Conversation with B'nai B'rith: The History of Greece's Romaniote Jews

[@tipesreee]

Hello to my Greek Romaniote brothers of Jewish faith .

[@Bei-Abedan]

Sending all of my love to everyone preserving the Romaniote Minhag out there wherever you are.

[@davidcorito7059]

Very well done. My Mother was born I Ioaninna my Father Preveza. Both lived on the lower east side. When married they moved to Harlem where there was a branch of KKK. Then moved to the the Bronx. The Bronx had a shul on Simpson Street in the Hunts Point area called Shreth Kadosha Janina. The synagogue had about 100 members including members families. The synagogue lasted until the late 1950’s.Another large Congregation was in the Kingspoint area of the Bronx that lasted into the early 1960’s.When 2nd gereation Romanotie Jews moved to the suburbs from the Lower Eastside and the Bronx. Thank you for keeping the flame alive.

[@odysseusthesojourner4401]

Just before my Dad passed away, he told his nurse that he (and siblings) were Jewish though baptized and raised Orthodox. If true, this had to be through his mother. We always called her Nona, which is the Ladino word for grandmother. We never said “yiayia.” The only other usage for Nona is in Italian and Albanian. Another interesting fact is my grandparents raised their family in a Jewish area in Detroit during the 1930s and 1940s. Considering the times, I can see why they might have tried to conceal this fact. One other interesting fact; Nona came from Kyparissia, Greece. In 2016, while there on vacation, I found a fountain called “Pazarovrysi” which had two six pointed stars on it. Nona lived very close to this fountain. So the research goes on …..

[@tagbarzeev3571]

Nona is what my wife who is sephardic called her grandmother.Her relatives came from Kastoria,Greece.

[@andreasgeorgopoulos3878]

My family is similar they have always told us we were romaniotes but that we had to be Christian’s for obvious reasons for so long that even my parents generations didn’t know much more other than the fact we were Jewish . All of a sudden this year I have constantly felt the need to go back to our religion it doesn’t make you any less Greek and I think that’s what a lot of families go through at this point is that Greeks are associated with orthodox or catholicicism orthodox mostly but I made the decision I’m not hiding anymore 🇮🇱🕍🕎✡️

[@elgee6202]

Your family must be Sephardic Jews, then, because Romaniotes aren't Sephardic and speak Greek rather than Ladino.

[@Baruch-q4n]

As now an old sephardi greek of 74 now living in London,England.Please never lose your jewish heritage if need be indeed reclaim it.And know whether romaniote or sephardi from Greece even ashkenazi as we certainly had ashkenazim in my precious old city community Salonica as well as Athens.Embrace and cherish as a unique vital sacred precious treasure your jewish heritage.If you do not you surrender to what Adolf hitler and his nazi evil savages wanted.Their satanic rule has perished we jewish people remain.Thank G-d ! Am Israel Chai !

[@johnargyriou3369]

Zito I Epirus my love for the Jewish Greek community what a sad story love I would love to connect with you

[@TheNorisia]

My great-grandparents came from Ioannina, but my great grandma had a Greek last name and my great grandfather's side came from Spain. I don't know if my great grandmother's side was Romaniote, as my grandma was raised Sephardic. My great-grandfather helped start a Greek Sephardic synagogue in NYC. My grandparents are now deceased so I have no one to ask. Are there a list of Romaniote last names available?

[@lyndaehrich3872]

Hello Norisia, you want to go online to Kehila Kedosha Janina. They are still in operation. I am the granddaughter of Dinah Negrin Bendjouya and Samuel Bendjouya. She was Romaniote by lineage; he was Sephardic, and by the time I came along, they weren't practicing it much...but her mother's maiden name was Colchamiro, and that family comes up at this synagogue again and again.

[@johnvasilakois7242]

Greek Jews never forget!!

[@Baruch-q4n]

Yanni it is impossible to forget it is an integral part of us.Are you jewish ! I have lived here in London,England since I was a small child.Of both romaniote and sephardi heritage mostly from Thessaloniki.For me I always say to people when asked that I am indeed a Greek jew.

[@misanthropas]

The oldest European Jewish Community that goes beyond the 2300 year milestone of Alexander's and the Diadochi era usually related with the Romaniotes, is facing extinction through absorption from largest groups. But Jewish communities are older than that and probably hinted in Histories!