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Concept
Romaniote Jews
Summary
The Romaniote Jews or the Romaniotes (Ῥωμανιῶτες, Rhomaniótes; Romanyotim) are a Greek-speaking ethnic Jewish community native to the Eastern Mediterranean. 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.
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 Rhomanía (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.
A majority of the Jewish population of Greece was murdered in the Holocaust after the Axis occupation of Greece during World War II and deported 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 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 Rhomania (Ῥωμανία) and its Christian citizens as Rhomaioi "Romans", while the Greek-speaking Jews were called Rhomaniṓtes (Ῥωμανιῶτες), essentially meaning an inhabitant of Rhomania.
Jews have lived in Greece since at least the Second Temple era. Recorded Jewish presence in Greece dates back over 2,300 years to the time of Alexander the Great.
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