The Ottoman Period The fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Turks in 1453 certainly saw the arrival of many emigre Jews and Christians to Crete. Not long after the conquest of the City a Cretan rabbi, Elias Kapsalis, who had been a witness to its fall, was appointed Haham Bashi or Chief Rabbi by Sultan Mehmet II. At Ieast in Herakleion, tensions between Christians and Jews raged at times into riots and violent attacks. In the same year as the fall of Constantinople, Herakleion's Jews were accused of showing contempt for Christians by crucifying Iambs and, in a separate incident, of blaspheming the Host. The former attack was certainly made by Orthodox Christians, while the latter reflects accusations common to Latins in the West. It is not surprising that the first lament to appear after the collapse of Constantinople was by a Cretan Jew, Elias Belleli.

Gradually, in the course of the late 15th and early 16th centuries, the Catholic and Orthodox Christian churches in Crete began not only to reach a modus vivendi with each other, but to create a hybrid Creto-Venetian culture. Some Jews took advantage of these broadened horizons to travel to Italy for schooling in places like Padua and Mantova. Contacts were maintained with other Jewish communities with strong Italian influences, including Corfu, Zakynthos and Livorgno, and a number of prominent secularly oriented intellectuals were active at this time, including members of the Del Medigo family. R. Elias Capsalis, a Candiote Jew who was present in Constantinole was subsequently appointed Hahambashi or Chief Rabbi of the Jews of the Ottoman Empire by Sultan Mehmet I. This office fell vacant on his death and was not re-vived until the early 19th cent.

At the same time, however, Jews found themselves facing a united Christian front against them. News reaching Crete of the relatively peaceful and prosperous life of Jews in the Ottoman Empire created sympathies which occasionally led to acts of treason.

In 1538, they were accused of hiding Turks in Herakleion and the community was saved from being massacred only at the very last moment by the intervention of Venetian troops. A special Purim was inaugurated to celebrate the miracle of that salvation.

The Ottoman conquest of Crete took the better part of the 17th century to accomplish. Hania and the western end of the island fell quickly to the well organized army of Yusuf Pasha, but it was not until 1669, after a twenty-year siege, that Herakleion fell and the Venetians departed never to return.

The lot of the Jews on Crete changed dramatically under the Ottomans. In the towns the ghettos were opened and Jews were allowed to settle in neighbouring quarters abandoned by the Venetians. Crete was also drawn into a quite different economic orbit and ports such as those of Hania, lerapetra, and Rethymnon were now in close contact with Izmir, Alexandria and Bengazi. Judaeo-Cretan family names reflect these contacts, such as Constantini (from Constantin in North Africa), Minervo (from Alexandria), Mizrahi ( Izmir) and other names that appear to belong to Ashkenazi Jews from Europe. Unfortunately, the Ottoman Empire had passed its zenith by this time, and Crete did not attract great numbers of Turks. From the time of the fall of western Crete to the Ottomans in 1634 there were numerous conversions for Islam by Cretans. Especially landowning remnants of Creto-Venetian families became Muslims through the active proselytising activities of the Bektashi Dervishes. Jews continued to have contacts with Venice and the Ionian Islands and many emigrated. In general, we know little if anything about individual communities during this time.

During the 19th century, there were a number of increasingly violent revolts on Crete against the Ottomans. Conditions for Jews deteriorated, leading to further emigration. It is estimated that in 1817 there were 150 families, divided between Herakleion and Hania. In 1858 there were 907 Jews on the island as a whole, and in 1881 only 647, most of them in Hania. Accusations of blood libel were common. In 1887, for example, the Sultan himself was called upon to intervene in an especially violent incidence of blood libel.

The grave of R. Hillel Eskenazi in the south courtyard of Etz Hayyim Synagogue, Hania.

That tensions had been fierce for some time between the Christians and Jews is dramatically evidenced in the south courtyard of the synagogue of Etz Hayyim by four graves of known rabbis. The earliest burial is that of the Tzaddik, Hasid and Kabbalist R. Hillel Eskenazi who died in 1710. Apparently it had been impossible to remove his body from the Jewish Quarter of Hania due to a Christian mob that prevented the funeral cortege from passing out of the city walls to reach the Jewish cemetery in Nea Hora and in the end it was decided to bury him in the precincts of the synagogue.

Other rabbinical graves in the south courtyard of Etz Hayyim.

Later, between 1821 and 1845, three other rabbis (R. Joseph ben Shalom, his brother Baruh ben Shalom and Abraham Habib of Gallipoli) were buried nearby. Undoubtedly interment there had been dictated again through violence and the dates of their deaths took place during a period when anti-Jewish feeling ran high in both Crete as well as the Mainland of Greece.

Learn more:   The Tombs of Etz Hayyim