Metadata: Records of the Jewish Community of Ioannina
Collection
- Country:
- Greece
- Holding institution:
- Jewish Community of Ioannina
- Holding institution (official language):
- Ισραηλιτική Κοινότητα Ιωαννίνων
- Postal address:
- Joseph Eliya 18Β, 452 21 Ioannina
- Phone number:
- 26510 25 195
- Email:
- eki1@otenet.gr
- Title:
- Records of the Jewish Community of Ioannina
- Title (official language):
- Αρχείο Ισραηλιτικής Κοινότητας Ιωαννίνων
- Creator/accumulator:
- Jewish Community of Ioannina
- Date(s):
- 1947/2014
- Language:
- Greek, Modern (1453-)
- English
- Hebrew
- Ladino
- Extent:
- 23 linear metres (345 boxes, folders and books)
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Physical condition:
- good
- Scope and content:
- The collection contains the records of the Jewish Community of Ioannina, a legal entity established by law 2456/20 in 1920 and one of the oldest Jewish communities in Greece. The collection documents community activities from 1947-2014 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 Ioannina, bishop of Ioannina 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, 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 Ioannina and held in its premises since its creation. The archive is currently held at the community offices on Yossef Elijah Street in the old Jewish quarter. 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.
- Administrative/biographical history:
- Ioannina is considered the capital of Romaniote Jewry. In 1910 the Jewish population was more than 3,000, and on the eve of the Nazi persecution the Jewish community had almost 2,000 members. The Jews originally settled inside the citadel and on Yossef Elijah Street, called Megali Rouga or “The Great Alley” by the locals and the heart of the Jewish community, where the community’s premises are located. Several old Jewish homes are still standing in this area. Some of the most distinguished Greek Jewish intellectuals were from Ioannina, including the prominent Bible scholars Rabbi “Aham” Davos, Rabbi Samuel and Rabbi David and the great poet Yossef Elijah. The city’s two Jewish schools, run under the supervision of the Alliance israélite universelle, had an excellent reputation. The old synagogue, Ka'hal Kadosh Yashan, located inside the citadel, was constructed in 1826. In the early the 20th century many Jews emigrated from Ioannina to the USA, where they established a Romaniote synagogue, Kehila Kedosha Janina, in Manhattan, New York City, which still exists. On 25 March 1944 the Jews of Ioannina were forced out of their homes carrying few belongings and gathered together on the shores of Lake Pamvotida. Almost all were rounded up, placed on trucks and taken to Larissa. They were kept there for some days and then placed in cattle cars and deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau where most would go directly to the gas chambers. 1,860 people were arrested and deported to Auschwitz. The Jewish population before WWII was 2000 and 163 after. Today the Jewish community of Ioannina has 50 members.
- System of arrangement:
- The archival material is divided between books and papers. The books and papers are arranged thematically.
- Finding aids:
- There are no inventories or finding aids.
- Yerusha Network member:
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
- Author of the description:
- Nikolaos Tzafleris
