1. Historical context

The study of ancient Greek and Hebrew literature reveals a wealth of sources outlining or hinting at the cultural interaction between Greeks and Jews; some date long before the conquest of Alexander the Great, but their bulk from the Hellenistic era onwards. The first recorded meeting between a Greek and a Jewish person is placed in the 4th cent. BC, as attested in a passage from Josephus, describing a meeting between Aristotle and a Jew from the region of Syro-Palestine in Asia Minor. Alexander the Great's campaign inaugurated a new chapter in the history of Jewish Diaspora. With the growth of international trade, the bestowing of citizen rights and the establishment of new cities, like Alexandria (321 BC) and Antioch (301 BC), attracted large numbers of Jews, who together with other trading peoples, organized the first nuclei of their communities in commercial centres around the Mediterranean. In Greece, Jewish presence dates back only to the first half of the 3rd cent. BC, as suggested by the inscription of Moschus the Jew, unearthed in the Αmphiareion of Oropus. This is the first, and a unique inscription mentioning the manumission of a Jewish slave, long before the wars of Antiochus IV Epiphanes.

2. Jewish presence in Boeotia

2.1. Antiquity

The available information on the presence of Jews in Boeotia during the Hellenistic and Roman periods is few and rather vague. Indeed, as also attested by the geographer Strabo, Thebes was little more than a village, which may account for the lack of earlier Jewish presence in the area. The earliest literary reference to the settling of Jews in Boeotia occurs in Philo's On the Embassy to Gaius (281-282), where he writes characteristically: “…And in the same manner into Europe, into Thessaly, and Boeotia, and Macedonia, and Aetolia, and Attica, and Argos, and Corinth and all the most fertile and wealthiest districts of Peloponnesus. And not only are the continents full of Jewish colonies, but also all the most celebrated islands are so too; such as Euboea, and Cyprus, and Crete...” without, however, mentioning the specific city or cities in which they have settled. In terms of inscriptional evidence the available data is limited. More specifically, Jewish presence in attested in the epigraphical record as late as 2nd-3rd cent., as suggested by a sepulchral stele found in Plataea in 1898/1899, incorporated into the entrance steps, leading to the narthex of the church of St Basil. The following centuries are described as a dark age, mainly due to the lack of written sources on the presence of Jews in the wider region of Boeotia. The raids of the Heruli and the Goths (3rd-4th cent.) and the concomitant economic decline of the Boeotian cities might be the main reason behind this.

2.2. Byzantine Period

During the Byzantine period, the city of Thebes experienced great prosperity, and by the 9th century it had become capital of the theme of Greece, seat of the strategos of the theme, seat of the archbishop and the protospatharios. The city's prosperity should naturally be attributed to the production of silk, which was introduced to Thebes from Constantinople in the 9th and 10th centuries. The city became one of the most important, if not the most important centre of silk production and trade, with the local Jewish community playing a key role in the production and the trading of silk. Indeed, the Jews specialised in cleaning unprocessed silk and dying it with purple dye from their famous guild of the so-called 'κογχυλευταί'. According to Α. Sharf, the dawn of the Byzantine Jewish community should be dated to the 11th century. In any case, our knowledge on the history of Jewish communities in Boeotia before the 12th century is limited, due to the lack of literary and epigraphical evidence. The first direct mention of the Jews of Thebes occurs in a western source from the time of the Crusades in the 13th century, the Annales Cavenses. It narrates the destructive raid of the Normans (1147) under Roger II, King of Lower Italy, and it mentions that Roger's troops, among else, captured Thebes, pillaged it, and carried off its inhabitants as prisoners, among them the Jews. The prisoners were relocated to the Norman kingdom, in Palermo, probably with the aim of boosting the local silk industry.

Another important source on the presence of Jews in Thebes in the reign of Emperor Manuel I Comnenus is the testimony of rabbi Benjamin of Tudela in Spain, who visited a number of cities hosting important Jewish communities, among them Thebes. According to his account: “...Thence (Corinth) it is two days' journey to the great city of Thebes, where there are about 2,000 Jews. They are the most skilled artificers in silk and purple cloth throughout Greece. They have scholars learned in the Mishnahand the Talmud, and other prominent men, and at their head are the chief rabbiR. Kuti and his brother R. Moses, as well as rabbis R. Chiyah, Elijah Tirutot and Joktan; and there are none like them in the land of the Greeks, except in the city of Constantinople”. The above passage of the traveller Benjamin of Tudela reveals two important facts about the Jews of Thebes. It is the first source to provide details on the population of the community, which numbered 2,000 Jews, a figure that is apparently accepted by historians, while it offers precious information on their social, financial and cultural standing. It would appear, therefore, that they were exclusively employed in the manufacture of garments made of silk and dyed in imperial purple, they had a religious organization and community structures, and they were highly cultivated, as suggested by the presence of scholars of the Talmud and the Mishnah. One such scholar and wise man was rabbi Abraham Zutra the Theban, who, according to handwritten responsa of Isaiah da [sic] Trani (13th century), was active in the city of Thebes as a commentator of rabbinic literature (Sifra) in 1150-1200.

2.3. Period of Frankish Rule

When in c. 1218 the poet Judah al Harizi visited the city of Thebes, he was impressed by the exquisite poetry of Michael ben Caleb, who had received an extensive education in Spain. Judah al Harizi together with an unsigned letter by the Jewish community of Chalcis (1300), which mentions a certain Theban Jew named Sabetai Tob Galimidi who had sought refuge in Chalcis because of his debts, constitute the sole sources on the Jewish presence in Boeotia during the period of Frankish Rule (1204-1460). Even when Thebes, following the Battle of Halmyros (1311), became capital of the state of the Catalan Company, the information on the settlement of Jews in the region amount to precious few epigraphical testimonies. These are two fragmentary sepulchral stelae dating to 1330 and 1337/1338, respectively. A manuscript found in the Bodleian library at Oxford, however, relates the existence of an important manuscript copyist, Semaria al Ikriti (from Crete) in 1367, who was active in Thebes; at any rate, this suggests that, albeit on a diminished scale, the spiritual life of the Theban Jewish community remained alive.

2.4. Ottoman Period

In 1435 the Ottomans captured Thebes. In the years that followed the production and trade of silk declined sharply. Precious information on the presence of Jews in Boeotia during the Ottoman period can be drawn mainly from two sources: the rabbinic literature –responsa– and the texts of foreign travellers. The small, yet an important number of responsa that have been handed down reveal that the Jewish community of Thebes remained active up to the 17th century. At the same time, these provide valuable historical evidence on the organization and the religious life of the community. Finally, equally important are the references to the names of Theban Jews, which enrich our knowledge on the naming practices of the Jews of the city, their relations with other Jewish communities, like those of Chalcis and Naupactus, while for the first time one of the responsa mentions the Jewish community of Lebadea. According to M. Epstein, the increase in the population of the Jews of Boeotia during the last two decades of the 16th century should be attributed to the political and economical stability of this period, which helped restore the social structures of the Jewish community.

The accounts of the travellers are also interesting. In 1654, the French traveller Sieur Du Loir recounted his visit to Thebes, where he was astounded by the beauty of the city's Jewish women, who he describes as the fairest throughout the world. In the same period Evliya Çelebi visited Istifa (Thebes) and mentioned he found in the city six mahalle (quarters) for the Muslims, seventeen for the Rum (Greek-Orthodox) and one for the Jews. The French André Guillet in 1680 visited Athens and Thebes, and confirmed the presence of Jews in Thebes. In 1745, Richard Pococke related that the city of Lebadea was home to 50 Jewish families, while another 70 Jewish families lived in Thebes. Notwithstanding all these, political instability, especially in the 2nd half of the 18th century, resulted in a silence in the sources, Jewish or otherwise, on the presence of Jews in Boeotia up to the first years after the Greek War of Independence.

Following the capture of the Peloponnese by the Venetian Francesco Morosini (1685-1687) the Jews who lived at Nafplion, Patras and Mystras abandoned their homes and settled at Thebes. According to M. Schwab, the Jewish quarter of Thebes was located at the highest area of the Cadmeia in the city's southern section, close to the modern metropolitan church. The Jews of Thebes operated a Jewish cemetery, commonly known as 'Jewish tombs' (Evraiomnimata), on a small hill west of the city. During the Greek War of Independence, the Jews of Thebes suffered greatly because of the fighting, as did the rest of their fellow citizens. Following the end of the war, their properties had been completely ruined, while their quarter on Pindar Street had been almost completely laid to waste.

According to the Theban historian Georgios Tsevas, the Jewish community of Thebes largely disintegrated due to financial difficulties. The large number of Jewish traders in the city led the local authorities to assign Saturday as the day of the weekly trade fair, which dealt a severe blow to the local Jewish community, for Saturday (Shabbat) is the sacred day for the Jews, during which a large number of activities are prohibited. Therefore, following the decision of the local authorities the main commercial transactions could only occur on Saturday, which gradually brought great financial hardship for the city's Jews, who became isolated as traders. This new financial dispensation created difficulties for the Jews' survival and were one of the main reasons why, in 1833, the Jews of Thebes abandoned their homes and settled permanently to Chalcis, a move which effectively signalled the end of Jewish presence in Boeotia.