A Year of Remembrance: The 80th Anniversary of the Sinking of the Tanais
2024 marked the Tanais Memorial Year, commemorating 80 years since the tragic sinking of the Tanais ship. This profound event signified the end of over two millennia of Jewish life in Hania and Crete. It is a history we honor and vow to never forget. We commemorated the loss of the Cretan Jewish community over eight decades ago with a series of events.
For International Holocaust Memorial Day in 2024, the synagogue organized a walk around the periphery of the former Jewish cemetery of Hania, located in the neighborhood of Nea Chora. This solemn event allowed participants to reflect on the rich history and tragic losses of our community, connecting us to the past in a deeply personal way.
On Sunday, June 16, 2024, we marked the 80th anniversary of the tragic sinking of the Tanais with the main memorial event. This solemn occasion honored the memory of the members of the Cretan resistance, Italian prisoners of war, and the entire Jewish community of Crete who perished. The event began with memorial prayers at the Tanais Memorial in Koum Kapi, followed by a commemorative program at the Centre for Mediterranean Architecture. Attendees were moved by Shaya Feldman’s musical performance, which included the premiere of his original composition, “Kaddish – Song of the Tree of Life”, created especially for this anniversary.
The memorial event was attended by descendants of the El-Hai family as well as public officials such as Victor Eliezer, the Secretary General of the Central Board of Jewish Communities in Greece and the Vice Mayor Hania for Cultural Affairs, Giannis Giannakakis.
On June 16, 2024, Etz Hayyim Synagogue opened the exhibition “Faces from Our Past: 80 Years Since the Sinking of Tanais” at the Centre for Mediterranean Architecture.
The exhibition showcased rare photographs of Hania’s Jewish community and Cretan prisoners from Keramia, accompanied by archival videos directed by Viki Arvelaki, which illustrated the impact of this historic tragedy. These materials were drawn from esteemed collections such as the Jewish Museum of Greece and other important archives. This project was made possible with the generous support of the Municipality of Chania.
From August 1–15, 2024, Etz Hayyim hosted “Tanais – History as Reckoning with Trauma,” a contemporary art exhibition commemorating the victims of the Tanais ship tragedy on June 9, 1944. Held at the former St. Francis Monastery, the event welcomed over 20,000 visitors who engaged with powerful artworks and a short documentary exploring the tragic history.
On Saturday and Sunday, August 17–18, 2024, the synagogue hosted the concert Let Them Sound as part of the memorial events for the Tanais sinking in 1944. The program featured mezzo-soprano Reut Ventorero and pianist Hagai Yodan, with artistic direction and original compositions by Yael Levy and Nikos Kokolakis.
The concert included a diverse repertoire, such as Three Songs by Paul Ben Haim, Song of Songs by Mikis Theodorakis, and newly composed works like Stone to Stone by Yael Levy and A Song for Marco by Nikos Kokolakis. These pieces reflected on themes of memory and heritage, connecting them to the tragic history of the Tanais and its victims.
In October 2024, we premiered the theatrical performance “The Shadows next to the Parasol” with a Greek-German cast and production team and a local youth choir, which juxtaposed the fate of the lost community and the lost memory of their historic presence. The project also produced theater-pedagogical material about the history of the Cretan Jewish community.
