The city of Chania, in northwestern Crete, was home to a small but venerable Jewish community prior to World War II. In 1944, its Jews were put on a boat with their ultimate destination being Auschwitz. A British submarine torpedoed the boat, killing them all. In 1999, Chania’s Etz Hayyim synagogue was rededicated under the auspices of Nicholas Stavroulakis, who has dedicated much of his life to preserving the remnants of Greek Jewry. As Liam Hoare writes, however, the synagogue still lacks a congregation:
Jewish life in Crete . . . predated the destruction of the Second Temple, the creation of the European Diaspora, and the birth of rabbinic and talmudic Judaism. Cretan Judaism and Greek Judaism more broadly developed its own Hellenistic character not only separate from the land of Israel but also from what would become Ashkenaz and Sepharad. . . . In Chania, for example, on Yom Kippur the book of Job was read in the synagogue not in Hebrew but in Greek—a tradition that Stavroulakis has resurrected. . . .
[S]ome of the people who use Etz Hayyim are not Jewish. For example, there are Christian residents of Chania who come from time to time on Shabbat or the high holidays. . . . Of those who use Etz Hayyim that are Jewish, [says Stavroulakis,] “Some of them are Jews who are of ambiguous backgrounds. They’re not Cretan Jews—they are from Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco, [or are] of mixed North African background; they come to synagogue and are firm supporters. There are [also] Ashkenazim who don’t admit their Judaism anywhere and are able to come to terms with it through the synagogue.”
Read more on eJewish Philanthropy: http://ejewishphilanthropy.com/cretes-etz-hayyim-a-synagogue-open-to-everyone/