Before The Deluge: Jews Of The Mediterranean Islands (Part I)
Latest update: January 26th, 2012
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The stories in this column are translations by Mr. Nollet from Die Juden In Der Welt (The Jews in the World) by Mark Wischnitzer, a long out-of-print book published more than seven decades ago in Germany. The book examines Jewish communities, one country at a time, as they existed in 1935 – a time before the Nazis began their extermination campaign against the Jews and before there was a state of Israel.
Jews Of The Mediterranean Islands
Cyprus (continued from last month)
Cyprus is about half the size of today’s Palestine and is mainly mountainous. A smaller chain of mountains stretches along the north coast; the main mountain range in the southwest of the island reaches to more than 2,000 meters above sea level and is covered with various species of pine trees. Between these two mountain ranges lies a high plateau with only minor changes in elevation, and makes up about a third of the island’s total surface.
There is a lot of wine produced, and various kinds of fruits, such as red currants, and olives. On the plateau grows wheat, barley, hops, wine, oranges, pomegranates, flax, cotton, and vegetables, particularly potatoes and onions.
Animal husbandry is practiced, with cattle, sheep, and donkeys exported to Palestine and Egypt.
Cyprus has a population of about 350,000, four-fifths of which is Greek and the other fifth Turkish. The native language is Greek but the language of government is English. The conditions of health are generally good, though there are spots of malaria. The big harbors are Famagusta, Larnaca, and Limassol. The capital of Nicosia (25,000 inhabitants) lies not far from Larnaca.
Some 200,000 people feed themselves from agriculture, and there are mining activities in the southwest mountains. The wooded highlands are sought out for recreation purposes in the summer by people from Palestine, Syria, and Egypt. Over a third of the people live in cities, mainly as merchants. Attempts have been made to launch tanning and silk industries.
Rhodes
Rhodes is in the Aegean Sea, currently under Italian control. [Translator’s note: Rhodes was awarded to Greece after WWII and today remains Greek, though it lies within eyeshot of the Turkish mainland.] As early as the second century BCE it counted Jewish inhabitants. There was a count in the year 1170 of around 500 souls. A hundred years later, Jews from Tarragona in Spain fleeing persecution found refuge in Saracen-controlled Rhodes.
In 1309, knights of the Christian order of St. John Hospitallers conquered Rhodes, but before this time the presence of the “Evriaka Street” in the village of Mallona, not far from the main city of Rhodes, proves the existence of an already-established Jewish settlement.
The Jews from Spain brought with them the knowledge of cloth manufacturing. Tanning of animal hides was also a Jewish specialty.
Obadja Bertinoro, after his journey of 1488 to Jerusalem, visited Rhodes, and made the following observations: “After vigorous fighting between the Turks and the knights of the Hospice of St. John’s, the number of Jews left remaining on Rhodes was not large. There were about 22 families, all poor. They feed themselves carefully with vegetables, and never consume bread or meat which they have not themselves slaughtered, and never buy any wine, for fear of having unpleasantries with the Greeks.
“When they visit the market to go shopping, they touch nothing which belongs to the Greeks, and observe prohibitions against wine just as they do prohibitions against swine. They are well educated and trained, speak a clean language, are moral and ethical, and hospitable. Even the tanners are always cleanly dressed and speak soberly. [The women] all let their hair grow long, and are comely of form. They do all kinds of artwork for the lords of the land, and this is how they feed their menfolk.”
Under Turkish dominion, Jews were able to emigrate from Salonika. The newcomers also busied themselves with trade, craftsmanship, and professions. In the harbor there were Jewish barges and stevedores in no small numbers.
Sources report of a lively synagogue life in the 15thand 16th centuries. The oldest three-barged synagogue dated from the time of the order of Christian knights.
At the turn of the 20th century there was an exodus to the Asiatic mainland; nevertheless there remained behind about 4,000 Jews of a total population of 30,000. Since then, this number has not been much reduced.
In most recent times one can even observe in Rhodes a cultural advance. In 1927 there was established a rabbinical high school, which also offered secular education in Italian, with Italian literature, and provided the community with spiritual leadership. In what is a sign of the times, the leader of this institution is a Talmud teacher and a doctor of law from the University of Zürich.
Cos
On the island of Cos there is evidence of a Jewish settlement from the second century BCE. There were pilgrims from Cos to the great temple in Jerusalem. King Herod furnished the Jewish academy with decorations and presents.
In later times, Cos regularly received migrants from Rhodes, for example in 1685, when a new Jewish community was founded. The synagogue which was built in 1747 stands there to this day. The Jews of Cos support themselves though trading of wine and oil. Even as late as 1850 there still lived 50 Jewish families on the island, but only a third of this number still existed there in 1933. There is no rabbi, and they fall under the aegis of the rabbinate on Rhodes.
Lesbos and Lemnos
Lesbos is the largest island in the Aegean archipelago, and lies near the west cost of Asia Minor. It is also called Mytilene, and had an established Jewish population in ancient times. In 1170 Benjamin of Tudela found ten small Jewish communities there. Nothing more is known about the history of Jews on Lesbos. In 1930 about 100 Jews lived on Lesbos.
At different times Lemnos was inhabited by Jews, but a larger community never arose there.
Next month: Crete and Corfu.
tell a friendAbout the Author: Ezra James Nollet is a retired U.S. government chemist living in Poland where he is officer of the local synagogue in Legnica. Before the Deluge appears the last week of each month.
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