Thessaloniki, Greece - the greatest Jewish epic?

The Jerusalem Post Podcast - Travel Edition, Episode 93

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF OCTOBER 28, 2024 22:56 Updated: OCTOBER 29, 2024 12:55

This memorial in the center of Aristotle University marks the site of the former Jewish cemetery. With 350,000 graves, it was the largest in Europe until its destruction by the Nazis. (photo credit: @MarkDavidPod )

Jewish community member and guide Hella Kounio-Matalon takes podcast hosts Mark and David on a whistlestop tour of more than 2,000 years of history, in a city where Jews were the majority for five centuries.

This time:

• Alexander the Great's Jewish entourage
• They came in their thousands from Spain, Portugal and Italy
• Inside today's community
• A musical trip into the surviving pre-Holocaust synagogue 
• When to travel, getting there, lodgings and food
• Tracing the past: the excellent Jewish museum
• Europe's largest cemetery is no more
• Of Thessaloniki mansions
• There's got to be a Chabad restaurant

Jewish-community expert Hella Kounio-Matalon shares a photo of her father, who survived Auschwitz, during a tour of the Jewish Museum of Thessaloniki (Credit: @MarkDavidPod)

Mark and David host The Jerusalem Post Podcast – Travel Edition. They were the guests of the Thessaloniki Tourism Organization and the GreekNational Tourism Organisation.