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Welcome to the first issue of the second volume of Kol haKEHILA! We thank our readers for your letters and response to our efforts to preserve and disseminate the Jewish heritage of Greece. 

We have been contacted by people from all over the world concerning Greek Jewry: Brigitte Sion inquired on behalf of a friend from Xanthi who was planning to visit the city after many years; George Gideon contacted us in his effort to create a documentary on the Jews of Greece; Miriam Tuchman conveyed to us her experience in Boston, where she found someone who still has Jewish tombstones in his backyard; Dr. Judith Mazza, who published her travel impressions from Greece in Kol haKEHILA (vol. 1, no. 4, pp. 3-5), was reunited with a distant relative from Ioannina living only blocks away from her house! Manuela Franco contacted us in reference to her research on Portuguese Jews in Greece. Many travelers inquired about Jewish sites, Jewish museums and Kosher food in Greece. 

We realized with pleasure that Kol haKEHILA is becoming a center of Greek Jewish life. Judging from our readers? response, which is also a direct result from our temporary presence on the web site of the European Sephardic Institute, we felt that it is time for Kol haKEHILA to have a permanent site on the web. So we invested time and energy in improving our infrastructure and the services we can offer to our readers. Starting this month, Kol haKEHILA can be found in its new permanent address www.yvelia.com/kolhakehila. We invite you to visit our new site and send us your feedback and comments. 

In the new site you will find the online newsletter, virtual exhibitions, Greek Jewish genealogy, places in Greece of Jewish interest, books on the Jews of Greece, links to sites of Jewish interest, a bulletin board where our subscribers can share knowledge and information, and much more. More is in the planning for the near future! Kol haKEHILA welcomes your comments and support for this undertaking. 

The restoration of the synagogue at Hania, Crete, is nearly completed; the re-dedication of the building has been scheduled for October 1999. The exhibition "The Synagogues of Salonika: Destruction and Reconstruction" is opening in October in Washington, DC. More travelers enjoy and discover the Jewish sites of Greece in organized tours such as the Kosher heritage tour organized by the Sephardic House, New York, in August 1999. 

In this issue Kol haKEHILA has invited The Foundation for the Advancement of Sephardic Studies and Culture in New York, to tell our readers about their activity relating to the preservation of the Greek Jewish heritage, and Marcia Haddad Ikonomopoulos to present the Kahal Shalom synagogue of Rhodes, nominated for the prestigious WMF list of 100 endangered monuments. 

Finally, we thank Prof. Carol Krinsky for her assistance with Kol haKEHILA, all our readers who contributed to this issue, and all our friends who have made this effort possible with their support. 

Kol haKEHILA wishes its Jewish readers Happy New Year 5760, with Peace, Happiness and Health! Aniada buena y alegra para vostros todos i voestras famillias!

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In Ottoman times, Salonika was an important Jewish center. The city was saturated with Jewish customs and rhythms for centuries. The prominence of Jews in economic life was such that the port was closed on the Sabbath and Jewish holidays. A Greek city since 1912, it ranked among the most important Sephardi centers. With a Jewish population of nearly sixty thousand, the city had no fewer than sixty synagogues and midrashim (small prayer halls), and numerous Jewish institutions were scattered throughout the historic city center and its environs. 

Tragedies struck the city throughout the centuries: epidemics, earthquakes, conquests, but mostly fires, which devastated the Jewish quarters many times and changed the location of the Jewish settlement. Though painful, the natural disasters were not nearly as lethal as the man-made catastrophe, the Holocaust, which altered Jewish Salonika forever. 

This exhibition is a photographic album that fosuses on the changes after three catastrophes that changed the Jewish community of Salonika, during the last century: the fires of 1890 and 1917, and the Holocaust. In each case, destruction, suffering and pain were followed by reconstruction, renewal and hope. The exhibition features rare archival photographs of the Jews of Salonika, the synagogues and communal institutions, architectural drawings and reconstruction models of the synagogues, and maps that identify the location of the synagogues prior to the Second World War. 

The exhibition was curated by Greek-born Israeli architect Dr. Elias V. Messinas, an expert on the history and architecture of the synagogues of Greece, and curator of similar exhibitions in Greece and Israel. 

For information, please contact: Press Office, The Embassy of Greece, Washington, DC. Tel.: (202) 332-2727. 

Dedication of the restored Etz Hayyim Synagogue in Hania, Crete is scheduled for the weekend of October 10, 1999.  The structural work on the historic building is completely finished, and the windows are framed and are about to be glassed.  The spacious interior is air conditioned, the forecourt (to be named the Lauder garden) is being planted with plants and trees, and the small number of graves that have been identified are being separated to ensure that the burial ground remains separate from the place of worship. 

Much remains to be done before the October dedication, but a Torah Scroll has been donated.  A set of rimonim and a yad are still needed. Approximately $20,000 remains to be raised to complete the new Ark, bimah and benches, which are being constructed using traditional carpentry techniques and following traditional designs (the exact appearance of the originals, however,  is unknown).  Benches cost about $800 each and donors are welcome to sponsor a single bench. 

Kol haKEHILA readers can contact Nicholas Stavroulakis, Director the Etz Hayyim Project, Local Rep., For the Central Board of Jewish Communities of Greece, at Box 251 73110 Hania, Crete, Greece, Tel & Fax: + 30 (821) 70-397, and e-mail: dori@grecian.net. To provide assistance, or to learn more about the planned events, consult the Foundation's web page at: www.etz-hayyim-hania.org. 

The subjects that will interest the University are the following: Urban history of a specific city or town, in a specific period (e.g. the city of Volos in the 19th century, or the city of Komotini after 1922). Research on specific city neighborhoods (e.g. the Jewish quarters in the Greek cities after 1500, or the Jewish quarters in the Greek cities in the 18-19th centuries), of a specific city (e.g. the Jewish quarter of Rhodes, or the Jewish quarter of Chios, or the relationship of the Jewish ghetto to the Greek city under Ottoman or Venetian rule. 

For information and inquiries, please contact Prof George Saryiannis at: Tel: +30(1) 772-3793 and fax: +30(1) 772-3819, or Kol haKEHILA.

"SYNAGOGUES OF SALONIKA: Community and Continuity" presents the fascinating history of this Jewish community by focusing on the 3 main synagogues that sustained organized Jewish life: Talmud Torah Hagadol (1520/40 - 1917), Beth Shaul (1898 - 1943) and Monastirlis (1927 - present). 

Under the Ottoman Turks, the Talmud Torah Hagadol helped to consolidate the loose collection of separate Jewish groupings into one community.  It burned to the ground in the fire of 1917 that destroyed the city center, 33 other synagogues,  and much of the old Jewish community. 

Beth Shaul, built in 1898, became the central synagogue and the venue of choice for important ceremonies such as the visit of King George II (1935).  Destroyed by the Germans in 1943, a highlight of the exhibition is a 3-D scale model of this synagogue. 

The Monastirlis Synagogue, established by Jews of Monastir (Bitolj) Yugoslavia, was erected in 1927 in the newly-designed city center.  Spared destruction during the German occupation owing to its having been used by the Red Cross, it was renovated after the war and today serves as the principal synagogue for the community. 

The exhibition?s maps and architectural drawings were prepared by Greek-born Israeli architect and scholar Dr. Elias V. Messinas, who has researched synagogue buildings throughout Greece.  An additional highlight is a bronze model, on loan from the Jewish community of Salonika, of the recently dedicated Holocaust sculpture. 

Elly Dlin is the former director of the Valley of the Communities at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem, Israel. This article was reprinted from the Yad Vashem Magazine, Summer issue 1999.