THESSALONIKI OF THE JEWS

Το βιβλίο του Χρίστου Ζαφείρη, «Η Θεσσαλονίκη των Εβραίων», (Επίκεντρο, 2016) τώρα διαθέσιμο στην αγγλική του μετάφραση. Thessaloniki of the Jews is a comprehensive illustrated presentation of the historic and cultural heritage of the Jewry of Thessaloniki. It is an account of the major events in the history of the Jews in this city, Sephardic traditions, Jewish customs, their language and music, great figures, their contributions in the social and economic life of the city, their traditional clothes and food, synagogues, schools and houses. The narration starts from their first arrival in the city, presents their times of prosperity and ends with the Holocaust, which was also the end of their presence in multicultural Thessaloniki. This book is a historical and tourist guide that includes a great number of photos and maps, takes the reader to a tour in the Jewish Museum of the city and the places of the social, economic and cultural life of the Jews of Thessaloniki, as well as to places of martyrdom, and monuments. A constant tour guide which refuses to forget, accompanied by strong emotions, pays tribute to collective memory. Christos Zafiris is a journalist and the author of twelve books of historical research on Thessaloniki, Greeks abroad and historic Greek places. He was born in Krania, Elassona, in 1945 and he studied Archaeology and History in the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. He worked on the radio, the television and newspapers as an editor and a news director. He worked as a researcher and a script writer in documentaries on Thessaloniki and the Hellenic world. His book A Balkan peddler, about the Greek communities in the Balkans and the Central Europe, was made into a TV series in ERT (Greek public channel). He has also written the historical and tourist guide The vade mecum of Thessaloniki. His last book was Thessaloniki, the presence of the absent. The heritage left by the Romans, Muslims, Jews, Donmeh, Franks, Armenians and Slavs (2014).