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108-481: (Redirected from Romaniot ) Romaniote may refer to: Romaniote Jews Yevanic language , the language of the Romaniote Jews Topics referred to by the same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title Romaniote . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to

216-651: A pogrom sparked by blood libel charges forced most of the Jewish community to leave the island. The Romaniote prayer rite ( Nusach ) as seen in the original Mahzor Romania and the Romaniote commentaries ( Minhag ) on Jewish exegesis and Jewish law , vary from those of the Ashkenazi , Sephardic and Mizrachi Jews, and are closer to those of the Italian Jews : some of these are thought to have been based on

324-474: A third or fourth century inscription uses a similar term, εὑκτήριον euktērion . The oldest Samaritan synagogue discovered so far is from Delos in the Aegean Islands , with an inscription dated between 250 and 175 BCE, while most Samaritan synagogues excavated in the wider Land of Israel and ancient Samaria in particular, were built in the fourth to seventh centuries at the very end of

432-641: A choir to accompany the hazzan, and vestments for the synagogue rabbi to wear. In following decades, the central reader's table, the Bimah , was moved to the front of the Reform sanctuary—previously unheard-of in Orthodox synagogues. Gender separation was also removed. Synagogues often take on a broader role in modern Jewish communities and may include additional facilities such as a catering hall, kosher kitchen, religious school , library , day care center and

540-587: A continually lit lamp or lantern, usually electric in contemporary synagogues, called the ner tamid ( נר תמיד ‎), the "Eternal Light", used as a way to honor the Divine Presence. A synagogue may be decorated with artwork, but in the Rabbinic and Orthodox tradition, three-dimensional sculptures and depictions of the human body are not allowed as these are considered akin to idolatry. Originally, synagogues were made devoid of much furniture,

648-578: A dozen Second Temple period synagogues in use by Jews and Samaritans have been identified by archaeologists in Israel and other countries of the Hellenistic world . Following the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE, Rabbi Yohanan ben Zakkai , who is often credited with reformulating Judaism for the post-Temple era, advocated for the establishment of individual houses of worship since

756-567: A handbook of biblical apologetics. In tune with the intellectual currents among Romaniotes, Shemarya was trained in philosophy and was able to translate directly from Greek to Hebrew. The Sefer Yosippon was written by the Byzantine Jews of Southern Italy. R. Elnatan ben Moses Kalkes (from Kilkis ) wrote a lengthy kabbalistic treatise entitled Eben Saphir . Mordecai Komatiano has left a legacy of some fifteen works on astronomy, grammar (dikduk), biblical commentaries and piyyutim; some of

864-608: A knowledge of Greek philosophical terminology. Rabbinic authors spiced their comments with Greek phrases. The familiarity of Romaniote Jewry with the Greek language is well documented. Biblical translations, piyyutim, folksongs, Ketubbot, liturgical instructions, glossaries, mystical texts and the use of Greek words in commentaries in Judaeo-Greek are known. After World War II, the Judaeo-Greek language of Ioannina underwent

972-707: A large number of synagogues across the Roman - Byzantine and Sasanian Empires . Archaeological evidence indicates the presence of synagogues in at least thirteen places across the diaspora, spanning from Dura-Europos in Syria to Elche in Hispania (modern-day Spain ). An especially sizable and monumental synagogue dating from this period is the Sardis Synagogue . Additionally, many inscriptions pertaining to synagogues and their officials have been discovered. In

1080-696: A museum devoted to Greek Jewry and offers guided tours to visitors on Sundays. Like the community in Jerusalem, the prayers today follow the Sephardic rite, but they preserve a few piyyutim from the Romaniote rite. DNA research and genealogical works based on the Romaniote communities of Ioannina and Zakynthos are in progress. Nearly 4/5th of the autosomal DNA of Ashkenazi Jews is related to that of Romaniote Jews. Romaniote Jewish men have been found to belong to various branches of Y-chromosomal haplogroups E1b1b1 , G , J , Q , R1a , and R1b . In 2024,

1188-722: A place for communal prayer and reading and studying the Torah . Alexandrian Jews also made a Koine Greek translation of the Torah, the Septuagint . The earliest archaeological evidence for the existence of synagogues is stone dedication inscriptions from the third century BCE prove that proseukhái existed by that date. Philo and Josephus mention lavishly-adorned synagogues in Alexandria and in Antioch , respectively. More than

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1296-432: A process of koinezation . The only phonetic differences to Standard Modern Greek , which could be noted shortly after the war have been [x] > [s] before front vowels, unusual intonation patterns and some peculiar lexical items, mostly of Hebrew-Aramaic provenance. Lexemes, such as Hebrew-Aramaic loans, were easily identified as "ours" and "theirs," i.e., Sephardic vs. Romaniote. While composing texts on their religion,

1404-479: A series, containing also Romaniote poetry, the haftarot according to the Romaniote custom and other texts. A Romaniote rite based reform siddur in Greek and Hebrew has also been published in 2018. The intellectual pursuits of Romaniote Jews reflected in their history their geographical location within the Jewish and gentile world. Direct heir to Palestinian Jewish traditions on the one hand, they were also heir to

1512-673: A smaller chapel for daily services. Since many Orthodox and some non-Orthodox Jews prefer to collect a minyan (a quorum of ten) rather than pray alone, they commonly assemble at pre-arranged times in offices, living rooms, or other spaces when these are more convenient than formal synagogue buildings. A room or building that is used this way can become a dedicated small synagogue or prayer room. Among Ashkenazi Jews they are traditionally called shtiebel ( שטיבל , pl. shtiebelekh or shtiebels , Yiddish for "little house"), and are found in Orthodox communities worldwide. Another type of communal prayer group, favored by some contemporary Jews,

1620-604: A special chair placed on the wall facing Jerusalem and next to the Torah Shrine was reserved for the prominent members of the congregation and for important guests. Such a stone-carved and inscribed seat was discovered at archaeological excavations in the synagogue at Chorazin in Galilee and dates from the 4th–6th century; another one was discovered at the Delos Synagogue , complete with a footstool. In Yemen ,

1728-693: A specific "Byzantine" or "Romaniote" Handwriting system of the Hebrew alphabet , which has been developed among the Soferim of the Greek-speaking lands. In many cases manuscripts of Romaniote origin from the Byzantine Empire, or from later times can be recognised as "Romaniote", only with the science of Paleography, if they do not contain a Colophon (publishing) or other characteristics of identification. During World War II , when Greece

1836-758: A team of researchers announced that a modern Romaniote Jewish man from Greece belongs to "a previously undiscovered" branch of the Y-chromosomal haplogroup J-P58 found to be "dating straight back 7,000 years to the Neolithic era." Romaniote Jewish mitochondrial DNA haplogroups include HV1b2 , U5b , and U6a3. Byzantine times to the Ottoman Empire Greek-speaking Karaites of Constantinople Modern times Synagogue Synagogues are consecrated spaces used for Jewish prayer , study, assembly, and reading of

1944-604: A thankful gift to the Synagogue of congregants who have received help, healing or salvation by God. The Romaniote term for the Passover ceremony (Seder) is חובה ( Hova ), which means obligation. In 2004 the Jewish Museum of Greece published a Romaniote rite Pesach-Seder CD ( The Ioannina Haggadah ). In the years 2017 and 2018 the Romaniote rite Haggadah and the Romaniote rite prayer book ( siddur ) have been published in

2052-587: A third could read Greek satisfactorily. The number of persons fluent in the Greek Language is much lower in the group of the Greek Sephardim outside of Greece. The Romaniote pronunciation of the Hebrew language is very close in its major features to the common Modern Hebrew pronunciation. The vowel-system is a simple five-vowel system without either quantitative or qualitative distinctions. Typical

2160-626: Is commonly used in English , with its earliest mention in the 1st century Theodotos inscription in Jerusalem. Ashkenazi Jews have traditionally used the Yiddish term shul (from the Greek schola , which is also the source of the English "school") in everyday speech, and many continue to do so in English. Sephardi Jews and Romaniote Jews generally use the term kal (from the Hebrew qahal "community"). Spanish and Portuguese Jews call

2268-471: Is in operation in the entire Western Hemisphere: Kehila Kedosha Janina , at 280 Broome Street, in the Lower East Side of Manhattan , where it is used by the Romaniote emigrant community. It maintains a mailing list of 3,000 Romaniote families, most of them living in the tri-state area . It is open for services every Saturday morning as well as all major Jewish holidays. The synagogue also houses

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2376-669: Is laid out in the Romaniote way: the Bimah (where the Torah scrolls are read out during services) is on a raised dais on the western wall, the Aron haKodesh (where the Torah scrolls are kept) is on the eastern wall and in the middle there is a wide interior aisle . The names of the Ioanniote Jews who were killed in the Holocaust are engraved in stone on the walls of the synagogue. The Bet Chaim cemetery in Ioannina belongs to

2484-668: Is no longer practiced in Israel, the United Kingdom, or the United States, and which custom, as in former times, was dependent upon whether or not the wearer considered it a thing of contempt to stand before God while wearing shoes. In Christian countries, where it was thought not offensive to stand before a king while wearing shoes, it was likewise permitted to do so in a house of prayer. However, in Karaite Judaism,

2592-806: Is not found now in either the Balkan or the North African Sephardic diaspora) may have been due Romaniote practice (it is observed partly in Yiddish Hebraisms and in the Ashkenazic pronunciation of monolingual Hebrew texts). The [ז] was pronounced as [ d͡z ] and the [ד] as [ð] which are typical sounds of the Standard Modern Greek . The Hebrew Paleography resp. the Hebrew Epigraphy recognises

2700-635: Is questionable. It is believed that the Metroon , discovered in 1930 at the foot of the hill Hephaestion (Thesion) was used as a synagogue during its construction at the end of the 4th century CE (396–400). This view was expressed by the archaeologist H. Thompson, from the American School of Classical Studies in Athens, but was not developed into a complete theory. The Jewish identity of the Metroon

2808-676: The Byzantine melos and for their Jewish-Greek folksongs, based on regional melodies. Jewish immigrants from Sicily brought to Ioannina the celebration of the Sicilian Purim Katan . The Jews of Ioannina call this holiday Pourimopoulo . They read the special "Megillah for the Purim Katan of Syracuse" and sing corresponding songs and hymns for this festivity. The Mahzor of the Romaniote Kaffa Rite from

2916-696: The Eastern Roman Empire , also known as Byzantium, which included the territory of modern Greece, which this Jewish group inhabited for centuries. Historically, the Empire was commonly referred to as Rhōmanía ( Ῥωμανία ) and its Christian citizens as Rhōmaîoi , "Romans" ( Ῥωμαῖοι ), while the Greek-speaking Jews were called Rhōmaniôtes (Ῥωμανιῶτες), essentially meaning inhabitants of Rhōmanía. Jews have lived in Greece since at least

3024-651: The Gospel of John ( John 9:22; 18:20 ) and the Book of Revelation ( Rev. 2:9; 3:9 ). It is used in the sense of 'assembly' in the Epistle of James ( James 2:2 ). Alternatively, the epistle of James (in Greek, clearly Ἰάκωβος or יעקב, anglicized to Jacob) refers to a place of assembly that was indeed Jewish, with Jacob ben Joseph perhaps an elder there. The specific word in James (Jacob) 2:2 could easily be rendered "synagogue", from

3132-706: The Heliopolite Nome . The first synagogues emerged in the Jewish diaspora , several centuries before their introduction to the Land of Israel . Evidence points to their existence as early as the Hellenistic period , notably in Alexandria , Ptolemaic Egypt , the world's foremost Greek-speaking city at the time. There, the first proseukhái ( Koinē Greek : προσευχαί , lit.   'places of prayer'; singular προσευχή proseukhē ) were built to provide

3240-717: The Jerusalem Talmud instead of the Babylonian Talmud (see Eretz-Yisrael minhag ). This Minhag was once widespread in Southern Italy, the Balkans, Greece, Anatolia and the Crimea. The Romaniotes spoke Judaeo-Greek for a long time, and many of them still use the Greek language today. Tobiah ben Eliezer (טוביה בר אליעזר), a Greek-speaking Talmudist and poet of the 11th century, worked and lived in

3348-485: The Mishnah – the "Oral Torah") states that communal Jewish worship can be carried out wherever a minyan , a group of at least 10 Jewish adults, is assembled, often (but not necessarily) led by a rabbi . Worship can also happen alone or with fewer than ten people, but certain prayers are considered by halakha as solely communal; these can be recited only by a minyan. In terms of its specific ritual and liturgical functions,

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3456-629: The Romaniotes ( Greek : Ῥωμανιῶτες , Rhōmaniôtes ; Hebrew : רומניוטים , romanized :  Romanyotim ) are a Greek-speaking ethnic Jewish community. They are one of the oldest Jewish communities in existence and the oldest Jewish community in Europe. The Romaniotes have been, and remain, historically distinct from the Sephardim , some of whom settled in Ottoman Greece after

3564-640: The Second Temple era (516 BCE – 70 CE). Recorded Jewish presence in Greece dates back over 2,300 years to the time of Alexander the Great . The earliest reference to a Greek Jew is an inscription dated c.  300–250 BCE , found in Oropos , a small coastal town between Athens and Boeotia , which refers to "Moschos, son of Moschion the Jew", who may have been a slave . A Hellenistic Jewish synagogue

3672-536: The Sephardic , Yemenite , Romaniote or Persian Jews of a town), style of religious observance (e.g., Reform or Orthodox synagogue), or by the followers of a particular rabbi , such as the shtiebelekh ( Yiddish : שטיבעלעך , romanized :  shtibelekh , singular שטיבל shtibl ) of Hasidic Judaism . The Hebrew term is bet knesset (בית כנסת) or "house of assembly". The Koine Greek -derived word synagogue (συναγωγή) also means "assembly" and

3780-435: The Torah (read in its entirety once a year, or in some synagogues on a triennial cycle, in weekly Torah portions during religious services). However, a synagogue is not always necessary for Jewish worship, due to adaptations during times of Jewish persecution in countries and regions that banned Judaism, frequently destroying and/or reappropriating synagogues into churches or even government buildings. Halakha (Jewish law from

3888-531: The destruction of the Jerusalem Temple in 70 CE, including in Magdala, Gamla, Masada, Herodium, Modi‘in (Kh. Umm el-‘Umdan), Qiryat Sepher (Kh. Bad ‘Issa), and Kh. Diab. Aviam concluded that he thought almost every Jewish settlement at the time, whether it was a polis or a village, had a synagogue. During Late antiquity (third to seventh century CE), literary sources attest to the existence of

3996-402: The expulsion of Jews from Spain and Portugal after 1492. Their distinct language was Yevanic , a Greek dialect that contained Hebrew along with some Aramaic and Turkish words, but today's Romaniotes speak Modern Greek or the languages of their new home countries. Their name is derived from the endonym Rhōmanía ( Ῥωμανία ), which refers to the Eastern Roman Empire ("Empire of

4104-562: The heikhal — היכל ‎ or 'temple' by Sephardic Jews , is a cabinet in which the Torah scrolls are kept. The ark in a synagogue is almost always positioned in such a way such that those who face it are facing towards Jerusalem . Thus, sanctuary seating plans in the Western world generally face east , while those east of Israel face west. Sanctuaries in Israel face towards Jerusalem. Occasionally synagogues face other directions for structural reasons; in such cases, some individuals might turn to face Jerusalem when standing for prayers, but

4212-485: The 10th century in Byzantine Southern Italy by the Greek-speaking Jewish community there. Judah Leon ben Moses Mosconi , a Romaniote Jew from Achrida edited and expanded the Sefer Josippon later. This community of Byzantine Jews of southern Italy produced such prominent works like the Sefer Ahimaaz of Ahimaaz ben Paltiel , the Sefer Hachmoni of Shabbethai Donnolo , the Aggadath Bereshit and many Piyyutim . The liturgical writings of these Romaniote Jews, especially

4320-459: The 19th century and early 20th century heyday of historicist architecture, however, most historicist synagogues, even the most magnificent ones, did not attempt a pure style, or even any particular style, and are best described as eclectic. In the post-war era, synagogue architecture abandoned historicist styles for modernism. All synagogues contain a Bimah , a large, raised, reader's platform (called teḇah (reading dais) by Sephardim), where

4428-418: The 19th century, in an Ashkenazi synagogue, all seats most often faced the Torah Ark. In a Sephardic synagogue, seats were usually arranged around the perimeter of the sanctuary, but when the worshipers stood up to pray, everyone faced the Ark. Many current synagogues have an elaborate chair named for the prophet Elijah , which is only sat upon during the ceremony of Brit milah . In ancient synagogues,

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4536-423: The 2nd century AD. Ancient Jewish tombstones dating back to 325–641 AD, were also discovered in the neighbouring city of Phthiotic Thebes . Moshe Pesach was Rabbi of Volos who saved Greek Jews during the Holocaust and helped to consolidate the community of Volos after World War II. Most Romaniotes in Israel live in Tel Aviv . There are two Romaniote synagogues in Israel: the Zakynthos Synagogue in Tel Aviv, and

4644-436: The Beit Avraham Ve'ohel Sarah liKehilat Ioanina in Nachlaot , Jerusalem . The former Romaniote Yanina Synagogue in the Christian Quarter , Jerusalem is no longer in use. In Beit Avraham Ve'ohel Sarah liKehilat Ioanina in Jerusalem , the prayers today follow the Sephardic rite, but they preserve a few piyyutim from the Romaniote rite. Only one Romaniote synagogue (from originally several Romaniote Synagogues in New York)

4752-470: The Greco-Karaite community of the Constantinopolitan Karaites which still survives to this day. A Romaniote oral tradition says that the first Jews arrived in Ioannina shortly after the destruction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem in 70 CE. Before the migration of the Ashkenazi and the Sephardi Jews into the Balkans and Eastern Europe, the Jewish culture in these areas consisted primarily of Romaniote Jews. The Romaniote rites represent those of

4860-426: The Greek Jews followed the literary standards of Greek syntax and morphology, using a number of Hebrew-Aramaic loanwords. The Hebrew-Aramaic component would be written down in ways reflecting traditional Romaniote pronunciation, for example Shalom , was spelled and written as Salom (Σαλώμ). Krivoruchko states in her work Judeo-Greek in the era of globalization that Judaeo-Greek has always been interchangeable with

4968-462: The Greek συναγωγὴν. During the first Christian centuries, Jewish Christians are hypothesized to have used houses of worship known in academic literature as synagogue-churches. Scholars have claimed to have identified such houses of worship of the Jews who had accepted Jesus as the Messiah in Jerusalem and Nazareth . There is no set blueprint for synagogues and the architectural shapes and interior designs of synagogues vary greatly. In fact,

5076-402: The Greek-speaking Jews of the Byzantine (or former Byzantine) Empire, ranging from southern Italy (in a narrower sense the Apulian , the Calabrian and the Sicilian Jewish communities) in the west, to much of Turkey in the east, Crete to the south, Crimea (the Krymchaks ) to the north and the Jews of the early medieval Balkans and Eastern Europe . The Sefer Yosippon was written down in

5184-412: The Holocaust and in the wake of World War II , there were approximately 1,950 Romaniotes left in Ioannina. Centered around the old fortified part of the city (or Kastro), where the community had been living for centuries, they maintained two synagogues, one of which, the Kehila Kedosha Yashan Synagogue still remains today. A strong Romaniote community was present in Corfu until the late 19th century, when

5292-452: The Holocaust left for Israel or the United States at the end of the war. The creation of the state of Israel in 1948, combined with the violence and anarchy of the Greek Civil War (1946–1949), led to an immigration of a number of Romaniotes to Israel. The great earthquake on the island of Zakynthos in 1953 led the last remaining Romaniote Jews to leave the island towards Athens. The vast majority of Romaniotes have relocated to Israel and

5400-422: The Island of Corfu . The Ioanniotiki Synagogue, situated above the Jewish Community of Athens offices at #8 Melidoni St., is the only Romaniote synagogue in Athens . Built in 1906, it now has services only during the High Holy Days , but can be opened for visitors upon request through the Jewish Community office. The Jewish identity of another building found in the excavations of the ancient Agora in Athens,

5508-415: The Jewish congregants in Spain , the Maghreb (North Africa), Babylonia , the Land of Israel and Yemen having a custom to sit upon the floor, which had been strewn with mats and cushions, rather than upon chairs or benches. In other European towns and cities, however, Jewish congregants would sit upon chairs and benches. Today, the custom has spread in all places to sit upon chairs and benches. Until

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5616-445: The Jewish custom was to remove one's shoes immediately prior to entering the synagogue, a custom that had been observed by Jews in other places in earlier times. The same practice of removing one's shoes before entering the synagogue was also largely observed among Jews in Morocco in the early 20th century. On the island of Djerba in Tunisia , Jews still remove their shoes when entering a synagogue. The custom of removing one's shoes

5724-540: The Ketubah the year since creation of the world and the year since the destruction of the Temple . The Romaniotes traditionally gave to a child a mystical document known as an "aleph". This hand-painted "birth and circumcision certificate" was created by a family member and then handed down. The aleph was written in mystical codes for the purpose of warding off the wiles of Lillith , Adam's first wife. The Romaniotes are well known for their hymns in Judaeo-Greek and Hebrew, for their special way of cantillation , based on

5832-444: The Land of Israel, late antiquity witnessed a significant increase in synagogue construction, in Galilee and Golan in the north and the southern hills of Judea , in the south. Each synagogue was constructed according to the means and religious customs of the local community. Notable examples include Capernaum , Bar'am , Beth Alpha , Maoz Haim , Meroth and Nabratein in the north, and Eshtemoa , Susya , Anim , and Maon in

5940-422: The Old Testament in the shibusi style . As Mehmed wanted to make the city his new capital, he decreed its rebuilding. And in order to revivify Constantinople he ordered that Muslims , Christians and Jews from all over his empire be resettled in the new capital. Within months most of the Empire's Romaniote Jews, from the Balkans and Anatolia , were concentrated in Constantinople, where they made up 10% of

6048-415: The Roman Empire and throughout the Byzantine period. The elements which distinguish Samaritan synagogues from contemporary Jewish ones are: Ancient Samaritan synagogues are mentioned by literary sources or have been found by archaeologists in the Diaspora, in the wider Holy Land, and specifically in Samaria. In the New Testament , the word appears 56 times, mostly in the Synoptic Gospels , but also in

6156-450: The Romaniote Jews, tradition dictates, that the most holy Sefer Torah, the Law of Moses, be read with the scroll standing upright in its tik ; it is considered improper to lay it flat. The siddur (prayer book) for the Romaniote rite was known as the Mahzor Romania . The Romaniote Jews have their own form of wedding blessing. Upon the betrothal, seven blessings are bestowed on the bride and groom to be, while wedding wreaths are covering

6264-403: The Romaniote community has dwindled to 50 mostly elderly people. The Kehila Kedosha Yashan Synagogue there is open primarily on the High Holidays, or in the case of the visit of a chazzan, or is opened for visitors on request. Immigrant Romaniotes return every summer to the old synagogue. After a long time a Bar Mitzvah (the Jewish ritual for celebrating the coming of age of a child) was held in

6372-423: The Romans", Βασιλεία Ρωμαίων ). Large Romaniote communities were located in Thessaloniki , Ioannina , Arta , Preveza , Volos , Chalcis , Thebes , Corinth , Patras , and on the islands of Corfu , Crete , Zakynthos , Lesbos , Chios , Samos , Rhodes , and Cyprus , among others. Most of the Jews of Greece were murdered in the Holocaust after the Axis occupation of Greece during World War II and

6480-432: The Second Temple in 70 CE had prepared the Jews for life in the diaspora, where prayer would serve as the focus of Jewish worship. Despite the certain existence of synagogue-like spaces prior to the First Jewish–Roman War, the synagogue emerged as a focal point for Jewish worship upon the destruction of the Temple. For Jews living in the wake of the Revolt, the synagogue functioned as a "portable system of worship". Within

6588-405: The Temple was no longer accessible. It has been theorized that the synagogue became a place of worship in the region upon the destruction of the Second Temple during the First Jewish–Roman War ; however, others speculate that there had been places of prayer, apart from the Temple, during the Hellenistic period. The popularization of prayer over sacrifice during the years prior to the destruction of

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6696-410: The Torah (reading dais) was commonly placed at the opposite side of the room from the Torah Ark, leaving the center of the floor empty for the use of a ceremonial procession carrying the Torah between the Ark and the reading table. Most contemporary synagogues feature a lectern for the rabbi. The Torah Ark , called in Hebrew ארון קודש ‎ Aron Kodesh or 'holy chest' , and alternatively called

6804-407: The Torah scroll is placed to be read. In Sephardi synagogues and traditional Ashkenazi synagogues it is also used as the prayer leader's reading desk. In Ashkenazi synagogues, the Torah was read on a reader's table located in the center of the room, while the leader of the prayer service, the hazzan , stood at his own lectern or table, facing the Ark. In Sephardic synagogues, the table for reading

6912-402: The United States, with the world's largest community located in New York. Today approximately 4,500 to 6,000 Jews remain in Greece. Of these, only a small number are Romaniotes, who live mainly in Thessaloniki , Ioannina , Chalkis and Athens . About 3,500 Jews now live in Athens , while another 1,000 live in Thessaloniki . A mixed community of Romaniote and Apulian Jews still lives on

7020-479: The building. Today, only part of the synagogue's mosaic floor is extant, and it has been moved from its original location to the courtyard of the island's Archaeological Museum . In 1977 another ancient synagogue was discovered in Athens, the Synagogue in the Agora of Athens , which may be the synagogue in which Paul the Apostle preached. Inscriptions in the Samaritan and Greek alphabets found in Thessaloniki may originate from Samaritan synagogues. Concurrently

7128-417: The city in a state of disarray. The city had indeed suffered many sieges , a devastating conquest by Catholic Crusaders in 1204 and even a case of the Black Death in 1347, and now had been long cut off from its hinterland , so the city was a shade of its former glory. The event of the conquest of Constantinople was written down by a Romaniote Payetan in a lament hymn, composed with several phrases from

7236-413: The city of Kastoria . He is the author of the Lekach Tov , a midrashic commentary on the Pentateuch and the Five Megillot and also of some poems. Romaniote scholars translated the Tanakh into Greek. A polyglot edition of the Bible published in Constantinople in 1547 has the Hebrew text in the middle of the page, with a Ladino ( Judaeo-Spanish ) translation on one side, a Yevanic translation on

7344-484: The city's life. The community has a synagogue and a cemetery with important and old inscriptions. The Synagogue is on Kotsou Street. It is unknown when the first synagogue in Chalkis was constructed. In 1854, during the Holy Week a great fire destroyed the synagogue. In 1855 it was re-constructed in the same size with funds offered by Sophie de Marbois-Lebrun, Duchess of Plaisance . The Synagogue opens every Friday evening and occasionally on Shabbat morning. In Ioannina ,

7452-442: The city's population. The forced resettlement, though not intended as an anti-Jewish measure , was perceived as an "expulsion" by the Jews. Nevertheless, the Romaniotes would remain the most influential Jewish community in the Empire for decades to come, determining the Chief Rabbis of the towns and the Hakham Bashi of the Ottoman Empire until their leading position was lost to a wave of new Jewish arrivals. These events initiated

7560-442: The community. In the community of Volos many of the Romaniote pre-Sephardic traditions prevail. The community consists of Romaniotes as well as Sephardim (particularly from Larissa ) and Corfiots . Ancient historic texts mention that Jews lived in the region of Magnesia , Thessaly and in particular in neighbouring Almyros as early as the 1st century AD. Historians argue that Jews have been living in ancient Demetrias since

7668-399: The congregation as a whole does not. The Ark is reminiscent of the Ark of the Covenant , which held the tablets inscribed with the Ten Commandments . This is the holiest spot in a synagogue, equivalent to the Holy of Holies . The Ark is often closed with an ornate curtain, the parochet פרוכת ‎, which hangs outside or inside the ark doors. Other traditional features include

7776-404: The custom of removing one's shoes prior to entering a synagogue is still observed worldwide. In Orthodox synagogues, men and women do not sit together. The synagogue features a partition ( mechitza ) dividing the men's and women's seating areas, or a separate women's section located on a balcony. The German–Jewish Reform movement, which arose in the early 19th century, made many changes to

7884-589: The death camps. Almost all Romaniote Jews of the island of Crete, together with some resistance fighters, died on the ship Tanaḯs when it was torpedoed by the British submarine HMS Vivid on 9 June 1944. During the German occupation, the Romaniotes' ability to speak Greek enabled them to hide better from German deportations than Sephardi Jews who spoke Ladino . The majority of Romaniotes who survived

7992-571: The deportation of most of the Jews to Nazi concentration camps . After the war, a majority of the survivors emigrated to Israel , the United States , and Western Europe . Today there are still functioning Romaniote synagogues in Chalkis (which represents the oldest Jewish congregation on European soil), Ioannina, Veria , Athens , New York City, and Israel . The name Romaniote refers to

8100-534: The first great numerical decline of the Romaniote community. The number of Jews was soon bolstered by small groups of Ashkenazi Jews that immigrated to the Ottoman Empire between 1421 and 1453. Waves of Sephardi Jews were expelled from Spain in 1492; many settled in Ottoman -ruled Greece. They spoke a separate language, Ladino . Thessaloniki had one of the largest (mostly Sephardi) Jewish communities in

8208-435: The glottal and pharyngeal stops [ʔ] and [ʕ], spelled [ע/א], both of which are weakened to the point of almost total absence in syllable-initial and syllable-final position, another characteristic shared with the Ashkenazic tradition. שׁ was pronounced as [s] in the Romaniote tradition of Hebrew pronunciation. The loss of spirantization rule for postvocalic, non-geminated Old Hebrew b, d, g, p, t, k homorganic fricatives (this rule

8316-470: The heads of the groom and the bride and are interchanged on their heads. At the end of a full year, the Ketubah was read at the wedding ceremony proper. This is different in that other Jews bless the bride and groom at the time of the actual wedding. In addition, there are ritual differences in the building of the Synagogue and in the building and the use of the mikve . It is a Romaniote tradition to write on

8424-486: The influence from other local religious buildings can often be seen in synagogue arches, domes and towers. Historically, synagogues were built in the prevailing architectural style of their time and place. Thus, the synagogue in Kaifeng, China , looked very like Chinese temples of that region and era, with its outer wall and open garden in which several buildings were arranged. The styles of the earliest synagogues resembled

8532-409: The intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Romaniote&oldid=875439794 " Category : Disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Language and nationality disambiguation pages Romaniote Jews The Romaniote Jews or

8640-488: The later have even been included in the Karaite prayerbook. Several manuscripts containing mystical works have survived. The question of an independent Romaniote mystical tradition, probably deriving directly from Palestinian antecedents, is proved. An abridgement of Aristotle 's Logic by Yoseph HaYevani was made available to those Jews (Sephardi immigrants) who were less proficient in Greek. The Byzantine Karaites, showed

8748-649: The liberation of Ioannina on February 21, 1913, the Rabbi and the Romaniote community of Ioannina welcomed at the New Synagogue of Ioannina the liberator of the city, Crown Prince Constantine, the future King of the Hellenes Constantine I . At the beginning of the 20th century, the Romaniote community of Ioannina numbered about 4,000 people, mostly lower-class tradesmen and craftsmen. Their numbers dwindled after that due to economic emigration; after

8856-606: The mainstream Sephardic usage, while the Romaniotes and the Jews of Corfu have preserved their old and own Judaeo-Greek and Hebrew piyyutim , their own way of cantillation and their special customs. A custom, which is still followed in the Etz Hayyim Synagogue of Crete, is to read on Yom Kippur the Book of Jonah in Judaeo-Greek. Another custom was to chant the Song of Songs verse by verse by alternating from Hebrew to its paraphrasing Targum Jonathan translation after

8964-420: The morning service on the last two days of Pessach. Romaniote Synagogues have their own layout: the bimah (where the Torah scrolls are read out during services) is on a raised dais on the western wall, the Aron haKodesh (where the Torah scrolls are kept) is on the eastern wall and in the middle there is a wide interior aisle . Votive offerings made of silver as stars or tablets called shadayot were

9072-554: The oldest synagogue found in the diaspora is also the oldest Samaritan synagogue: it is the Delos Synagogue , which has an inscription dated between 250 and 175 BCE The Romaniotes are Greek Jews, distinct from both Ashkenazim and Sephardim , who trace back their history to the times of the Greek-speaking Byzantine Jews and can be subdivided in a wider sense in a Rabbanite community and in

9180-769: The other and the Judaeo-Aramaic Targum at the bottom of the page. In the early Romaniote rite the Torah was subdivided in Sedarim while the whole Torah was read in the Palestinian way of the Triennial cycle . The order for reading the Haftarah followed a specific custom, particular to the Romaniote rite. The Romaniote Torah scrolls are housed in tikim ('tik', from Greek thḗkē , θήκη "container"), from which they are never completely taken out. Among

9288-479: The phonetic differences between Romaniote Hebrew (look downwards on paragraph Romaniote Hebrew ) and Sephardic Hebrew, for example Sephardic Shavuot was spelled as Savóth (Σαβώθ) in Judaeo-Greek. Second and third generation Romaniote immigrants in New York city have good knowledge of Greek. In the beginning of the 21st century 90% asserted that they understand Greek while 40% could speak Greek comfortably. Over

9396-609: The piyyut were eminent for the development of the Ashkenazi Mahzor , as they found their way through Italy to Ashkenaz and are preserved to this day in the most Ashkenazi mahzorim. The Jews of Southern Italy (where they were living together with their Greek-speaking Christian counterparts ) continued to be Greek-speakers until the 15th century. When they were expelled and went to different regions of Greece, especially Corfu , Epirus and Thessaloniki , they could continue to speak their Greek language, even if this language

9504-580: The production of silverware and silk garments . At the time, they were already known as "Romaniotes". The first Romaniote synagogue coming under Ottoman rule was Etz ha-Hayyim ( Hebrew : עץ החיים, lit. "Tree of Life", frequently a name of Romaniote synagogues) in Prousa in Asia Minor which passed to Ottoman authority in 1324. After the Fall of Constantinople on 29 May 1453, Sultan Mehmed II found

9612-410: The quality of the floor's mosaic, the building is believed to have been constructed in the 4th century CE (300–350 CE) and used until the 7th century. The mosaic floor of the synagogue consists of multi-colored tesserae that create the impression of a carpet, in a geometric pattern of blue, gray, red and white. Two Greek inscriptions were found in front of the synagogue's entrance, on the western side of

9720-622: The right to build synagogues without needing special permissions—synagogue architecture blossomed. Large Jewish communities wished to show not only their wealth but also their newly acquired status as citizens by constructing magnificent synagogues. These were built across Western Europe and in the United States in all of the historicist or revival styles then in fashion. Thus there were Neoclassical , Renaissance Revival architecture , Neo-Byzantine , Romanesque Revival , Moorish Revival , Gothic Revival , and Greek Revival . There are Egyptian Revival synagogues and even one Mayan Revival synagogue. In

9828-585: The south. Rabbi and philosopher Maimonides (1138–1204) described the various customs in his day with respect to local synagogues: Synagogues and houses of study must be treated with respect. They are swept and sprinkled [with water] to lay the dust. In Spain and the Maghreb , in Babylonia and in the Holy Land , it is customary to kindle lamps in the synagogues and to spread mats on the floor upon which

9936-444: The spoken variety of Greek, which was used by the surrounding Christian community, but had a few special features in its various geographical and chronological types (for example the Judaeo-Greek of Crete [† 1945] and that of Constantinople). Besides the few phonetic differences between Judaeo-Greek and Standard Modern Greek the most common difference has been the use of Hebrew and Aramaic loanwords in Judaeo-Greek. Considerable are also

10044-480: The synagogue an esnoga and Portuguese Jews may call it a sinagoga . Persian Jews and some Karaite Jews also use the term kenesa , which is derived from Aramaic , and some Mizrahi Jews use kenis or qnis . In the earliest period, Jewish communal worship primarily revolved around the Temple in Jerusalem , serving as a central focal point and significant symbol for the entire Jewish nation. As such, it

10152-491: The synagogue does not replace the symbol of the long-destroyed Temple in Jerusalem . Any Jew or group of Jews can build a synagogue. Synagogues have been constructed by ancient Jewish leaders, by wealthy patrons, as part of a wide range of human institutions including secular educational institutions, governments, and hotels, by the entire Jewish community of living in a particular village or region, or by sub-groups of Jewish people arrayed according to occupation, ethnicity (e.g.,

10260-475: The synagogue in 2000, and was an exceptional event for the community. The synagogue is located in the old fortified part of the city known as Kastro , at 16 Ioustinianou street. Its name means "the Old Synagogue". It was constructed in 1829, most probably over the ruins of an older synagogue. Its architecture is typical of the Ottoman era, a large building made of stone. The interior of the synagogue

10368-743: The synagogue, Jews worshipped by way of prayer rather than sacrifices, which had previously served as the main form of worship within the Second Temple. In 1995, Howard Clark Kee argued that synagogues were not a developed feature of Jewish life prior to the First Jewish–Roman War (66–73 CE). Kee interpreted his findings as evidence that the mentions of synagogues in the New Testament , including Jesus's visitations of synagogues in various Jewish settlements in Israel, were anachronistic. However, by 2018, Mordechai Aviam reported that there were now at least nine synagogues excavated known to pre-date

10476-662: The teachings of the Greco-Roman world . The Byzantine Jewish/Romaniote literature shows a rich blend of Hellenistic Jewish and Palestinian rabbinic traditions. Romaniote Jewry, throughout its history, expended great effort on religious poetry, which reached its peak during the period 1350–1550. The writing of piyyutim was clearly held as its own genre. In the twelfth century Hillel ben Eliakim wrote down his exegetical commentary, Sifre ve Sifra . Shemarya HaIkriti who moved after 1328 to Negroponte prepared his supercommentary to Ibn Ezra and, circa 1346–47 wrote his Sefer Amasyahu ,

10584-552: The temples of other cults of the Eastern Roman Empire . The surviving synagogues of medieval Spain are embellished with mudéjar plasterwork. The surviving medieval synagogues in Budapest and Prague are typical Gothic structures. With the emancipation of Jews in Western European countries in the 19th century—which not only enabled Jews to enter fields of enterprise from which they were formerly barred, but gave them

10692-472: The traditional look of the synagogue, keeping with its desire to simultaneously stay Jewish yet be accepted by the surrounding culture. The first Reform synagogue , which opened in Hamburg in 1811, introduced changes that made the synagogue look more like a church. These included: the installation of an organ to accompany the prayers (even on Shabbat , when musical instruments are proscribed by halakha ),

10800-652: The world and a solid rabbinical tradition. On the island of Crete , the Jews historically played an important part in the transport trade. In the centuries following 1492 most of the Romaniote communities were assimilated by the more numerous Sephardim. The status of Jewry in the Ottoman Empire often hinged on the whims of the Sultan . Murad III for example ordered that the attitude of all non-Muslims should be one of "humility and abjection" and should not "live near Mosques or in tall buildings" or own slaves. After

10908-487: The worshippers sit. In the lands of Edom ( Christendom ), they sit in synagogues upon chairs [or benches]. The Samaritan house of worship is also called a synagogue. During the third and second centuries BCE, the Hellenistic period , the Greek word used in the Diaspora by Samaritans and Jews was the same, proseukhē Koinē Greek : προσευχή , lit.   'place of prayer', plural προσευχαί prosukhái );

11016-589: The year 1735 gives the order to read the Megillat Antiochos in the Mincha of Shabbat Hanukkah. In the second half of the 19th century, the Romaniote community of Greece made an effort to preserve the Romaniote liturgical heritage of Ioannina and Arta, by printing various liturgical texts in the Hebrew printing presses of Salonika. Today, the Romaniote Liturgy follows (with slight differences)

11124-466: Was based on a small piece of marble found near the Metroon that had two Jewish symbols carved on one side, and the resemblance of the building to the synagogue of Sardis in Asia Minor. The Romaniote Jewish Community of Chalkis is not the oldest one in Greece, but it is the only one in Europe that has been living in the same city for 2,500 years without interruption and the community is still active in

11232-574: Was discovered in 1829 near the ancient military port of the capital of the island of Aegina by the Scottish-German historian Ludwig Ross , who was working for the court of King Otto of Greece . The floor was covered for protection and was studied again by Thiersch in 1901, Furtwängler in 1904, E. Sukenik in 1928 and Gabriel Welter in 1932 under the auspices of the National Archaeological Service. Based on

11340-575: Was occupied by Nazi Germany , 86% of the Greek Jews, especially those in the areas occupied by Nazi Germany and Bulgaria , were murdered. Some Greeks collaborated with the deportations or expropriated Jewish property; a few, encouraged by the Greek Orthodox Church , sheltered Jews. Roughly 49,000 Jews—Romaniotes and Sephardim—were deported from Thessaloniki alone and murdered. Many Greek Jews were forced to pay their own tickets to

11448-597: Was somewhat different from that of Greece. In the 12th century, Benjamin of Tudela travelled through the Byzantine Empire and recorded details about communities of Jews in Corfu , Arta , Aphilon, Patras , Corinth , Thebes , Chalkis , Thessaloniki , and Drama . The largest community in Greece at that time was in Thebes, where he found about 2000 Jews. They were engaged mostly in cloth dyeing , weaving , in

11556-608: Was the absence of distinction between: the Semitic velarized and non-velarized stops [t] and [ṭ], spelled [ת/ט], and [k/q], spelled [כ/ק]. The distinction between [s] and [ṣ] (ס/צ) is maintained as [s] vs. [ts], i. e., a voiceless alveolar fricative against a voiceless alveolar affricate, a pronunciation common to Byzantine and Ashkenazic pronunciation; "strong" and "weak" [t], spelled [תּ/ת] (t/θ) preserved in Ashkenazic pronunciation as [t]/[s]; velar and pharyngeal [ħ] and [χ], spelled [ח/כ], both of which are pronounced [χ], as in Ashkenazic;

11664-602: Was the destination for Jews making pilgrimages during the three major annual festivals commanded by the Torah : Passover , Shavuot and Sukkot . There are several known cases of Jewish communities in Egypt with their own temples, such as the Temple at Elephantine established by refugees from the Kingdom of Judah during the Twenty-seventh Dynasty of Egypt , and a few centuries later, the Temple of Onias in

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