Immigration of Jews from Ioannina to the United States  Marcia Haddad Ikonomopoulos  Museum Director  Kehila Kedosha Janina During the massive wave of immigration the United States between 1881 and 1924, an estimated 15 million immigrants entered the country.  By all estimates, both Greek-Christian and Greek-Jewish immigrants were a small minority.  What is of interest is the fact, that according to the major source of official data (ship manifests) of those emigrants from Epirus, the greater majority appear to be Jews.  While the impetus to leave might have been the same, the dynamics of the emigration and the intentions varied.  While all emigrants shared the desire to find resources to improve their lives back in the old country, most Greek-Orthodox Christians thought of the move as temporary, the majority hoping to shortly return to live out their improved existence in Greece.  For most Greek-Jews the move was perm...

A FEW HISTORICAL FACTS ABOUT GREEK JEWRY Published in The National Herald, February 6, 2006 Issue ------------------------------ I am excited to announce that  The National Herald  has given Hellenic Genealogy Geek the right to reprint articles that may be of interest to our group.  ------------------------------ ----------------------- Jews may have first settled in Greece as early as the Hellenistic Period, using the Greek language in their daily life after extensive contact with ancient Greek culture, the dominant culture in Palestine at the time, and established firm ties with Greece.  According to information recorded in the historical archives of the Greek Foreign Ministry (Documents on the History of the Greek Jews), after the Jewish state came to an end under the Roman rule in 63 BC, many Jews left Jerusalem, and some of them migrated to Greece, where they joined the Romaniotes (Greek-speaking Jews) who were already es...

KEHILA KEDOSHA JANINA NEW YORK'S GREEK JEWISH COMMUNITY Published in The National Herald, July 9-10 2016 Issue Authored by TNH Staff ------------------------------ We are excited to announce that  The National Herald  has given Hellenic Genealogy Geek the right to reprint articles that may be of interest to our group.  ------------------------------ The Greek Jews have a long history going back over 2,300 years to the time of Alexander the Great.  They arrived in Ioannina, according to folk belief, when a group swam ashore escaping a Roman slave ship in the year 70.  The Greek-speaking Romaniote Jewish community was well-established in Greece when the Jews of Spain, the Sephardim, were expelled in 1492, many moving to Greece to escape the Spanish Inquisition.  Kehila Kedosha Janina on Broome Street on the Lower East Side is the last remaining Romaniote synagogue in the Western Hemisphere and was named after Ioannina where t...