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Etz Chaim Synagogue (Athens)

19th-century synagoguesRomaniote synagoguesSephardi Jewish culture in GreeceSephardi synagoguesSynagogues completed in 1904
Synagogues in Athens
Etz Hayyim Synagogue (Athens) 03
Etz Hayyim Synagogue (Athens) 03

The Etz Haim Synagogue is located in the Thiseio area of Athens, at Melidoni Street 8, across from its largest and youngest Sephardic synagogue, Beth Shalom. It was built in 1904 by Greek Romaniote Jews who came from Ioannina, and for this reason it is also called the "Romanian" or "Yannonian" synagogue by the oldest members of the community. The first Jewish Community of Athens in the modern era was formally established in 1889 and before the first congregation was built, informal galleys were operating, such as the house of the Yusurum family at the junction of Ermou and Karaiskakis streets, while another is testified that it was operating on Ivy Street. The synagogue suffered serious damage from the 1999 earthquake, mainly on the roof, which was radically renovated in 2006 and officially opened on 30 June 2007 by the Jewish Community of Athens. However, due to renovation, architectural interventions took place inside it and this created objections. The Etz Chaim Synagogue only works during the great religious celebrations of the Jewish Community, and on the regular basis for all religious ceremonies is the central synagogue of Athens, Synagogue Beth Shalom. Both synagogues are managed by Rabbi Gabriel Negrin, who was elected by the council of Athens’ Jewish community following the death of the longtime leader Jacob Arar in 2014.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Etz Chaim Synagogue (Athens) (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Etz Chaim Synagogue (Athens)
Πειραιώς, Athens Lower Petralona Suburb (3rd District of Athens)

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N 37.978333333333 ° E 23.719444444444 °
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Αρχαιολογικός Χώρος Κεραμεικού (Κεραμεικός)

Πειραιώς
104 35 Athens, Lower Petralona Suburb (3rd District of Athens)
Attica, Greece
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Etz Hayyim Synagogue (Athens) 03
Etz Hayyim Synagogue (Athens) 03
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Temple of Aphrodite Urania
Temple of Aphrodite Urania

The Temple of Aphrodite Urania (Greek: Βωμός Αφροδίτης Ουρανίας, romanized: Vomós Afrodítis Ouranías) is a temple located north-west of the Ancient Agora of Athens, dedicated to the Greek goddess Aphrodite under her epithet Urania.The temple was built around the early 5th century BC. According to Pausanias, the sanctuary had a marble statue of the deity sculpted by the ancient Greek sculptor Phidias: Above the Kerameikos [in Athens] is a sanctuary of the Aphrodite Ourania (Heavenly); the first men to establish her cult were the Assyrians, after the Assyrians the Paphians of Kypros and the Phoinikians who live at Askalon in Palestine; the Phoinikians taught her worship to the people of Kythera. Among the Athenians the cult was established by Aegeus, who thought that he was childless (he had, in fact, no children at the time) and that his sisters had suffered their misfortune because of the wrath of Aphrodite Ourania (Heavenly). The statue still extant is of Parian marble and is the work of Pheidias. One of the Athenian parishes is that of the Athmoneis, who say that Porphyrion, an earlier king than Aktaios, founded their sanctuary of Ourania. But the traditions current among the Parishes often differ altogether from those of the city. If still in use by the 4th century, the temple would have been closed during the persecution of pagans in the late Roman Empire. There are a few saved stones on the slope of the hill beside the train tracks and near the temple of her husband Hephaestus.