Journey through Jewish Greece

Jewish history of Greece: Springtime in Salonica & beyond

April 24, 2022 – May 5, 2022

Join Real Greece founders, Carole Heiman-Kezios and Basil Kezios, on a voyage through time, history and culture woven together with words, stories, and sites that touch the heart and excite the imagination.

Athens

In Athens, the birthplace of democracy, we’ll visit the Acropolis and the ancient Synagogue in the Agora. We’ll visit the modern day Synagogues, the Jewish museum and the Holocaust memorial.

Highlights

Visit the capital city of Athens
The Acropolis & Parthenon
Learn the history of Greece’s Jewish communities
Visit the synagogues of Athens
Tour the Jewish Museum of Greece
Enjoy a daytrip to a nearby island to visit the recently discovered 4th century synagogue mosaic

Salonica

Museums, synagogues, mansions and above all, the warm Jewish community who will welcome us to Shabbat services and dinner, storytelling and song. We could spend years exploring Madre de Israel which until the 1940s was the largest Jewish community of Greece as well as the biggest Sephardic community in Europe.

Highlights

Jewish Museum & city tour
Kabbalat Shabbat service followed by dinner with the Jewish community
Tour the Jewish quarter & markets, the White Tower & the waterfront
Learn the history of what was the largest Sephardic community in Europe

Central Greece

Pella, the center of the world during Alexander’s time, the royal tombs at Vergina, and Veroia’s Jewish quarter and synagogue will fill the day that ends in the picturesque lakeside city of Ioannina. Monasteries clinging to the rocks of Meteora, charming Arahova, the “”winter Mykonos”” are some of the places we will see before visiting Delphi. Unfortunately we won’t be able to get the Oracle to give us his prediction about the future of the world, but we will see where Zeus decided the center, the “navel”, of the world was.

The Ancient Jewish communities

We’ll journey through central Greece, a breathtaking site in the spring as the wildflowers welcome us and Greece’s countryside is at its greenest. We’ll learn and visit in some of the oldest Jewish synagogues in Ioannina & Veroia, and a unique cemetery in Chalkis, we’ll learn about Greece’s ancient Jewish community: the Romaniote community.

We’ll enjoy our farewell lunch overlooking the seaside by the magnificent cliffs of Sounion and the Temple of Apollo before we return to our Athens hotel and prepare to leave from Greece the next day.

Highlights

The Jewish quarter & restored synagogue of Veroia
Breathtaking Meteora
Charming Arahova
Magnificent Delphi
Picturesque Ioannina, the Romaniote synagogue, boat ride & lunch on the lake

THE DETAILS

Escorted tour of Greece includes:

10 nights accommodations, 4 or 5 star hotels, all hotel taxes included
Private English speaking Jewish guide for the duration of the journey
Private English speaking local licensed guides for sites included in the itinerary
All site and museum entrance fees as per itinerary
Boat tickets for excursions as per itinerary
Wine tasting per itinerary
Meals: 10 breakfasts, 4 lunches, 4 dinners
All ground transportation in deluxe, air-conditioned mini-bus with WiFi hot spot
Arrival and departure group transfers (private transfers available for additional fee)

Exclusions: