Volos, Meteora and Ioannina

October 10-11, 2018

  

We have been astonishingly busy.  Wednesday morning began with an introduction to the Romaniote Jews with a talk from Avi titled “The Historic Trajectory of Greek Jewry until the Ottoman Conquest.”  Jews from the Middle East came to Greece and other parts of the eastern Mediterranean since the time of Alexander the Great, some 2300 years ago, long before the second Temple times, and persisted in substantial numbers until WW II.  Their practices were unique, and despite the lands in which they lived being overwhelmed with Sephardic Jews after the expulsion from Spain in 1492, their communities persevered.  Thus, in this area of the world, there were two separate Jewish communities during the Ottoman times and up to the German occupation, Romaniote and Sephardic.

We drove to Volos where we first visited the Holocaust Memorial monument in the center of town:

Remarkably, about 70% of Volos’ Jews were saved by action of the local Greek Orthodox bishop and the villagers in the 24 hard-to-reach small communities on the sides of Mt. Pelion, above the city.  The Volos Jewish community had about 700 members pre-war, and currently only about 60 remain.  Most of the survivors left for the USA and Israel after the war. 

The Volos synagogue is very modest.  We were met and had a discussion with one of the leaders of the community who then showed us the synagogue and meeting room:

In one corner of the adjacent room is a memorial to the Holocaust victims from this town, including an urn with some ashes from Auschwitz, which is where those who were deported were sent and murdered:

There is a photo of the Chief Rabbi pre-war which is remarkable for his dress, very much like that of a Greek Orthodox priest:

Their Torah collection includes both Sephardic and Ashkenazi samples:

We visited the Volos Jewish cemetery where there is a gravestone to those lost in the Holocaust.  We said kaddish there:

We then drove up and up and up to visit one of the small hill towns.  It was quite easy to understand how the Germans had trouble searching for and finding the Jews who were hiding in the mountains.  We visited Makrinitsa:

We stayed overnight in Volos, and arose early this morning to be at our introductory lecture for the day at 8 AM.  Avi gave a truly wonderful explanation of the multiple ways identity is formed, with special attention to “Who is a Greek” with reference to geography, language, religion, and other factors which influence Greek and Greek Jewish identity.  It was a great introduction to the day.  We left for Meteora, in the mountains of central Greece, six extraordinarily inaccessible mountain-top monasteries (two of which are actually nunneries).  On the drive there we had a discussion of monastic life beginning with the hermits who established the custom here, devolving into the Greek Orthodox ascetic movement.  Avi related this to the Essenes, a Jewish Second Temple sect of ascetics who lived for 300 years from around 200 BCE to 100 CE before dying out.  Meteora is visually stunning.  In the second photo here you can see the monastery we visited:

We parked and climbed up and up to the Varlaan Monastery where we first visited the Byzantine church in the complex.  Our guide gave a wonderful explanation of the layout and decorative elements of a Byzantine Greek Orthodox church.  No photos were allowed; this is from the web:

They still drop a hook attached to a long cable down to the people below to bring up supplies:

After visiting the monastery we climbed back down and went into town for lunch, after which we drove to the city of Ioannina which had a large Romaniote Jewish population prior to WW II.  We met with a woman who is a member of the current community which numbers only 34.  At the peak population, the city was 1/3 Jewish, 1/3 Greek Orthodox, and 1/3 Muslim.

The synagogue is a pure representation of Romaniote design, with the bima at one end of the room and the aron kodesh at the other:

The seating is strange with the congregants back-to-back:

The aron kodesh is elaborate, with a curtain made from an old wedding dress with amazing gold embroidery:

The torahs are mixed Sephardic and Ashkenazic:

So, our day today started after breakfast at 8:00 and finished as we checked into our hotel at 7:15.  We were so tired that we skipped dinner, went to a shop across the street for ice cream, and brought baklava back to the hotel room.  Up at 6:00 for an early start tomorrow.  More when I can.