By Anna Delargy

It was an amazing experience - awesome in the real sense of the word, not its recent distortion: the visit of 85 Jews from the mainland of Greece to the Etz Hayyim Synagogue in Crete, the only Jewish building on the island and the only monument to a Jewish presence here of more than 2,400 years.*

I have been involved with Etz-Hayyim Synagogue for about nine months as a volunteer and part of the Havurah, the brotherhood of Jews and non-Jews (like myself) who support the Synagogue and take part in services here. Often during Kabbalat Shabbat, the Friday evening service that all volunteers attend, I have felt part of a much larger spiritual community, with the same words being said by millions of people at the same time all over the world.

But this was the first time I had felt part of that community in the flesh. They were Greeks and they were Jews - a devastating combination! Full of life and fun, never still, welcoming, warm, open, curious and friendly to 'strangers' like me ; eating, drinking, singing, telling outrageous jokes and sad stories (sometimes in the same breath!), and talking, always talking.. My Greek is pretty basic, but they managed to communicate all kinds of things to me anyway.

They reminded me of the trips my mother went on with the Catholic Women's Confraternity when I was a child; everyone had had their hair done, all the women wearing their best earrings. But whereas the Catholic church services were quiet and quite sombre, enlivened by occasional hymns, these were noisy, full of song and movement. People were talking to one another, waving to friends, greeting and kissing, sometimes going outside for a breath of air/smoke/gossip. This made the solemn moments, such as the silent prayer, Amidah, much more profound.

For the first time in the Synagogue I was among a fully engaged, participating community. We have about 300 visitors a week here in the tourist season, and, although we are always very clear that Etz Hayyim is NOT a museum, they still tend to look round as if it were. Our little community here comprises a handful of Jews (there are only seven Jews in Hania) and about the same number of non-Jews, most of whom struggle to participate in the services.

For the Festivals and High Holidays we often have a large congregation, for instance 73 people came to the Pesach seder this year; and we have had weddings and Bar Mitzvahs here, but these are usually temporary communities, from all over the world, with all kinds of different traditions, who are here (by accident or design) but are mostly passing through. Many of them stay in touch with us through email, phone etc; but it was new to me to be with a Jewish community that was much more like a family: people who'd known one another, and one another's families, all their lives.

They had some terrible stories about the past, of course - 94% of Greek Jews were annihilated in WWII, and some of our guests had been through the camps or had seen their entire families wiped out - and some very sad stories about present-day religious homogeneous policy in Greece - for instance, that Jewish schools are banned by the Minister of Education, who is also the Minister for Religion, from accepting Jewish children who have been baptised as a result of mixed marriages.

But my overwhelming experience of them was of warmth, cheerfulness, strength, and energy. And for the first time I really felt ' the joy of Torah' when the scrolls were read.

Their Hazzan, Haim Ishakis, who organised the trip, was fantastic; indefatigable energy, always doing four things at once, putting his whole body into praying, looking after people, making sure no-one lost their place in the (very long) services, waving people to empty seats, bringing water for readers.

At the end of Shabbat, after we had heard about the history of the Cretan Jews, the Director of Etz Hayyim, Dr Nikos Stavroulakis, who rebuilt this Synagogue from ruins seven years ago, spoke passionately about the need for the community to acknowledge the past but to move on - to make Judaism live.

Quoting the Prophet Isaiah, he said 'The people of God should be a light to the nations', and, echoing Isaiah, Jesus of Nazareth said the light of world should not be hidden. 'We cannot be a light to the world, Dr Stavroulakis said, 'if we hide ourselves away, lock up our Synagogues, dwell in the past'. Every day in Etz Hayyim Nikos prays Shahrit (morning prayers) with Konstantino, a member of the EH Havurah and a Christian. ' We are alive', Nikos said, 'and this Synagogue is here because we are alive, not because the Cretan Jews died.'

Some visitors left with cuttings from the trees in our Biblical garden, so that the Tree of Life that is Etz Hayyim will in future be growing in Jewish gardens throughout Greece.

For me, it was the first time I had fully experienced this deeply human religion at work. It is noisy, argumentative, emotional, funny. Full of fire and sweetness, and most of all, joy.

*Etz Hayyim reopened as a fully operational synagogue seven years ago.

We welcome enquiries about holding weddings, Bar/Bat Mitzvahs etc at the Synagogue. Please contact the Director, Nikos Stavroulakis, on info@etz-hayyim-hania.org

Each day, if not each week, has special challenges for us at Etz Hayyim. During the Spring and Summer months there is a constant flow of visitors - mostly Jewish but many who are not. The Synagogue is open to all from 9:00 AM until 8:00 PM and the volunteer members of the Havurah devote many hours to answering questions and at times even lecturing to groups.

Each week is dominated by the value that we place on Shabbat and everyone is welcome to our Kabbalat Shabbat Service after which we assemble in the courtyard of the Synagogue and after Kiddush we all share in a vegetarian meal that has been prepared by the members of the Havurah. There are huevos and other traditional dishes but we prepare special bread that is freshly baked on Friday afternoons.

Each week the Sabbath bread takes a slightly different form - at times the recipes are from Algeria or Morocco where it is the custom to bake flat breads - somewhat like the Greek laganas - and many of these incorporate cumin, coriander or anise seeds. At other times our recipes are from the Yemen, eastern Turkey and Syria...and we take pains to insure that a traditional Sephardi atmosphere is kept.

The High Holidays present special challenges for us as on the one hand we have an increase of visitors and persons who wish to be with us for the Holidays. Many find us on the web as our site gets over 1000 hits a day and is well known now. (www.etz-hayyim-hania.org). Others have been with us before and many are members of our havurah who live in Israel, the USA or UK and elsewhere in France and Italy.

What is especially challenging is the matter of the service. Last year we were fortunate in having Rabbi Nicholas de Lange from the University of Cambridge who lead prayers for both Rosh HaShannah and Yom Kippour. This year we were blessed with the presence of Haim Ischakis and his wife Eva. Haim lead the entire service beginning on Erev Rosh HaShannah and again on the day of the festival when the service began at 9:00 AM and at 2:00 the shofar was being blown in the street in front of the synagogue.

I am sure that ours is the only town in Greece where the shofar is still blown publically for all to hear - Jew and Christian alike. Unfortunately for Yom Kippour we had no hazzan though a friend of the director who had called during the weeks before Kippour from Israel on hearing of our problem immediately made arrangements to be in Hania for Kippour.

Joseph Camhi arrived on Erev Kippour and after a good meal - we began the Fast by recitation of the Kol Nidre and said the opening service along with about 50 people. On the morning of Kippour we began the service at 9:00 AM though the Torah was not read from a scroll. We opened the Ehal for the appropriate parts and the text was read from a Chumash.

There were not many people during the day and at 2:00 we all rested for some time and re-assembled at 4:00 when many of us met to read the Book of Jonah aloud in Greek. This was a tradition in Crete from antiquity that lasted until well into the 17th cent.. and that we have revived. The text that we used is a copy of a 15th cent. mahzor that is now in the University of Oxford and is a free Greek translation but written in Hebrew characters. (note - there is a 16th cent. siddur and mahzor in Oxford that is also mostly in Greek-Hebrew that we hope eventually to edit and publish for our use in the Synagogue).

For Neilah over 50 people assembled in the Synagogue and after the last blowing of the shofar we all broke the fast in the courtyard with pepitada, soumada, dates and fruit. The construction of the Sukkah began the day after Yom Kippour and our service was well enough attended by the members of the Havurah and many locals who were invited to eat with us in the Sukkah where a full meal had been prepared - I wish to thank all of the Jewish Communities in Greece and individual persons who sent us their good wishes and blessings for this time of the year...and special thanks to KIS and the rabbis in Athens who managed to get our lulav and etrog to Hania in time for the Sukkoth.

The following is a synopsis of a speech held by David Burrell. Anyone who is interested in the full text, please contact the synagogue.

David Burrell, C.S.C.

University of Notre Dame (USA) / Tantur Ecumenical Institute (Jerusalem)

Etz Hayyim Synagogue—Hania (Crete)—25 April 2005

1. Thesis: “secular” organization of society has failed to implement its own “human rights” agenda, while dominant religious cultures have failed (singly) to restrain irredentist tendencies.

So each Abrahamic tradition needs the “other” to fulfill its own constructive role in society; indeed, mutual presence begets mutual illumination, notably in practice.

2. Where we come together: avowal of free creator + recognizing we cannot comprehend how .

3. Relation (reason / revelation): triadic structure to each Abrahamic faith:

Revealer-creator / Revealing Word / Interpreting-contending Community

4. Practical implementation:

--need for rituals

--need for repentance [ teshuvah ]

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Jonathan Sacks: Dignity of Difference (London/New York: Continuum, 2002)

Nicholas Lash: Believing Three Ways in One God (Notre Dame IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 1993)

Abdulaziz Sachedina: Islamic Roots of Democratic Pluralism (Oxford/New York: Oxford University Press, 2001).

We had our second Bar Mitzvah on the 13th November 2004. Daniel Avram of Boston MA. was here in the company of his parents Sam and Dorothy - and siblings, to perform this important rite of passage. Rabbi Isaak Mizan called Daniel to the Law and was assisted by Leon Gavrielides who acted as Gabay and Hazzan. We wish Daniel all the best in his future life.

You can see pictures of the event in our gallery

PASSOVER - 2005 – Hania

This year, 2005, Etz Hayyim produced its own Haggadah in English and Greek with original illustrations by Nicholas Stavroulakis, Parnas of the Synagogue. This is the first Haggadah to be produced in Crete for over 400 years. The introduction to the Haggadah, written by Nikos Stavroulakis, follows. Next year we intend to produce an other version of the Haggadah. Please contact the Synagogue Director for more details.

Tonight we are gathered together – Jews and non-Jews, children of Adam, of Abraham- following the injunction in the Torah and traditions, that we share this night with our fellow man, that we relate together a tale of escape from slavery and to ponder on what freedom means.

It is too easy, after perhaps some 3000 years of reciting the account of this event, to take it as a ‘tale', or even literally as a moment when God chose to manifest Himself in a quite bizarre manner; to take a rabble of people in slavery who apparently had neither cultural or even religious unity and then to transform them under Law into a people, a nation; a nation that was destined to be the common root of Judaism as we know it, Christianity and Islam. Though recited and eulogised annually in Jewish homes with some joy, this is not really the gist of what is re-told in the telling. In fact, it may well be that the tale has been told so many times and framed as it is in traditional symbols and acceptable, comfortable language, that we miss what it is about.

One of the most remarkable things about the Scriptures is their inclusiveness. Most ‘sacred literature' is very careful about being ‘sacred' and by examples perhaps instill in us lessons through paradigms of virtue or truths.

The Bible is not essentially a very edifying book. It begins with rebellion, fratricide, God's punishment for some primitive form of ‘globalisation' (the Tower of Babel), tricks and scheming by figures like Abraham, Lot and Lot's daughters. Even Moses, the leader of the Israelites as they leave Egypt, begins his career with a murder. Everything is out in the open – good and evil intertwined in a complex tale that is meant to reflect God's intervention into time and relativity. Language and culture all played a role in how this event was not lonely lived but also transmitted to us in the form of re-telling and ritual. To take it literally is to miss its meaning. This is not history.

Tonight we are going to ritually re-tell a quite frightening event that befell a mass of slaves of a Pharaoh who was not responsible for the slavery at all. After all, the slaves in question had been in Egypt for quite a number of generations…even more important is the fact that they perhaps found it to their liking.

The theme of our Hagadah or ‘re-telling' is slavery and searching and insecurity and fear. It involves stealth, trickery, darkness, blood, curses and theft. What is left out of it is any sense of wonderment as to what transpired after Pharaoh's army was destroyed in the Red Sea save that over the darkness of the tale are some musings of the Rabbis that at that moment God was seen by His angels to weep at the destruction of the Egyptians.

The great question that might rise in our minds tonight is ‘What is slavery? What are some of the many subtle forms it assumes? There is the enslavement to one's own selfish needs, emotional enslavement of others whom we claim to love, professional enslavement, political enslavement. How do we justify it, how do we wallow in it at times, how do we justify ourselves in inflicting it on ourselves and others? We normally contrast ‘slavery' with ‘freedom' so we can justifiably ask ourselves what freedom is and to what extent we can sacrifice the one for the other. In order to achieve freedom am I permitted to enslave others? Is it freedom we seek or licence? The assertion of ‘freedom' can even be used to inflict or project on others the suffering that we ourselves have endured. It is in most cases it is framed in the silence of God.

We Jews supposedly tell this story in order to remember. As a religious text it is also meant to teach us something from our experience of suffering and slavery in the past. We are enjoined to share this with you who are not Jews. We are also warned very clearly ‘ You shall not oppress a stranger, for you know the feelings of the stranger, having yourselves been strangers in the land of Egypt .' (Ex. 23:9).