Jewish Museum of Thessaloniki

The Jewish Museum of Thessaloniki occupies a historic building at Agiou Mina 13 on a pedestrian street near Aristotelous Square, in Central Macedonia, Greece. It documents the history of the city's Jewish community, which settled here in large numbers after the Sephardic Jews were expelled from Spain in 1492, and which made Thessaloniki, for centuries, one of the largest Jewish centres in Europe, sometimes called the Jerusalem of the Balkans. The exhibitions follow the community from its Sephardic origins through daily and religious life, trade, education, and the press, and into the twentieth century. A central part of the museum covers the Second World War, when the community was almost entirely destroyed: in 1943 about fifty thousand Jews from Thessaloniki were deported, most of them to Auschwitz-Birkenau. Displays include photographs, documents, textiles, religious objects, and fragments of gravestones from the old Jewish cemetery, which was destroyed in 1942 and is now the site of the city's university. Visitors move through the rooms at their own pace, and labels are in Greek and English. A visit usually takes one to one and a half hours, and the content can be emotionally heavy, so some visitors prefer to allow quiet time afterwards. Weekday daytime is typically calm. The museum is a short walk from Venizelou Metro station and fits well into a walk that includes the Modiano Market, Ladadika, and Aristotelous Square, all of which are tied to the city's Jewish past. Opening hours and admission are not listed here, so visitors should check the museum's official website before going.