The Jews of Tire, Turkey

Tire, is a town in Izmir province, which is located in the western part of the Anatolian Peninsula, on the eastern side of the Aegean Sea. With its climate, location and large seaport it has long been an important city, dating back at least 5,000 years.  
The Jewish community in the area is also long established, dating back to sometime in the early 1400's when 2 Ottoman sultans invited the Jews who had been persecuted in Spain and Portugal to settle in the Ottoman cities. The community truly became a melting pot as not only did the Jews come from Spain and Portugal, but also  Greece, and in the 17th century, places such as Italy and Holland. It was in the early 1600's, when the Jewish people truly

insme.org

became a community and built their first synagogue. In 1609, Rabbi Isaac HaLevi Dayan, arrived from Istanbul, becoming the first Rabbi of Izmir.
Even with the long history of this area, this post is not about that, but is about the incredible work being done to document the Jews who lived in Tire.
Under the leadership of Murat Sanus, the people of Tire will never be forgotten.  His website, www.jewsoftire.com, is a wonderful example of a project that brings family history to life.

The site is very friendly to  researchers and includes incredible amounts of information. In addition to the records we are familiar with this project includes a treasure trove of pictures documenting the families of Tire. In addition to the website, a book of the community, Jewish Citizens Lived in Tire,  has been published and they are hopefully of producing a film about Tire. I would encourage everyone to search through the databases and see what an incredible resource this is. 

Thanks to everyone involved, they will never be forgotten.

Romaniote Jews of Janina (Ioannina), Greece

In a past article in this blog, I have written about the Jewish community of  Kastoria in Greece. These people were famous for the work as furriers. In the last few months I have been researching some Jewish families of Greek heritage who settled in the Lower East Side of Manhattan, New York in the first part of the 20th century. 

As I began to research these families something became very apparent to me. This group had a very strong connection one to another. This was much more than the connection we would have today with our neighbors, to them it seemed as if everyone was family. These were the Romaniote Jews of Ioannina, Greece, which is located in the Northwest part of Greece.
 Romaniote Jews had lived in Greece and neighboring countries for over 2,000 years. Local tradition states that the first Jews into Ioannina arrived shortly after the destruction of the Second Temple in  70CE. These Jews were neither Ashkenazim or Sephardic but had their own traditions.
As I began the search, I quickly discovered that most of the families who left Ioannina, did so because they were looking for a new life in America. A large amount of the families had someone who left between 1904 and 1920 headed for New York City.
This people didn't just come one at a time, they came in groups, maybe to have the security of having friends and families around them. The passenger list below is just one example of that bond. This is page 1 of the manifest fro the S.S. Argentina which sailed out of Patras, Greece in November of 1912.

Of the families listed on this manifest, almost 2/3 identify themselves as being Greek Jews, and on the far right of the page most list the relative being left in the old country as being some on in Janina, Greece. Page 2 of this manifest continues to show how the community was staying together.

In the fourth column the passenger list the name and address of the person they will be living with upon arrival. As with many of the people on this page, thousands of the Jews form Greece and Turkey listed the final destination as the area around Allen Street, Manhattan. During the time frame of 1904-1920 there are thousands who list Allen Street, Broome Street, or Eldridge Street as their future home. One page from the 1920 United States Census for Allen Street reinforces this. On the page below, more than half of the families list themselves as either being from Greece or Turkey.

The page above is just the end of house number 94 and the first part of house number 96. There were many apartments in this area and because of that the residents of Allen Street alone fill hundreds of pages.
Upon arrival and after becoming established in their new neighborhood, many settled down and started families with those they know so well, people from Janina. The document below is the Naturalization Record of Esther Solomon.

www.kkjsm.org

Esther, who was born in Janina on 6 Mar 1908 arrived in New York on 30 Aug 1913 under the name of Esther Napthali. On 11 Dec 1929 she was married to Joseph Solomon who was born 10 May 1901, also in Janina. They then established a household at 278 Broome Street.

 By 1926, the community had grown enough that construction was begun on a new synagogue. Completed in 1927, Kehila Kedosha Janina Synagogue was built at 280 Broome Street just steps from the home of Joseph and Esther Solomon, who are shown in the document above. This is the only Romaniote Synagogue in the Western Hemisphere. 
The fact that they were separate from other Jews, with their own traditions probably had a lot to do with the strength of their commitment to each other. Another group of these Jews also existed in Seattle, Washington, where they also maintained a tight bond.

The Jews of Columbia

Like many countries, the first Jews to arrive in Columbia came from Spain. These Jews, who arrived in the 1500's practiced Christianity but were really "Secret Jews" having been forced to convert during the Inquisition. In the year 1636, many of these secret Jews were caught and massacred. This massacre led the rest of the community to eventually fade away, and Columbia was left without a Jewish presence.
Beginning in the late 1700's Jews who openly practiced started arriving from the Caribbean countries of Jamaica and Curacao, two countries with long established Jewish communities.

Later the government made it legal to be a practicing Jew and even granted the Jewish community a plot of land for a cemetery.
Even with the arrivals from the Caribbean countries the Jewish community was not very large. That did not change until the beginning of the 20th century. After the end of World War I, Jews came in large numbers from all over Europe. First were the Sephardic Jews who came from places such as Greece, North Africa, Syria and Turkey. Right behind them were the Ashkenazic Jews from all over Eastern Europe. By the time of World War II, the Jewish population was a little under 7000 people. Most of the Jews were centered in Bogota but there were also smaller groups in Cali, Barranquilla, and Medellin. The Askenazic and Sephardic communities are about equal in size.
As with the earliest Jews in Columbia, today most are involved as merchants and businessmen. The number of Jews in Columbia has declined because of violence toward the community. Today the population is closer to 4000.

The Jews of Zakynthos

Zakynthos, or Zante as it is sometimes known, is located at the southernmost tip of the Ionian Islands, off the western side of Greece. The Jewish history of the area most likely dates at least into the late 15th century. We do know for sure that when visited in 1522, the Island had over 30 Jewish families and its own synagogue.
In the 1560's, visitors to the island found 20 heads of families, most of either Sicilian or Portuguese origin on the island. They were for the most part wealthy merchants who were heavily involved in the maritime trade that was happening between Venice and Constantinople. These Jews appeared to live under some form of restriction, as

they were forced to live in a ghetto and as early as 1518, had to wear a Jewish identification badge.
The first known Rabbi of the community was Joseph Forman who was from Seres, in Macedonia. By 1686 the population of the Jewish community was a little more than 1,000 people.
By 1700, there were 2 synagogues in the city of Zante, the first was the Zante Synagogue and the second, built in 1699 was the Candia Synagogue. Over time, the area was under the control of other groups which led to various restrictions put upon them, such as being forbidden to participate in the politics of the island or not being allowed to join guilds or trade associations. By the early 1890's the Jewish population had dropped to about 150.
Zakynthos would also become a place known for the historic act to protect the Jews.  At the outbreak of World War II, there were about 275 Jews in the community. The Nazi's occupied Greece and requested a list of all the Jews in the community for deportation to the camps. The mayor, Lukas Karrer and Bishop Chrysostomos refused to provide the names. Instead,  they hid the Jews in the rural areas outside the town. Because of their heroic actions, every Jew of Zakynthos survived the war. Statues of these two brave men stand on the site of the that first synagogue, and in 1978, Yad Vashem, honored them with the title of "Righteous among the Nations".

Centropa.org

One of the benefits of being able to research Jewish families from all over the world is finding great new websites. I have just recently been using a wonderful site for those whose families came from Central and Eastern Europe, the former Soviet Union, and the Sephardic communities of Greece, Turkey and the Balkans. That site is Centropa.org.

Through interviews with elderly Jews, Centropa is building collections that will be treasures for many families. By adding photos to the oral histories, they are truly becoming a "Jewish Witness to a European Century" as their websites states.

Centropa.org is very easy to navigate. Simply click on the link in Red, that says, An Interactive Database of Jewish History. By doing so the page below will appear.

By clicking on whichever country you choose, a brief history will appear and you will the be able to search for those records. I clicked on Poland and the following appeared.

The resources available here for families are incredible, and I believe will only get better. Take sometime and get to know the website, even if you don't have family in these locations, remembering those who gave so much, can only help us know ourselves.

Jews of Kastoria, Greece

As the Knowles Collection continues to grow, I am constantly amazed at how many of the Jewish communities of the world have a lasting effect on distant areas, places that you might not think they would inpact. I have been looking into the histories of a couple of Sephardic Greek Jewish families that have been submitted to the collection. Both families, the Pardo's and Nahmias' were from the city of Kastoria in the northern part of Greece, and like most Jews of the area were involved as furriers.

The city itself is believed to have very ancient origins. Some believe it to be linked to the city of Celetrum, which was captured by the Romans in about 200 B.C. Kastoria, is also an old Jewish Community, dating back to at least the 10th Century, when it was inhabited by Greek Jews. In the 15th and 16th centuries the community was filled with Sephardic Jews, the descendants of those that had fled the Spanish Inquisition. They were drawn to Kastoria bye the expanding fur business.

Located between the cities of Thessaloniki and Ioannina, Kastoria was located on the ancient trade route which made it a very important commercial city. This location and the quality of the work made the city famous for its leather and fur (mink) products.

In the early 1900's, group's of Jewish Immigrants working in the fur business began making their way to North America, most settling in places such as New York and Montreal. When those that settled in Montreal discovered they couldn't get the skilled workers they needed, they simply contacted the most skilled they could find. They went to Kastoria, and recruited workers. Even to this day many of those involved in the fur trade in Montreal are of Greek origin, most from Kastoria.

Today, the Furriers of Kastoria, are known worldwide for their quality of work. In addition to the Montreal community, large populations exist in New York (about 30,000) and Frankfurt, Germany (10,000). The Jewish population of Kastoria, which stood at about 1500 Jews at the turn of the 20th century, today only numbers a handful.

In the near future, the records of the people of Kastoria will begin to be added to the Knowles Collection.