Metadata: Records of the Jewish Community of Chalkis
Collection
- Country:
- Greece
- Holding institution:
- Jewish Community of Chalkis
- Holding institution (official language):
- Ισραηλιτική Κοινότητα Χαλκίδας
- Postal address:
- Papigki 5, 34100 Chalkida
- Phone number:
- 22210 60 111
- Title:
- Records of the Jewish Community of Chalkis
- Title (official language):
- Αρχείο Ισραηλιτικής Κοινότητας Χαλκίδας
- Creator/accumulator:
- Jewish Community of Chalkis
- Date(s):
- 1915/2014
- Language:
- Greek, Modern (1453-)
- English
- Hebrew
- Ladino
- Extent:
- 6 linear metres (78 boxes and books)
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Physical condition:
- good
- Scope and content:
- The collection contains the records of the Jewish Community of Chalkis, a legal entity established by law 2456/20 in 1920 and probably the oldest Romaniote Jewish community in Greece. The collection documents community activities from 1915-2014 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 Chalkis, bishop of Chalkis 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 Chalkis and held in its premises since its creation. The archive is currently held at the community offices on Kotsou Street next to the Romaniote Jewish Synagogue. 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 in the courtyard of the synagogue.
- Administrative/biographical history:
- The Jewish Community of Chalkis is probably Greece’s and Europe’s oldest Jewish community. Romaniote Jews inhabited the area in the years before Christ, probably establishing a community during the Roman era. The Jewish community of Chalkis retained its Romaniote character despite the arrival of Sephardic Jews, who were assimilated. The Jewish population was an estimated 200 in 1840. After a devastating earthquake in April 1894 almost all the Jewish houses were destroyed and the 284 Jews of Chalkis asked for help from the Jews of Europe and America. The Jewish quarter is built around the synagogue at 27 Kotsou Street. The old synagogue was burned down in 1854 during the custom of the burning of Judas, which also destroyed the community archive and library, many religious relics and several invaluable manuscripts. A new synagogue was built in 1855 in the same location, which is also the site of the Jewish community centre. During the German occupation and the persecution of the Jews, almost all of the community members found shelter in nearby mountain villages. The Jewish population was 325 before WWII and 170 after. 23 Jews were sent to Auschwitz, of whom five survived. Many Jews survived by fleeing to Turkey via a clandestine transport network and boats organised by the EAM-ELAS underground movement with the help of the Allies. Today the Jewish community of Chalkis has 66 members. The old Jewish cemetery with almost 600 tombs was restored in the 1990s by the efforts of the community. The room for burial ceremonies together and the guard’s house, first built in 1897 with funds from Ferdinand Rothschild, were also restored.
- Access points: locations:
- Greece
- 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
