During the Corona season in Jerusalem, in April and May 2020, I had the privilege to read Vassilis Tzaferis’ autobiographical book in Greek titled “Η Πορεία μου,” “My Course.”
In “My Course” Tzaferis takes us on a journey from his childhood at the Greek island of Samos to his adulthood in Jerusalem.
I love the book and decided to dedicate a few blog posts to it, sharing excerpts from Tzaferis’ diary with my readers. This is the fourth in a series of entries relating to Tzaferis’ memories of Jerusalem’s Greek Community.
In this blog post, I am sharing a video of me reading an excerpt from Tzaferis’ book pertaining to Greeks of Jerusalem; some of whom I had the pleasure of meeting myself.
Moreover, I am including a translation of the Greek text into English so that Tzaferis’ words can be accessible to all.
Should you or your close ones be part of this special community and have photos and stories you would like to share with the blog’s community, please feel free to add them in the comments’ part of the blog for everyone to enjoy.
A special Thank You to Eftychia Tzaferis and her children for their support in this project!
I am honored to invite you to watch the fourth video below in which Vassilis Tzaferis mentions by name the Greek families who lived in the Greek Colony of Jerusalem in the 1950s and 1960s.
Below please find my translation of Vassilis Tzaferis’ text into English:
“In the Greek Colony (of Jerusalem) lived Adonis and Eleni Pahi, the four Deda brothers- the three spinster sisters and their brother Petros who got married when sixty years old; Zografos, Nikolaidis with his two children, Yannis and Zoe, the three spinster sisters Efkledis and their brother Alexandros, also unmarried. Xanthopoulos the community’s self-appointed delegate to the local authorities with his wife; The Sarika family with one son and three unmarried daughters, the Konstantinidi family, Chamberlain who lived in the Katamon neighborhood, the Panagiotopouleoi, Miglina with her three children, Anastasiou with his two kids and wife Veta, and the four member family Elenitsa. The Greeks of this neighborhood were the “downs.”
All Greeks of New Jerusalem that passed by this city and left their traces either as people or as members of the community, were deeply engraved in my memory.”
I hope you enjoyed the fourth entry pertaining to the Greeks of the Greek Colony of Jerusalem in the words of legendary Greek Jerusalemite archaelogist Vassilis Tzaferis.
From Jerusalem with love,
Yvette Nahmia-Messinas