Metadata: Records of the Jewish Community of Larissa
Collection
- Country:
- Greece
- Holding institution:
- Jewish Community of Larissa
- Holding institution (official language):
- Ισραηλιτική Κοινότητα Λάρισας
- Postal address:
- Plateia Evraion Martyron, Kentavron 29, 412 22 Larissa
- Phone number:
- 2410 532 965
- Email:
- jcl@otenet.gr
- Title:
- Records of the Jewish Community of Larissa
- Title (official language):
- Αρχείο Ισραηλιτικής Κοινότητας Λάρισας
- Creator/accumulator:
- Jewish Community of Larissa
- Date(s):
- 1946/2014
- Language:
- Greek, Modern (1453-)
- English
- Hebrew
- Ladino
- Extent:
- 21 linear metres (210 boxes and books)
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Physical condition:
- good
- Scope and content:
- The collection contains the records of the Jewish Community of Larissa, a legal entity established by law 2456/20 in 1920 and one of three Jewish Communities in the Thessaly region of central Greece. The collection documents community activities from 1946-2014 and largely contains the correspondence of the community council and rehabilitation and restitution efforts after the Holocaust. The collection contains much information about other Greek Jewish communities and community organisations, their destruction during the Holocaust and subsequent rehabilitation and reconstruction. The collection includes minutes of community council meetings; notes, memorandums, reports, minutes and correspondence with other Greek Jewish communities, the Central Board of Jewish Communities in Greece and institutions inside and outside the country including the municipality of Larissa, the bishop of Larissa and health institutions; financial documents: lists of expenses, invoices, acknowledgements of receipts of various costs covered by the community; the community’s petitions to and correspondence with the Greek authorities; correspondence with various Jewish and gentile individuals; correspondence of the community with various Jewish organisations and other Jewish communities in Greece; decrees, memorandums and orders issued by the community council; various lists of names, including community employees, patients treated in sanatoriums or hospitals, beneficiaries and Holocaust victims and survivors; members’ registries, including number of members, occupation, family members and economic status; various certificates issued by the community for its members; and registry books recording the incoming and outgoing mail for the years 1946-2014. The most prominent people in the collection are the presidents of the community and members of the council.
- Archival history:
- The collection has remained in the possession of the Jewish community of Larissa and held in its premises since its creation in 1920. Since 1996 the archive has been held at the community offices on Kentavron Street opposite the city’s Holocaust memorial (erected at the Square of the Jewish Martyrs of the Holocaust in 1987). Most of the prewar archival material was confiscated by the Germans and transferred to the Reich in 1944, after which no record of it exists. Members of the community managed to save some prewar material by hiding it.
- Administrative/biographical history:
- The Jewish community of Larissa is one of Greece’s and Europe’s oldest. Jews inhabited the area in the years before Christ, probably establishing a community during the Roman era. Its 1900 years of existence have been documented by historians, travellers and archaeologists. Upon the arrival of Spanish Jews (Sephardim), the community took its final form. The Sephardim initially established a separate community in Larissa, but later mingled with the older Romaniote (Greek-speaking) community. In the contemporary era, under the Greek state the Jewish community of Larissa was officially formed in 1920 as a public entity of religious and charitable nature that functions under state law 2456/20. Today the community of Larissa has 250 members, governed by a six-member administrative board. Larissa’s Jewish population was 1120 before WWII and 726 after. 239 died in the Holocaust, 219 of them in killing centres. 14 survived the camps. Larissa’s Jewish quarter – never a ghetto – was known as “Hebraica” or “Exi Dromoi”. The community has various committees, such as the women's organizations WIZO and AVIV and the Zionist Association, which has existed since 1906. The 8th Primary School of Larissa (Jewish) was established by the law ΑΙΓ in 1881. The Community Cultural Centre has been functioning since 1954 and is the site of events including Sabbath services twice a month, school events and Passover Seder for the young. At the end of the 19th century seven synagogues were in operation, but today only one, Etz Hayyim (Tree of Life), built in 1860, is still active.
- System of arrangement:
- The archival material is divided between books and papers. The books are arranged thematically. The papers are arranged in folders in chronological order.
- Finding aids:
- There are no inventories or finding aids.
- Yerusha Network member:
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
- Author of the description:
- Nikolaos Tzafleris
