The Romaniote Jews or the Romaniotes 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 the expulsion of Jews from Spain and Portugal after 1492.
SephardicJews, also known as Sephardi Jews or Sephardim, and rarely as Iberian Peninsular Jews, are a Jewish diaspora population associated with the Iberian Peninsula. The term, which is derived from the Hebrew Sepharad, can also refer to the Jews of the Middle East and North Africa, who were also heavily influenced by Sephardic law and customs. Many Iberian Jewish exiled families also later sought refuge in those Jewish communities, resulting in ethnic and cultural integration with those communities over the span of many centuries. The majority of Sephardim live in Israel.
The history of the Jews in Greece can be traced back to at least the fourth century BCE. The oldest and the most characteristic Jewish group that has inhabited Greece are the Romaniotes, also known as "Greek Jews." The term "Greek Jew" is predominantly used for any Jew that lives in or originates from the modern region of Greece.
The Four Sephardic Synagogues are a complex of four adjoining synagogues located in the Jewish Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem.
Kemeraltı is a historical market (bazaar) district of İzmir, Turkey. It remains one of the liveliest districts of İzmir.
The history of the Jews in Albania dates back about 2,000 years. According to historian Apostol Kotani : "Jews may have first arrived in Albania as early as 70 C.E. as captives on Roman ships that washed up on the country's southern shores... descendants of these captives that would build the first synagogue in the southern port city of Sarandë in the fifth century...[but] Little is known about the Jewish community in the area until the 15th century."
The Ahrida Synagogue, or Ohrid Synagogue, is a Jewish congregation and synagogue, located on Ayvansaray Mahallesi, in Balat, a once a thriving Jewish quarter of the city, in Fatih, in the Istanbul Province of Turkey. Completed in c. 1430, the synagogue is one of the oldest in the city.
The Kahal Shalom Synagogue is an Orthodox Jewish congregation and synagogue, located in La Juderia, the Jewish quarter of the city of Rhodes on the island of Rhodes, in the South Aegean region of Greece. Completed in 1577, the synagogue building is the oldest synagogue in Greece. The congregation worships in the Eastern Sephardi rite, predominately in summer months only.
La Juderia,, was the former Jewish quarter of the city of Rhodes, Greece. The quarter was inhabited by Sephardic, Ladino-speaking Jews.
The history of the Jews of Thessaloniki reaches back two thousand years. The city of Thessaloniki housed a major Jewish community, mostly Eastern Sephardim, until the middle of the Second World War. Sephardic Jews immigrated to the city following the expulsion of Jews from Spain by Catholic rulers under the Alhambra Decree of 1492. It is the only known example of a city of this size in the Jewish diaspora that retained a Jewish majority for centuries. This community influenced the Sephardic world both culturally and economically, and the city was nicknamed la madre de Israel.
Historic synagogues include synagogues that date back to ancient times and synagogues that represent the earliest Jewish presence in cities around the world. Some synagogues were destroyed and rebuilt several times on the same site. Others were converted into churches and mosques or used for other purposes.
Sephardic Bikur Holim Congregation (SBH) is an Orthodox Jewish congregation and synagogue in the Seward Park neighborhood of Seattle, Washington, in the United States, that practices in the Sephardic tradition.
Selahattin Ülkümen was a Turkish diplomat who was recognized by Israel as one of the Righteous Among the Nations in 1989, with his name being listed at Yad Vashem in the city of Jerusalem. During World War II, he was serving as a consul-general of Turkey on the island of Rhodes, Greece, which had been invaded and occupied by Nazi Germany. Ülkümen assisted the island's Jews by personally intervening to prevent as many of them as possible from being deported by the Germans amidst the Holocaust. In total, he managed to save around 50 Jews—13 on the basis of their Turkish citizenship, and the remainder through his own initiatives.
The Plovdiv Synagogue, officially the Zion Plovdiv Synagogue, is a Romaniote Jewish congregation and synagogue, located in the city of Plovdiv, Bulgaria. Built in 1892, the synagogue is one of the two active remaining synagogues in Bulgaria. The congregation worships in the Sephardi rite.
Sephardic Temple Tifereth Israel, also called The Sephardic Temple, is an unaffiliated Jewish congregation and synagogue that adopts Sephardi nusach, located at 10500 Wilshire Boulevard, in Westwood, Los Angeles, California, in the United States. Established on February 1, 1920 as the "Sephardic Community of Los Angeles", the congregation exists today as the merger of three major Sephardic organizations with approximately 600 member families.
The history of the Jews in Suriname starts in 1639, as the English government allowed Spanish and Portuguese Jews from the Netherlands, Portugal and Italy to settle the region, coming to the old capital Torarica.
The Holocaust in Greece was the mass murder of Greek Jews, mostly as a result of their deportation to Auschwitz concentration camp, during World War II. By 1945, between 82 and 92 percent of Greek Jews had been murdered, one of the highest proportions in Europe.
The Jews in Kastoria were an ancient Jewish community that existed in Kastoria, Greece, from the 6th century until its destruction during World War II, when most of its members were murdered in the Auschwitz (Birkenau) extermination camp during the Holocaust.
The Jewish Community of Zakynthos Island is about eight hundred years old. The community was originally Romaniote.
The Jewish community in Arta is considered the ancient Romaniote Jewish community and the oldest community in Greece and the Epirus region, although it was officially recognized only in 1920. Today there are no Jews in Arta, the community was dissolved in 1959.
