History of the Jews in Rhodes

[1] Following the Italian occupation, the community faced increasing restrictions and hardships, Before World War II, there were about 6,000 Jews living in Rhodes.

[1][2] The Jewish community in Rhodes has a glorious and ancient history, and already Benjamin of Tudela reports at the end of the 12th century that he found four hundred Jews on the island.

[1] In the early 17th-century, a Jewish man named Levi was turned over to Rhodes' governor by his business partners during a dispute, leading to his forced conversion to Christianity under severe duress.

Levi sought redress from a Constantinople rabbinical court, which ordered compensation but when his wife fled to Alexandria, the Rhodes governor extorted a bribe from the Jewish community, accusing them of aiding her escape.

The rabbi concluded that while the partners couldn't foresee the full impact of their actions, they were guilty of a serious offense, and the community could fine them as a deterrent.

According to the Encyclopaedia Judaica, Solomon Ibn Verga, an exile from Portugal, arrived from Pisa in Italy to Rhodes and died there in 1533, after the conquest of the island.

After the Italian conquest at the beginning of the 20th century, many Jews left Rhodes, in their search for better livelihoods, or for fear of the declaration of antisemitic laws, among others to the community of the town of Milas, located near the city of Bodrum in Asia Minor.

Additional laws stripped Jews of their assets, restricted travel, and finally, provided for their confinement in internal exile, as was done for political prisoners.