Ioannina Jews remembered

The co-existence of Christians and Jews was expunged during the Second World War by the deportation and extermination first of the Sephardic Jews of Thessalonica, and afterwards Jews from across the country, like communities of Romaniot Jews in Epirus or Sephardic Jews in Rhodes. To recall what the Romaniot culture was like, the Centre Communautaire Laïc Juif David Susskind in Belgium will host a series of three events on 19, 25 and 26 March 2014, in collaboration with the Association of Epirotes in Belgium and the support of the European Sephardic Institute and the Sephardic Hearth .

The activities will include:
A presentation of Ioannina and its Jewish past by Ms. Maria Stratsani, Director of the Ioannina Cultural Center.
A concert of Greek Jewish music based on poems by the Romaniote poet Joseph  Eliya, written and performed by Pighi Likoudi and her musicians .
All to be followed by a reception.

The Jewish community of Belgium, which includes among others, Jews from Greece, the country in which Sephardic and Romaniot Jews lived for centuries in harmony with their Greek Christian and Muslim neighbors. With their two Jewish languages, Ladino and Yevanic, their knowledge of Greek and Italian, Sephardic and Romaniot Jews developed a unique culture. From Athens to Corfu, Ioannina to Thessaloniki, Larissa, and Rhodes, Romaniot Jews thrived for centuries and contributed some famous cultural figures like writer Albert Cohen and musician Georges Moustaki.
After the Holocaust, which saw the disappearance of nearly 87% of Greek Jews, the current economic crisis and ignorance has fostered a resurgence of anti-Semitism in the country, also a result of the rise of neo-Nazi Golden Dawn. Between social deprivation and intolerance, it seems urgent to organize, on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the deportation of Jews from Ioannina, March 25, 1944, an event to remember this often happy cohabitation that should not be undermined by the crisis in Greece and Europe.

Photo: Men returning the Torah Scrolls to the Ark after the ceremonial reading during the Rosh Hashanah celebration, Kal Kedosh Yashan Synagogue, Ioannina.