#chios

Chios, Greece

Chios, North Aegean, Greece.

Traditional costume of Chios, Greece

According to Josephus, Yevanic-speaking Jews lived in Chios in ancient times, mostly as Roman slaves. After 1492, Sephardic exiles from Iberia ultimately became the Jewish majority group in Chios, mixing with the already prospered Romaniote, Italqi and Ashkenazi communities. Common occupations for Jews of the time were the making of silk garments, weaving, wine production, and olive and fig farming. They were also involved with the production of the islands' most valuable commodity, mastic. For many centuries, the Jewish life was thriving under the Ottoman Empire alongside, and in harmony with their Greek Christian and Turkish Muslim communities. Everything changed with the start of a chain of wars taking place in the region: the Greek War of Independence, the Ottoman Massacre of Chios, the First Balkan War, the Greco-Turkish War, and finally the Second World War, which effectively ended the long and rich Jewish history of the island.

Untitled, taken by John Perivolaris c. 2022 on the island of Chios.

Near Gria Castle, Between Pitios and Kardamyla, Northern Chios, Greece, 2025. 

Pyrgi, Chios, GREECE