History of the Jews in Zakynthos

[2][1] In 1267, during the reign of the House of Anjou in Naples, several hundred Jews from Corfu were counted, who arrived from the territories of the Byzantine Empire and from Apulia in Italy.

For 20 years they operated in harmony, but as the settlement of Jews on the island continued, bringing with them different customs and traditions, conflicts arose between the two synagogues.

In 1953, the Cretan synagogue was not active due to the small number of Jews remaining on the island after World War II.

Also, the appearance of the community leader Moshe Ganis, dressed in rags to give the impression that the Jews were poor and oppressed, and that the Germans would not gain much wealth from their deportation, did not result in the cancellation of the order.

The Jews of Crete, whose economic situation was similar to that of their Jewish brethren in Zakynthos, were rounded up and put on a ship to be taken to the extermination camps.

After attempts to cancel the deportation failed, the island's leadership, both religious and civil, Mayor Carrer and Metropolitan Chrysostomos - joined together to stop the extermination machine.

At the end of the summer of 1944, three ships of the German navy arrived - in an attempt to succeed in the mission that had failed so far - to take the Jews out of their hiding places - and to concentrate them for deportation to the extermination camps.

The partisan commander Katsibatis, threatened that his men would protect the Jews at all costs, and that the human life casualties would be very high from both sides.

A month later, Greece was liberated from the Nazi occupation, and the Jewish community on the island of Zakynthos remained unharmed.

Thanks to the gesture of Archbishop and Mayor Lucas Carrer and their brave and ethical leadership, the Jews of Zakynthos were not sent to the death camps.

[7] In 1992, the Board of Directors of the Jewish Communities in Greece erected two marble memorials at the site where, before the earthquake in 1953, the "Shalom" synagogue stood - as a gesture to the bishop and the mayor, rescuers of the Jews.

[5] Shmuel Gani wrote an autobiographical book: "With Persistence and Ingenuity", published by "Dokustori", with the assistance of Yad Vashem, dedicating the first two chapters to his childhood in Zakynthos and the community's Holocaust stories.

Chapter twelve, the last in the book, describes a multi-generational roots trip he took with his family to Zakynthos, as well as the commemoration ceremony on July 13, 2014, held at the old Jewish cemetery - where a memorial was inaugurated for Naomi's father, Moshe Porta, a soldier in the Greek army, who was killed on December 23, 1940, on the Greek-Albanian front in battles against the invading Italian army.

Moshe Moises Mazza, head of the community of Zakynthos and the Peloponnese. He also served as the head of the community in the 1920s
A street in the Jewish quarter of Zakynthos. On the left: the "Shalom" synagogue, adorned on its facade with three protrusions in the shape of triangles
The monuments of the Jewish rescuers, the Righteous Among the Nations Metropolitan Chrysostomos Dimitriou and the Mayor Lucas Carrer. The monuments were erected in 1992, by the leadership of the Jewish communities in Greece, at the location where, before the earthquake, the "Shalom" synagogue stood, in the Jewish quarter of Zakynthos.