about the Athenian Jewish community and recent Jewish history in Athens with candor and directness.  She was lovely and extremely well-spoken.  We had lunch at a local restaurant.

Nearby, and across the street from each other, are two synagogues.  Yes, there are lots of jokes about this kind of thing.  The reality here is that the old synagogue was outgrown by the influx of Sephardic Jews, and the new synagogue, Beit Shalom, was built across the street in 1935 to accommodate the increased numbers.  In the new synagogue we met with one of the community leaders:


Outside, another of the community leaders showed us a commemoration of the many Athenian “Righteous Gentiles” who aided the city’s Jews during German occupation.  The Athens Chief of Police was of major help.  


Among other stories, we heard of the island of Zakynphos where the local Bishop, Chrysostomos, and the mayor, Loukas Karrer, refused the German demand for a list of the island’s almost 300 Jews.  Instead, they helped the Jews disperse and hide, and submitted a “list” with only their two names on it.  Ultimately, they saved every Jew on the island.  Greece has many heroic stories of people who put their lives at risk to help the Jewish communities.

The community’s rabbi, Gabriel Negrin, joined us for a visit to the old synagogue.  He grew up a member of the local Jewish community, and was in his mid-20s when appointed to lead the congregation.



He’s personable, funny, and clearly just the right person to lead them.  The community is vibrant, with a day school, and committed young people.  He and the man who showed us Beit Shalom sang a Ladino tune for us, memorializing Beit Shemesh (click on the arrow):

  
Some free time for shopping, then a farewell dinner with laughter, toasts, and the recalling of wonderful times over the past days together.  It’s been a wonderful dive into the history of Greece, and the place of Jews in that history as well as Jewish Greece today.

This is written on Friday, October 19.  Our trip home was uneventful, and now we’re back to dealing with almost three weeks of accumulated mail and the angst of the daily news.  Yet we glow with the celebration of the Melton School, the great leadership of our wonderful teacher/guide Avi Ben-Hur, and the renewing of old friendships and the development of new ones.  Next year in Morocco?

Comments

  1. xctravelerOctober 20, 2018 at 10:05 AM


    Always hate to see a "last day" post, it sounds to permanent. Also although we are ready to return to our usual life at the end of a trip, travel for all the 4 of us continues to mark the seasons.

    ReplyDelete

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