Etz Hayyim Synagogue
The Etz Hayyim Synagogue, ( Hebrew: בית הכנסת עץ חיים ) is located in the city of Chania on Crete and is the last remaining synagogue on the island. From the 16th century until the deportation of the Jews of Crete in 1944, the building was the church of a Jewish community. Subsequently, it was used for secular purposes and partially destroyed or damaged by decades of neglect. Between 1998 and 1999, Etz Hayyim, was renovated and used since 1999 as a synagogue. Since the Jewish community of Chania currently consists of less than the 10 required for a complete Jewish worship mature individuals (ie the minyan not met), such services are only occasionally performed during the tourist season, when visitors participate Foreign Jewish. Morning prayers find, however, held regularly, as are several weddings and a bar mitzvah celebration were here since then been organized. The rest of the time is the synagogue open to the public for inspection.
In addition to the main room of the synagogue, the building contains a small library, two courtyards ( in one of them there are some tombs ) and a mikveh, a ritual bath so.
The name " Etz Hayyim " means " tree of life".
History
The building was built in the 14th century during the Venetian period of Crete as a Catholic church. After the conquest of the city by the Ottomans in 1669 this gave it to the Jewish community of the city. To Etz Hayyim - around there was the Jewish quarter of the city.
On 29 May 1944, all 263 Jews of Chania was deported by the German occupiers of Crete in a prison, where they had to wait for their deportation to Auschwitz. A few days later invaded Wehrmacht soldiers in the orphaned synagogue, looted and destroyed religious objects and threw them out of the building. Shortly thereafter, they gave the building free to plunder and occupation. Chania residents then began aufzumeißeln walls and for suspected " gold treasure " of the community to seek out the synagogue as well as the now empty houses of deported Jews from non-Jewish inhabitants repossessed.
In 1957 there was an agreement between the Greek government and representatives of the Jewish community of Greece over the former Jewish property. Formerly Jewish buildings have been left to small payments to their current residents. But the building of the Etz Hayyim Synagogue, remained in the possession of the Jewish community (the building of the second synagogue of Chania, Beth Shalom, had been completely destroyed in 1944 and played no role in this agreement ). The previous inhabitants left the building, which was used vacancy from now on or in parts illegally from neighbors.
Only in 1994, according to an experiment conducted in New York seminar on endangered Jewish heritage came Etz Hayyim - back in the spotlight to a wider public. In 1995, Chania hit by an earthquake and a few hours later, cracks in the outer walls of the building were visible, put the World Monuments Fund, the synagogue on the list of 100 most endangered monuments of international cultural significance worldwide. 1998 began the renovation and was on 10 October 1999 with the registration of the Torah scroll in the ark inaugurated the Etz Hayyim Synagogue -.
On the night of 5 to 6 January 2010, from 15th to January 16th, 2010 in quick succession arson attacks were committed to the synagogue. The anti-Semitic background of the attack became clear after the first attack by the Leave a soap bar, alluding manifestly to a common anti-Semitic threat. The perpetrators, two Englishmen, two Americans and a Greek were arrested shortly afterwards. The damage soon remedied by using donations.
Memorial service of the Austrian association " memorial service " are first used from the vintage 2013/14 as an alternative to military service for assistance work on the synagogue.