The first thing to know about this museum is that if you ask for it by address (13 Agios Mina), you will invariably be directed to the small church of Agios Mina directly across from the museum. Because many more locals are familiar with the church than the museum, ask for the church and then look across the street for the sign for the Jewish Museum. The museum uses photographs and artifacts to portray Jewish life through the centuries in Thessaloniki. Thessaloniki Jews established the city's first printing press in the early 1500s and founded the city's first newspaper, El Lunar, in 1865. The museum is housed in the 19th-century building which once was home to L'Independent, one of Thessaloniki's many Jewish newspapers. The community thrived under the Ottoman Empire, and in 1900, 80,000 of Thessaloniki's 173,000 inhabitants were Jews. Just before World War II, 60,000 Jews lived here; fewer than 2,000 survived the death camps. Museum staff can give you directions if you wish to see the Holocaust Monument, unveiled in 1997 at the corner of Egnatia and Papanastiou streets. Today's Jewish community in Thessaloniki numbers about 1,000. When I last was here in May of 2009, a group of Jewish women from Argentina whose grandparents had left Thessaloniki just before the war were visiting. It was a moving experience for them, and for those also visiting when they recognized family members in some of the photographs on display.
If you're interested in learning more about the Jewish community in Greece, check the publications in the museum store; the locally published Jewish Community of Thessaloniki and Niko Stavroloulakis's books The Jews of Greece and Jewish Sites and Synagogues of Greece are excellent. The museum's website is also very thorough, especially the section under History on the Jews of Thessaloniki. Allow at least an hour for your visit to the museum.
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