The first Jews probably arrived in Salonica during the second century B.C. By the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries they accounted for approximately one-half of the city’s population and the community had become a major cultural centre of the Jewish world. Today, less than one percent of the city’s half-million population is Jewish…
The history of Judaism is filled with descriptions of the beauty of the Temple and its vessels and ceremonial objects. Indeed, dedicating beautiful things to the “Glory of God”, whether for use in synagogues or in homes, is an essential part of the Jewish religion. As a result of the dispersal of the Jewish peoples, few of these works of art have survived, however, and comparatively little is known about this aspect of the Jewish heritage.
More than fifteen hundred runners gathered in Athens in October for the biannual “Classic Greek Marathon” which draws athletes from all over the world. Among the participants was a young American physician who resides in Athens. He completed the forty-two-kilometre course barefoot
For more than three hundred years, the immense and beautiful cave on the island of Antiparos has attracted curious adventurers, but on Christmas, 1673, it served as the site of an unusual celebration. His Excellency, the French Ambassador to Turkey, the Marquis de Nointel, accompanied by an entourage that numbered more than five hundred, made the perilous descent into the forbidding grotto to celebrate the Nativity. There they remained for the three days of Christmas…
Covering most of the peninsula of Thessalian Magnesia, which juts out from the eastern coast of mainland Greece about half-way between Athens and Thessaloniki, is the Pilion area, dotted with villages strung out along the beaches.
When a group of young students set off for Mount Athos, their intention was to explore the Holy Mountain on foot and to visit as many of the twenty surviving monasteries as possible. Their religious convictions ranged from the devout to the sceptical, their reasons for the journey from the spiritual to simple curiosity. When after ten days they returned to the “outside world”, they brought with them vivid impressions of the monastic life — and new insight into this renowned but little-known sphere of Orthodoxy.
Contrary to a widely-held misconception, there are many active women’s organizations in Greece, most associated with political parties or professional groups, and focussing on issues within a local framework. This year, the Women’s Union of Greece (EGE) embarked on a broader approach which culminated in September with the arrival of representatives from groups abroad to participate in a unique international gathering. “This is the first time,” said a sixteen-year-old village girl, “that women from all over the world have come to discuss our problems.”
A visitor to Athens often stumbles on the unexpected. Nothing at first encounter could be less likely, for example, than finding an Assyrian church on a small, side-street near the National Road in the working-class area of Aegalio. Yet the hand-painted sign, posted over the entrance to a converted garage, proudly proclaims in Syriac, Greek, and English: “Saint Mary Assyrian Church of the East in the Blessed Country of Greece”.
In Kastoria there are only fishermen and furriers, it used to be said. The occasional lone fisherman can still be seen today fishing from a rowboat on the lovely Lake Orestia but the lake yields very little now while the more than five-h undred-year-old fur industry is flourishing. Over the cen turies it has brough t considerable wealth to the area, and led to a rich, distinctive architecture which is being threatened by the latest prosperity.
Ever since Antonios Benaki transformed his townhouse into the museum which now houses a vast eclectic collection of artifacts, from Coptic embroideries and Chinese ceramics to Byzantine treasures and Greek folk art, the Benaki Museum has played a dramatic role in the cultural life of Greece. The Museum is only part of the Benaki Saga, but a chapter that has contributed to the preservation of neglected areas of the Greek heritage. The innovative tradition established by Antonios Benaki and continued by his descendents is now entering a new phase at the Museum.
