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95-658: 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 the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Romaniote&oldid=875439794 " Category : Disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description

190-769: A Latin Church diocese , see below. A large hoard of late medieval jewellery dating from Venetian times was found in Chalcis Castle in the nineteenth century and is now in the British Museum . The synagogue dated to around 1400. Negroponte played a significant role in the history of Frankish Greece , and was attacked by the Principality of Achaea in the War of the Euboeote Succession (1257/8),

285-651: 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

380-611: A bypass of Chalcis was opened from the southern part of the bridge to connect with GR-77, also with access to GR-44. Chalcis station is the northern terminus of the Oinoi–Chalcis railway , and is served by Line 3 of the Athens Suburban Railway . Chalcis also has a water polo team named NC Chalkida , a football (soccer) team named Chalkida F.C. , as well as a junior football team named Evoikos Chalkida. The Chalkida football team merged with Lilas Vasilikou for

475-623: A direct role as head of the Latin clergy in what remained of Latin Greece . The church of Saint Paraskevi (the patron saint of the island ) was the church of the Dominican Priory of Negroponte, one of the first two houses authorized for the Order of Preachers' Province of Greece in 1249. Started about 1250, this is among the oldest examples of early Dominican architecture surviving, and

570-424: A fixed bridge. In 1856, a wooden swing bridge was built; in 1896, an iron swing bridge, and in 1962, the existing "sliding bridge"; the construction works of the 19th century destroyed the most part of the medieval castle built across the bridge. The Euripus Bridge or Chalcis Bridge, a cable-stayed suspension bridge opened in 1993, joins Chalcis to the mainland to the south. A special tidal phenomenon takes place in

665-726: A fortress by which the Macedonian rulers controlled central Greece. It was used by kings Antiochus III of Syria (192 BC) and Mithradates VI of Pontus (88 BC) as a base for invading Greece. Characteristic is the fact that in 323 BC the Stagerite philosopher Aristotle comes to Chalkida to die the following year at his mother's house. Then during the Hellenistic era, settlers from Chalkida founded Chalkida in Syria, by order of Seleucus I, from which settlers founded another Chalkida in

760-567: 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

855-608: 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

950-696: 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,

1045-481: A period of two years (2004–2006). The team was finally dissolved because of financial difficulties. Although there was a team created with the same name (AOX) it does not represent the glorious team of the past. Chalcis also has a basketball team ( AGEX ), which previously played in the Greek A2 Basketball League . For a while, Chalkida hosts the basketball team Ikaros Chalkidas that played in

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1140-432: 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,

1235-479: 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

1330-493: A sizeable Jewish community lived until World War II, and the more modern suburb that lies outside it, chiefly occupied by Greeks. The old town, called the Castro (citadel), was surrounded by a full circuit of defense walls until they were completely razed for urban development around the start of the 20th century. The city is served by a railway station and is the terminus for the Athens Suburban Railway to Athens. There

1425-693: 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

1520-703: 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 Chalkis The earliest recorded mention of Chalcis

1615-604: 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

1710-587: 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

1805-643: Is a Holocaust memorial honoring the Jewish lives lost during World War II outside of the Chalkis Jewish cemetery. The Byzantine diocese of Chalkis was initially a suffragan of the Archdiocese of Corinth , but in the 9th century was transferred to the Metropolitan of Athens, remaining in the sway of the Patriarchate of Constantinople . It was also known as Euripo, like it is mentioned in

1900-490: Is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Language and nationality disambiguation pages Romaniote Jews The Romaniote Jews or 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

1995-471: 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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2090-564: Is in the Iliad , where it is mentioned in the same line as its rival Eretria . It is also documented that the ships set for the Trojan War gathered at Aulis, the south bank of the strait near the city. Chamber tombs at Trypa and Vromousa dated to the Mycenaean period were excavated by Papavasiliou in 1910. In the 8th and 7th centuries BC, colonists from Chalcis founded thirty townships on

2185-771: 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

2280-806: 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

2375-499: Is one of the only early Dominican churches to retain its original form until the present. The central arch over the iconostasis and the ceiling and walls of the south chapel are the best examples of Italian Gothic stone-carving in Greece. Images of the Dominican saints, Dominic and Peter Martyr, stand at the base of the central arch. The north chapel holds the tomb of the founder of the senatorial Lippamano family of Venice. Some of

2470-635: 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

2565-562: The Athenians , who expelled the ruling aristocracy and settled a cleruchy on the site. Chalcis subsequently became a member of both the Delian Leagues . Chalkis has had a Greco-Jewish presence since antiquity, which is sometimes claimed to have been continuous and to thus form Europe's oldest Jewish community, although there is no evidence of it through the early Middle Ages. In the Hellenistic period, it gained importance as

2660-676: 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

2755-870: The Catalan Company in 1317, the Turks in 1350/1, until it was finally captured by the Ottoman Empire after a long siege in 1470. That siege is the subject of the Rossini opera Maometto II . The Ottomans made it the seat of the Admiral of the Archipelago (the Aegean Islands). In 1688, it was successfully held by the Ottomans against a strong Venetian attack. Chalkida became part of

2850-643: 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

2945-582: The Euripus Strait : the phrase στὸν Εὔριπον 'to Evripos', was rebracketed as στὸ Νεὔριπον 'to Nevripos', and became Negroponte in Italian by folk etymology , the ponte 'bridge' being interpreted as the bridge of Chalcis to Boeotia . The town was a condominium between Venice and the Veronese barons of the rest of Euboea, known as the " triarchs ", who resided there. Chalcis or Negroponte became

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3040-717: 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

3135-789: The Jews of Greece were murdered in the Holocaust after the Axis occupation of Greece during World War II and 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

3230-640: 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

3325-485: 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

3420-423: 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

3515-406: The 880s and its bishop is attested in the 869–70 Church council held at Constantinople . By the 12th century, the town featured a Venetian trading station, being attacked by the Venetian fleet in 1171 and eventually seized by Venice in 1209, in the aftermath of the Fourth Crusade . For Westerners, its common name was Negropont or Negroponte. This name comes indirectly from the Greek name of

3610-451: The 8th century BC the increase in trade between the Chalkidian colonies in lower Italy and Sicily with the local populations resulted in the spread of the Chalkidic alphabet among the most ancient inhabitants of the peninsula. The Etruscans took this alphabet and appropriated it so that they too could express themselves in writing. Over the centuries the Romans renamed it 'Latin'.So today, at least eight letters of all Latin-derived languages are

3705-436: 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)

3800-399: The Byzantine imperial Notitia Episcopatuum since emperor Leo VI the Wise (886-912). Several of its Greek bishops are recorded, but some are disputed : At the establishment of the crusader state Lordship of Negroponte , Chalcis or Negroponte (seat of the central one of its three 'triarchies' constituent baronies) became a Latin Church diocese , the first bishop being Theodorus,

3895-470: 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

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3990-426: 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

4085-419: The Greek bishop of the see, who entered communion with the see of Rome , installed by papal legate . On 8 February 1314, the Latin see was united in commendam (as an 'additional benefice') with the Latin Patriarchate of Constantinople , so that the exiled Patriarch, excluded from Constantinople itself since the Byzantine reconquest of the city, could have actual jurisdiction on Greek soil and exercise

4180-402: 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

4275-412: 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

4370-452: 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

4465-422: 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,

4560-540: 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

4655-415: The Lebanon Valley, as well as another Chalkida in Arabia. Under Roman rule, Chalcis retained a measure of commercial prosperity within the province of Achaea (southern Greece). It is recorded as a city in the 6th-century Synecdemus and mentioned by the contemporary historian Procopius of Caesarea , who recorded that a movable bridge linked the two shores of the strait. In Byzantine times, Chalcis

4750-422: 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

4845-450: 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

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4940-403: 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

5035-402: 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

5130-479: 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

5225-417: 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

5320-413: 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

5415-484: 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 ,

5510-442: 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

5605-458: The colonization with the establishment of many important cities in the West, but also in the Greek area. The first recorded settlement in the West, which paved the way for the 2nd Greek colonization, is Pithecusae on the island of Ischia, in front of Naples, from Chalcidians and Eretrians around 770 BC. The etymology of the toponym "Pithikousa" comes from the pithos (pitharia) that the first settlers had with them to transport their products. Because of

5700-450: The column capitals are Byzantine. The town is now connected to mainland Greece by two bridges, the "Sliding Bridge" in the west at the narrowest point of the Euripus Strait and a suspension bridge. The Euripus Strait which separates the city and the island from the mainland was bridged in 411 BC with a wooden bridge. In the time of Justinian the fixed bridge was replaced with a movable structure. The Turks replaced this once again with

5795-442: 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

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5890-422: 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

5985-414: The first Chalcidian settlers, the Romans initially called all Greeks "Chalcidians", as they were the first Greeks they came into contact with.A few years later, the Chalcidian Antimnestos founds Rigio in 730-720 BC. and Crataimenis' fellow-citizen Zagli (later Messina) in 730 BC, thus wanting to control the sea strait between Sicily and Italy, just as the Metropolis of Chalkida controlled the Euboean gulfs. In

6080-416: 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

6175-435: 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

6270-416: 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

6365-478: The height of their prosperity. This war was one of the first known major wars between ancient Greek cities and took pan-Hellenic dimensions as the warring Chalcidians and Eretrians allied themselves with other Greek cities. As Herodotus mentions, the Samians allied with the Chalcidians, while the Milesians allied with the Eretrians. The Thessalians also allied with the Chalcidians, a fact mentioned by Plutarch. The historical sources provide evidence for only one battle of

6460-471: 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 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

6555-433: 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

6650-462: 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

6745-485: 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

6840-472: 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

6935-511: The newborn Greek state after the Greek War of Independence . The modern town received an impetus in its export trade from the establishment of railway connection with Athens and its port Piraeus in 1904. In the early 20th century it was composed of two parts—the old walled town at the bridge over the Euripus, where a number of Turkish families continued to live until the late 19th century, and

7030-576: 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 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

7125-554: 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

7220-769: 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

7315-548: The peninsula of Chalcidice and several important cities in Magna Graecia and Sicily , such as Naxos , Rhegion , Zankle and Cumae . Its mineral produces, metal-work, purple , and pottery not only found markets among these settlements but were distributed over the Mediterranean in the ships of Corinth and Samos . The development of the city led consequently to the increase of the population and finally to

7410-479: 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

7505-609: 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

7600-580: 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

7695-410: 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

7790-458: The same as their ancient Euboic counterparts. They are C, D, F, P, R, S and X (pronounced ks). The transmission of the Chalkidic alphabet to the west is the most important cultural contribution of ancient Chalkida to the world culture. The Lelantine War was a war fought in the late 8th century BC. between the two powerful ancient states of Evia, Chalkida and Eretria, which at that time were at

7885-444: 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

7980-399: The strait, as strong tidal currents reverse direction once every six hours, creating strong currents and maelstroms. The municipality Chalcis was formed at the 2011 local government reform by the merger of Chalcis city itself with four former municipalities, which also became municipal units: The municipality has an area of 424.766 km , the municipal unit 30.804 km . In 2003,

8075-529: 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

8170-662: 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 ,

8265-535: The war, undoubtedly the last, with the reference point being the death of the Thessalian Amphidamandas, who was praised by Hesiod. In this battle the help from the Thessalian cavalry resulted in victory for Chalkida, by which it acquired the best agricultural district of Euboea and became the chief city of the island. Late in the 6th century BC, its prosperity was broken by a disastrous war with

8360-589: 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

8455-589: 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)

8550-466: 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

8645-574: 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

8740-575: 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

8835-597: 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

8930-608: 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;

9025-435: Was usually called Euripos , a name also applied to the entire island of Euboea, although the ancient name survived in administrative and ecclesiastical usage until the 9th century; alternatively, it is possible that the name was given anew to a settlement that was founded in the 9th century in the location of the ancient city, after the latter had been abandoned in the early Middle Ages. The town survived an Arab naval raid in

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