Ioannina

Yannina

Capital of Romaniote (Greek-speaking) Jewry with Byzantine-era roots and a Yevanic liturgy; the 25 March 1944 deportation nearly annihilated it, and New York's Kehila Kedosha Janina carries its memory.

Modern locality anchor

Ioannina

Greece · City · 39.7°N 20.9°E

This anchor orients the sourced locality record. It is not a reconstructed historical position or border; the single map below provides geographic context.

View location

Where is Ioannina?

Land geometry: Natural Earth 1:50m via world-atlas. Pins mark modern localities or representative regional anchors stored on Atlas place records, not historical borders and not reconstructed positions. · Sources & methods

THE COMMUNITY TIMELINE · EVERY NODE DATED

What happened to the Jewish community of Ioannina?

800–1940

Romaniote community (Byzantine-era roots)

This section addresses destruction and loss. It is one chapter, not the whole story — continue to what survives and what was created after

1944–1944

25 March 1944: ~1,850+ deported; ~110-160 survived

1945–present

Tiny remnant; diaspora carries tradition

Today

~50 people; the NYC diaspora (Kehila Kedosha Janina) preserves Romaniote memory.

LANGUAGES & COMMUNITY

What did Ioannina sound like?

Judeo-Greek (Yevanic)Hebrew (עברית, Ivrit)Ladino / Judeo-Spanish (Judezmo; Haketía)

Judeo-Greek (Yevanic) is a language with its own grammar, literature, and history — not “broken” anything, and not a dialect of Hebrew.

AFTER · IN FULL COLOR

What survives today?

In Ioannina

~50 people; the NYC diaspora (Kehila Kedosha Janina) preserves Romaniote memory.

Old Synagogue inside the Castle
synagogue · public landmark
Jewish cemetery memorial
cemetery · historic site

KEEP GOING

Related places & stories

Guided story · 8 stopsThe languages Jews spoke before modern HebrewOne people, a dozen mother tongues. What did Jews speak before modern Hebrew? Follow the words.Begin the route

Guided story · 7 stopsThe vanished Jewish cities of Eastern Europe — and what remainsOn the eve of WWII, one in three Warsaw residents was Jewish. What happened — and what is still standing?Begin the route

SOURCES & REVIEW

Encyclopaedia Judaica, 2nd ed. (place entry)
Macmillan Reference USA · 2007
Holocaust Encyclopedia
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum · open source
Greece - Virtual Jewish History Tour
Jewish Virtual Library · open source

Reviewed 2026-07-30

Reading about Judeo-Greek (Yevanic) and Hebrew (עברית, Ivrit)? Baba can help you understand the languages in context →