The Synagogues of Greece by Elias Messinas

Patras Based on unpublished archival material in the archive of the Central Board of Jewish Communities (KIS) the site of the synagogue in Patras was 300 square meters. It was located on the third block of the lower city of Patras, on 34 (former 36) Pandanassis street. In 1977 the building was donated to the Jewish community of Athens (contract 68.721/17.8.1977 by John M. Rotis, notary, Athens), under the condition that if "a new building was built, then part of it should take the form of a Museum and a synagogue.â&#x20AC;? On October 25, 1970, after the community of Patras was declared "inactive" (KIS document 80085/19.1.70), the property of the community was placed at the care of a special Administrative Committee, headed by Joseph Moissis. Apart from the synagogue and the Jewish cemetery, the remaining property of the Jewish Community of Patras included included five (5) Seferei Torah, prayer books, two (2) pairs of rimonim, one (1) silver pointer, seven (7) shadayiot, one bookcase, desks, a clock, two (2) Greek flags and (1) Israeli flag, talithot, and oil-lamps (KIS document of 25.10.70). According to available data, the synagogue in Patras was demolished and a new apartment building was built in its place. A synagogue and a museum were never built in Patras, though. It is worth mentioning that it is thanks to the efforts of N. Stavroulakis, former director of the Jewish Museum of Greece, the furniture of the synagogue, including the wooden ornamented bimah, and the heikhal were saved, and can be seen today on display at the Jewish Museum of Greece.

Schematic plan reconstruction of the main floor (prayer hall) of the synagogue in Patras. The main prayer hall was located on the second floor of the synagogue building, following the Italian tradition. The reconstruction of the synagogue to its pre-Second World War condition and prior to its demolition in the 1980s, is based on photographs of the synagogue interior at the Jewish Museum of Greece, taken by Timothy deVinney in 1978, prior to the demolition of the synagogue, and the survey by architect Elias Messinas of the furnishings of the synagoguepreserved at the Jewish Museum of Greece in 1996. (Elias V. Messinas Architect)

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The Synagogues of Greece by Elias Messinas

Published on Aug 17, 2017

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THE SYNAGOGUES OF GREECE: A STUDY OF SYNAGOGUES IN MACEDONIA AND THRACE is the result of nearly two decades of research and in-situ work by the author. The manuscript was based on the author’s Ph.D. dissertation at the National Technical University of Athens, Greece and a post-doctoral Ally Kaufmann Fellowship research at the Technion Institute of Technology, Israel. Based on unpublished archival sources, and detailed architectural surveys and drawings, this book traces the history of the synagogues, the Jewish quarters and Jewish communities in Greece, from antiquity, through Byzantine and Ottoman times, contemporary history and the Holocaust, when 87% of Greek Jewry was annihilated. The author Elias Messinas is an architect, graduate of the Yale School of Architecture based in Israel and Greece.