Hania Syna2 : Courtyard and Graves - a photo on Flickriver

Most part of the text is a copy and paste from www.etz-hayyim-hania.org ,please forgive me but, as the site is very well designed and documented, I preferred to refer directly to it.

In 1994 a special seminar was held in New York under the aegis of the World Monuments Fund. It was announced that Etz Hayyim had been selected as one of 100 endangered sites in the world for immediate conservation. Nicholas Stavroulakis was to be the project director and coordinator as well as fund raiser. The initial funding was provided by Lord Jacob Rothschild and the Hon. Ronald Lauder.

Etz Hayyim Synagogue in Hania, Crete is the only Jewish building on the island and the only monument to a Jewish presence here of more than 2,400 years. The synagogue is not a museum, regular services are hold there since the reopening in 1999. Volunteers come from all over the world to help maintain the synagogue alive.
There are 2 Siphrei Torah. The first was a gift of the director and originated in Cairo from the David ibn Zimrah Synagogue and is beautifully written on gazelle skin and is in its original 'tik' and bears a silver dedication. The second Sepher Torah is an Eastern European one and was given to the synagogue by the Westminster Scrolls Memorial Trust in London. This Sepher was found after the WWII in an abandoned synagogue near Prague along with over 1700 others. After many years of negotiation all of these were sent to London where they are still in the process of being repaired and then given to needy synagogues.

The Jewish history in Crete is a long one. In 1481, there were 400 families in Herakleion with four synagogues.
Hania is a beautiful city in northwestern Crete built by the Venetians. There was a strong community in Hania, a district is still called Evraiki (Hebrew).

Life during the Ottoman occupation was very difficult. It is estimated that in 1817 there were 150 families, divided between Herakleion and Hania. In 1858 there were 907 Jews on the island as a whole, and in 1881 only 647, most of them in Hania. Accusations of blood libel were common. In 1887, for example, the Sultan himself was called upon to intervene in an especially violent incidence of blood libel.

Toward the end of the 19th century, Crete was made into an independent republic under a Greek prince regent. A parliament was established, with several Jewish representatives, who managed to claim their constitutionally guaranteed seats with great difficulty. After Crete was formally annexed to Greece in 1913, Jewish emigration continued until, by 1941, there were only 364 Jews in Hania, 1 in Rethymnon, and 7 in Herakleion.

Crete was taken by the Germans in 1941. They were met by fierce resistance from the local population and the three main towns, Hania, Rethmynon and Herakleion, were badly bombed. It was not until June of 1944, and almost as an afterthought, that the Jews of Crete were arrested and sent to Herakleion, where they were put on the ship Tanais, together with some 600 Greek and Italian prisoners. For some years the details of the last hours of the Tanais and the fate of its crew and human cargo was not clear. What was known is that the ship had been sunk and that all had perished. Evidence has now appeared through the Foreign Office in London that in fact the Tanais had been sighted by a British U-Boat and was given two torpedo broadsides and sank within 15 minutes.

www.etz-hayyim-hania.org

Taken in: Ελλάδα / Crete / Canea (show map)

Taken on: August 11, 2008

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