Jewish Virtual LibraryReport on Treatment of Greek Jews
(May, 1943)
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jso ... erep6.html
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Some of the Jewish Communities in Greece, like those of Chalcis, Janina, Arta, and Corfu, are very ancient.
Their origin is lost in antiquity.For instance, amongst the ruins of Delos, the sacred island of Ancient Greece, reputed to have been the birth place of Apollo and a great centre of worship throughout the pagan ages, the remains of the Synagogue are still to be seen.
The modern Community of Salonica, the largest in Greece, is a settlement of Spanish Jews
who fled there from the persecutions of Isabella of Castille and Ferdinand the Catholic. They still speak amongst themselves a Spanish dialect in which many archaic forms of language were preserved, and many of them had Judaeo-Spanish names. Ever since Greece recovered her independence by conquest in 1830, the laws of the Kingdom have granted
full civil and social rights to the Jews of Greece. At no time have these rights been denied or questioned, and
at no time have the Greek people allowed themselves to be reached by any of the successive waves of anti-Semitism which have periodically swept over Europe; in fact, anti-Semitism is entirely unknown in Greece and entirely alien to the national character.
Neither had the Jews, during domestic controversies, some of which have been extremely acute,
been made as in so many other countries, scape-goats for public misfortunes. This is all the more remarkable because the Jews in those parts of Greece which were most recently united to the Kingdom (Salonica, for instance),
although completely assimilated as far as the national consciousness and the actual participation in the nation's life are concerned (they were always represented in Parliament by Jewish members), have been entirely free to retain their own dialect, a form of Judaeo-Spanish which they speak amongst themselves, and their own customs.
