NOVEMBER 16, 2022 : Today we had a long drive from Arta to Nafpaktos, with a detour to Lefkada on the way. Despite forecasts for rain, it was a beautiful sunny day.
Why detour to Lefkada? Lefkada is an island off the west coast of Greece in the Ionian sea that is reachable by car. A causeway connects it to the mainland. The main city on the island, also called Lefkada has a small museum dedicated to the life of Angelos Sikelianos.
Angelos Sikelianos was a Greek poet and playwright born in Lefkada in 1884. The museum highlights his work and his efforts to reinstate the Delphic festival, like in ancient times. The festival consisted of athletic contests, Byzantine music, folk art and theatrical performances. He used all his personal wealth to repeat the festival three years later. Eventually he declared bankruptcy and there were no more festivals. He was nominated for his writings for a Nobel Prize five times.
According to the Wikipedia, Angelos Sikelianos “composed the letter which was spearheaded by Archbishop Damaskinos to save the lives of Greek Jews by appealing directly to the Germans. The letter was signed by many prominent Greek citizens in defense of the Jews who were being persecuted. There is no similar document of protest against Nazi occupiers during World War II that has come to light in any other European country”.
We wanted to see if the museum about the life of Angelos Sikelianos displayed or mentioned this letter. In short, the answer was no.
The way to Lefkada was spectacular. We drove through an agricultural region, full of olive trees and bright green fields. The coast was often in view.
Lefkada city was small and charming. Despite being off-season, many restaurants and shops were open and full of locals.
The museum was tucked away in a small alleyway, in the house that Sikelianos once lived in. It was very well done, and most signage was also in English. We learned lots about a person we really knew nothing about but did not find any specific Jewish connection.
We wandered about the town and then continued our drive towards Nafpaktos.
On the way, we passed the Charilaos Trikoupis Bridge, a shortcut to reach the Peloponnesian peninsula. The bridge opened in 2004 and is considered to be an engineering masterpiece. Across the bridge was Patros, the third largest city in Greece. It too once had a Jewish community, but today there is nothing left to see or commemorate the Jews that once lived there.
A few kilometers past the bridge, we reached Nafpaktos. After checking into our AirBnb, we went to explore more of the town.
Nafpaktos turned out to be surprisingly nice. It is a vacation destination for the Greeks, and the center of the old town, highlighted by a small harbor, was charming. There are also several beaches in the area, and overlooking the city is a large castle.
Although today there is nothing to see of its Jewish past, there was a Jewish community in Nafpaktos from the middle ages to the 1800’s. The community is known for the “Purim of Lepanto”. In 1571, Lepanto (the former name of Nafpaktos), was the scene of a large naval battle involving over 400 ships between the Christians and the Ottomans. The Christians were victorious.
After the battle, the Jewish community of Lepanto established a holiday to give thanks to God for sparing them from imminent destruction. This created a controversy in the Jewish world, if community leaders indeed have the authority to create such a holiday and make it binding on its members. The generally accepted opinion, as stated by the Chatam Sofer, is that this is allowed and you are even obligated to do so. Over the centuries, tens of communities and families have established holidays, to commemorate an event.
An example is the disciples of Chabad today celebrate the 19th of Kislev as the “Rosh Hashanah of Chassidism.” It was on this date, in the year 1798, that the founder of Chabad Chassidism, Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi was freed from his imprisonment in czarist Russia.
Speaking of celebrations, today was Mark’s 65 birthday and tomorrow is his Hebrew birthday. We will celebrate with family once we are back home. Tomorrow we have a long drive to Delphi – home of the oracle.