KAL SHALOM SYNAGOGUE

The Kos synagogue has finally been renovated: closed for almost 40 years, it was consecrated and inaugurated in July 2023. It will soon be reopened to the public to tell the story of the Jewish community of Kos, almost entirely murdered by the Nazis after their deportation on July 22, 1944. The story of this synagogue begins in 1747, when a member of the local Sephardic community decided to build a first temple. The establishment of the Jewish community in Kos dates back to the Second Temple period, but it was expelled by the Knights in 1502, before being able to return thanks to the more tolerant laws of the Ottoman Empire. The community fluctuated in size over the course of the ^19th century, and was mainly involved in commercial activities, particularly wine. It was integrated into the wider Kos community, speaking Greek and Turkish, as well as Ladino, a Judeo-Spanish language. The local community expanded in the early ^20th century, following the arrival of refugees from Asia Minor after the Great Catastrophe of 1922. The great earthquake of 1933 did not spare the synagogue, which was rebuilt the following year in the Art Deco style still admired today. On the eve of the Nazi occupation, the synagogue housed around 140 members of the community. They were all arrested on the same day by the Nazis and sent to their deaths in the Auschwitz camp, along with the Rhodes Jewish community. Only one survivor returned to Kos after the liberation of the camps, and the synagogue has been abandoned to this day.