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Jewish Museum of Greece, Athens

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Photo © Alan Cordova.

The Jewish Museum of Greece in Athens traces the history of the Jewish communities of Greece from the 3rd century BC to the present. Founded in 1977 and expanded over the years, the museum moved to a larger building in the heart of the city in 1997.

The museum contains some 8,000 artifacts illustrating the history, faith and daily life of Jews in Greece over 2,300 years. Included are many objects related to the Sephardic Jews, who fled Spain and Portugal in the 15th century to settle throughout Greece in the religiously tolerant years of the Ottoman Empire.

Many traditional costumes and religious objects are on display in the museum, including a reconstruction of the ehal, the ark from the 1920s Pátra synagogue.

The museum also contains displays of documentation recording the German occupation of Greece during World War II, when 87 percent of the Jewish population was wiped out. Over 45,000 Jewish Greeks from Thessaloniki alone were sent to Auschwitz and other concentration camps during a period of five months in 1943.

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References

1. Jewish Museum of Greece - official website

More Information

• Jewish Museum of Greece, Athens - Go Historic
• Photos of Jewish Museum of Greece - here on Sacred Destinations

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