Yesterday, Saturday on the very first day of Rosh Hashana 5784, I went to my weekly Randez Vous with friends from the Greek Community of Jerusalem.
From the building of my beloved Jerusalem Greek community, I connect to you, my family and friends, from my native Athens Jewish community.
In honor and in memory of our childhood celebrations of the Jewish high holidays at the Yianniotiki Synagogue of Athens, back in the seventies, I read to you a section from Elias Messinas book To Synagoi pertaining to the men from the community who sat at the Yianniotiki Synagogue’s ground floor.
I thank my friends Nina Hatzi and Sofi Hatzi, and my cousin, cantor Haim Ischakis for assisting Elias in this important task.
They, and we, know that there may be a few mistakes or missing pieces in their recollection of the community and their assigned seats in the hall, and we invite you to add the missing bits and pieces, as well as other recollections, in the comments.
The Yianniotiki Synagogue of Athens was part of my family’s legacy too, as my grandfather Moisis Nahmias, originating from Ioannina, with his two sons Iakovos (my father) and Herbert Nahmias, had their assigned seats there. And so did my beloved grandmother Anna Nahmia, Moisis Nahmias’ wife, and daughter Eftychia Nahmia Nachman on the women’s balcony located upstairs.
As a child, I remember myself walking the narrow wooden staircase, now remodeled, leading to the women’s balcony to get in the midst of my musically gifted grandmother Anna, and my WIZO-leader aunt Eftychia, where I would sit as a child, feeling safe, nurtured, and loved in the midst of my pack.
In this video, I have managed to contain the emotion that came up in me while reading the community men’s names out loud, remembering these good old times, but in the privacy of my home, a tsunami of tears has come forth in me, releasing the pain and hurt I feel for this loss of my family’s built cultural heritage, committed to my ancestral, present and future Greek Romaniote Jewish lineage.
From Jerusalem with love,
Yvette Nahmia-Messinas