Abstract: In the wake of the Holocaust and the post-war reconstruction of Greece’s historic city centers, many Greek synagogues were demolished, abandoned, or appropriated, erasing centuries of Jewish architectural and communal presence. This study presents a thirty year-long research and documentation initiative aimed at preserving, recovering, and eventually digitally reconstructing these “lost” synagogues, both as individual buildings and within their urban context. Drawing on architectural surveys, archival research, oral histories, and previously unpublished materials, including the recently rediscovered Shemtov Samuel archive, the project grew through the use of technology. Beginning with in situ surveys in the early 1990s, it evolved into full-scale digitally enhanced architectural drawings that formed the basis for further digital exploration, 3D models, and virtual reality outputs. With the addition of these new tools to existing documentation, the project can restore architectural detail and cultural context with a high degree of fidelity, even in cases where only fragmentary evidence survives. These digital reconstructions have informed physical restoration efforts as well as public exhibitions, heritage education, and urban memory initiatives across Greece. By reintroducing “invisible” Jewish landmarks into contemporary consciousness, the study addresses the broader implications of post-war urban homogenization, the marginalization of minority heritage, and the ethical dimensions of digital preservation. This interdisciplinary approach, which bridges architectural history, digital humanities, urban studies, and cultural heritage, demonstrates the value of digital tools in reconstructing “lost” pasts and highlights the potential for similar projects in other regions facing comparable erasures.
Abstract: After the Holocaust, in which 87 per cent of Greek Jewry was annihilated, communities confronted the challenge
of survival with limited resources. In many cases, synagogues and communal properties were sold and demolished
to support the surviving Jewish populations or to establish new institutions, such as the Jewish Museum of Greece.
This process illustrates a critical social dilemma: whether the continuity of community should be ensured through
the maintenance of living institutions or through the preservation of monuments as bearers of collective memory.
But what occurs when members of the community object to leadership decisions or challenge institutional
authority? This article examines the interplay between antisemitism and internal mechanisms of exclusion within
the Jewish communities in Greece, and how these dynamics shape both communal identity and the urban
landscape. Drawing on archival research and documentation of synagogues initiated by the author in 1993, it
highlights the tension between assimilation and self-preservation expressed both socially and spatially. Traditional
Jewish neighbourhoods, with their defensive layouts and gates, embodied a morphology of protection that
reinforced boundaries while becoming landmarks within historic city centres in cities such as Veroia, Komotini,
Kos, and Serres. The discussion situates the destruction and preservation of synagogues within broader patterns of
urban renewal, reconstruction, and transformation, where redevelopment often erases valuable cultural heritage,
and considers how such processes engage the voices that object to this erasure. Framed through the thought of
Ricœur, Arendt, and Levinas, the argument also emphasizes the moral responsibility of the researcher, alongside
that of community members, to act as a guardian of memory, recognising that the loss of monuments constitutes
both an urban and existential rupture, with implications for present and future generations.
