Wandering in Chania

Monday May 12 was a beautiful sunny day with a high of 23C.  Our first mission was to buy some fresh fish for two evening dinners.  We had been told about one nearby fish store that had been closed Saturday afternoon and Sunday.  We walked over and bought some dorade (sea bream).  We then went to a small store to buy some fruit and vegetables.  We passed at least two other fish stores and bought a piece of salmon at one of them.  The stores had all been boarded up since we arrived on Saturday afternoon, so we had no idea we were near fish heaven.

Wonderful fish store- open to the street, where we bought the dorade

A very large fish store with an incredible selection of frozen fish.  We got a piece of salmon here.

Very nice store with cheeses, meats and vegetables

Another fish store that we passed

We made a stop at the Red Jane Bakery which had wonderful looking breads and treats.  They also had sandwiches to go.  Well stocked in the mid-morning.

Red Jane Bakery

Wonderful sandwiches at Red Jane Bakery

We had a late breakfast on the deck which included a cardamon pistachio bun from the bakery.

Allan with the treat (pistachio is one of his favourites)

After a rest on the deck, we headed out to visit the Etz Hayyim (Hebrew for "Tree of Life") Synagogue. It is the only synagogue in Crete today, having been revived 50 years after the deportation of the island's Jewish community in June 1944, during the German occupation of Crete in WWII.  The building dates from the 15th century and was originally a Catholic church located in the heart of the small Jewish quarter in the Venetian period (1204-1645/69).  The church was damaged in the 1530s during one of the Ottoman Turkish attacks on the city.   In the mid-17th century, after the eventual Ottoman conquest of Crete, the building was acquired by Chania's Jewish community who then converted it into a synagogue.

Prior to WWII, Etz Hayyim, a Romaniote synagogue, together with Beth Shalom (bombed in 1941), a Sephardic synagogue, served the Jewish community's needs.  The majority of their members lived in a nearby neighbourhood of Chania.

Outside of the synagogue

We arrived just in time for a brief introduction to the history of the synagogue by Konstantin (Visitor Experience Manager originally from northern Germany who had moved to Chania in 1992).  He explained that Etz Hayyim was a Romaniote synagogue, a term referring to those Jews who trace their origins to the Hellenized, Greek speaking Jews of the Eastern Mediterranean in the Roman/Byzantine and Ottoman empires.  Romaniote synagogues feature a unique layout with the elevated platform from which the Torah is read (the "Bima"), located on the west wall rather than in the middle of the room.

The Synagogue

The Bima on the west wall

Konstantin gave us a brief history of the Jews in Crete.  The communities date from the 3rd century BC onwards.  By the time of the Roman conquest of Crete in the 1st century BC, Jewish communities were thriving in most of the major cities.  In 1204, Crete was sold to the Venetians by the leader of the 4th Crusade after the sacking of Constantinople.  Our Free Tour guide on Sunday had provided us with the fascinating story of how Crete ended up in the hands of the Venetians.

By the end of the 16th century, there were about 1600 Jews in Crete who worshiped in up to nine synagogues around the island.   The period of Ottoman rule (1669-1898), brought economic hardship to the island's population and the Jewish communities in Rethymno and Heraklion diminished.  Many of the wealthier Jewish families moved to Chania, the new Ottoman capital of the island, or moved abroad.  They were afforded some degree of religious autonomy and were able to buy and inherit property. A number of Sephardic Jews immigrated to Crete during this period.   However, by 1881, there were only 647 Jews in Crete, with the majority residing in Chania.

We were then told about the invasion by air of Crete by the Germans in May 1941. Despite strong resistance from the local population, the Allied troops on the island were forced to retreat as the Germans established their occupation regime in June 1941.  Most of Crete's Jews, numbering about 350, were living in Chania and faced a raft of restrictions on their daily lives.  The remaining Jews in Chania were arrested on May 20,1944 and taken to a local prison for about two weeks before being transported to Heraklion.  They were forced to board the steamship Tanaïs, together with a number of Italian prisoners of war and Cretan resistance fighters.  The ship was to sail to Athens and the Jewish prisoners were to be sent to Auschwitz.  As we already knew, the ship was torpedoed by a British submarine and all its prisoners drowned in the early morning hours of June 9th.   

Once the community had been deported, the Jewish Quarter and the synagogue was ransacked by the Germans.  From this time until the mid-1990s, the synagogue fell into ruin.  In 1995, a serious earthquake caused part of the synagogue roof to collapse.  In the 1990s, Nikos Stavroulakis (1932-2017) an artist and art historian decided to rebuilt the synagogue.   Stavroulakis, born in Wisconsin to a Jewish mother and a Greek Orthodox father from Crete, was educated in England, the United States and Israel.  He co-founded the Jewish Museum in Athens in 1977 and served as its director until 1993.  He moved to Chania in 1994.  He was the driving force behind the restoration of Etz Hayyim and remained its spiritual director until his death in 2017.

He was able to have Etz Hayyim added to the list of the world's "100 Most Endangered Sites" of international cultural concern compiled by the World Monuments Fund in 1996.  The restoration of the synagogue took three years.  It was officially rededicated on October 10,1999.  It reopened as a "place of prayer, recollection and reconciliation" with a pluralistic congregation that as Stavroulakis put it "accommodates Jews of every variety of self-identity as well as non-Jews". 

Since 2010, the Synagogue has been operated by a non-profit organization in cooperation with the Central Board of Jewish Communities in Greece.  It is the only testament to a rich Jewish history on the island that lasted for over 2000 years which almost came to an abrupt end in 1944.  The synagogue welcomes Jews of all different backgrounds as well as non-Jews. A rabbi comes from Athens a few times a year and there is an annual Memorial on June 9 commemorating the sinking of the Tanaïs.  Today, there are only about 30 Jews living in Chania.

After the talk, we wandered through the small synagogue.  There is a beautiful restored mikveh (Jewish ritual bath), which was probably built during the 17th century, fed by an underground spring.  It had been used as a rubbish dump for decades after the 1944 deportation of the Jewish community.  At the time of its restoration in the mid-1990s, a large volume of think sludgy material which had stoped the water flow from the spring was removed.  It is now available for use on request.

The mikvah

Memorial with names of families deported in 1944

Small courtyard

The Synagogue is presently trying to raise funds to keep open a small adjoining part of the building which houses a library.  There was a small exhibit on the tiny second floor which outlined the Synagogue restoration process.  We talked to Konstantin again before we left.  A fascinating story of a community which had survived for so long.  Etz Hayyim is the remaining link to this history on the Island and stands as "perhaps the only active reminder of the once multi-faith, multi-cultural society of Chania and Crete."  The forced exchange between Greek and Turkey of Greek Orthodox and Muslim populations in 1923, and the deportation of the Jewish population in 1944 by the Germans were key events that left their mark on Crete.  Both were traumatic events.  The rebuilding of the Synagogue and its present place in the religious and socio-cultural life of Chania is important.  Today, the Synagogue hosts lectures, concerts and exhibitions as well as being an active non-denominational synagogue.  We hope they can raise the funding needed to keep the library open.  

After our visit, we went for a coffee at a nearby cafe.

Busy streets of the Old Town

We stopped at a place that sold beautifully designed fabrics with prints handmade in their workshop.

Outside of store 

I bought a blue patterned pareo, made locally and 100% cotton.

We also stopped at an interesting- looking travel agency and booked a wine tour for Tuesday!!  We wandered some more and then headed back to the apartment.  We stopped at Monogram coffee shop to buy some of their beans.  Their coffee beans are called ACMA, which stands for A Customer Made Approach.  Allan got some beans which will be good for lattes while I got a package of beans for cold espresso drinks.

Allan also bought a tee-shirt for his coffee t-shirt collection.

We had a very interesting day in Chania.  Having visited the Heraklion Archaeological and Historical Museums; taken Free tours in both Heraklion and Chania; and visiting the Synagogue, we feel we are really getting immersed in the complex and multi-layered history of Crete.  

Allan with a Greek koulouri (like a Turkish Simit)

Chef Allan made us a delicious dinner with dorade, potatoes and zucchini.  We had a salad, a glass of white wine and a piece of the cake our host had left us.  It is great having the option to eat in some evenings.

Dinner at the apartment in Chania