Games bring kosher food back to Athens
Athens, July 15 - The moussaka served in the shadow of the Acropolis is as Greek as a black-robed priest. Its fine brown crust over rich bechamel will also be Athens' first taste of kosher food in more than half a century.
As the Greek capital prepares for next month's Olympics, one of the oldest Jewish communities in the world is staging a quiet culinary revival with the opening of the Kol Tuv restaurant (www.kosherathens.com) in downtown Athens.
Greece offers a unique east meets west cuisine that Jewish visitors should not miss out on, says Rabbi Mendel Hendel of the team behind the restaurant, which will serve kosher versions of traditional Greek dishes.
''We will try to give an idea of Greek food to people that never had a chance to try it, use substitutes to give them a taste, so apart from the whole experience of the Games they can taste something local and authentic,'' Hendel said.
''There has been no kosher restaurant in Athens since the (second world) war, so it is really special.''
Kosher, meaning pure or proper in Hebrew, refers to Jewish dietary laws dictating correct methods of food preparation and consumption. It can also refer to the nature of foodstuffs, how they are combined or how animals are killed.
''This year, many more people are asking us about the availability of kosher food in the city. There will definitely be a much higher number of Jewish visitors because of the Olympics,'' Hendel said.
Not all Jewish people keep kosher. Those who do include most of those who identify themselves as Orthodox Jews, many Conservative and Reconstructionist Jews and some Reform Jews.
The Kol Tuv opens in August and aims to be up and running for the Olympic and Paralympic Games, even offering packed lunches for visitors heading to events.
The menu will also reprise traditional Greek Jewish dishes like the 'Salatika' salad of zucchini and plums.
For Anna Mordechai, a Holocaust survivor who settled in Athens 55-odd years ago, the restaurant could help revive the customs she remembers from her mother's kitchen in Corfu.
''Older people do keep some traditions, younger ones less so, life is hard nowadays, they are busy... such a place will bring tradition closer to the younger generation,'' she said.
Zanet Battino, director of the Jewish Museum of Greece (www.jewishmuseum.gr), added the restaurant would give some Greek Jews their first taste of real kosher food.
''I think it's a great thing that has been needed for a long time and will give more body to the community,'' Battino said.
''As they say, love goes through the stomach, and I hope that interest and awareness do as well.''
LONG PAST
Jews settled in Greece as early as the third century BC and there is evidence that a synagogue existed in Athens' Ancient Agora in the early Christian period.
Jewish communities flourished in the Byzantine and Ottoman periods, especially in northern Greece and its regional capital Thessaloniki, where Jews made up the majority of the population in the late 1800s.
Deportations during the Nazi occupation led to the deaths of 87 percent of the 80,000-strong Jewish pre-war population. Hardship and immigration further reduced the community to around 5,000 people, with most living in Athens.
''It is an orthodox community in name, but a secular traditional community in actuality, so only rabbis and a few very religious families keep kosher,'' Battino said.
''People don't come to the synagogue as often as they would like, Athens is such a sprawling city that many find it difficult to get there. Whereas in the past they used to live around the synagogue, now they live all over,'' she added.
The relationship of Greece with Jews and Israel has not been a bed of roses in recent years.
Greek Jews are well integrated but mainstream public opinion often reflects a conspiratorial conception of Zionism, mixed with anti-Israel and anti-American views.
Rights watchdog Simon Wiesenthal Center often complains about anti-Semitic rhetoric in the media, and even has a travel advisory in place for the country, which it calls 'the greatest net producer of anti-Semitism today in Europe'.
Locals say things are not that bad and the restaurant could be proof of that, as well as a way to forge new links with the Greek public.
''The Wiesenthal Center may have overreacted, the Greek government may have under-reacted, and that has not made a good marriage,'' Battino said.
''I do feel that there is an interest amongst Greek Christians to know more about us as a cultural minority,'' said Nicholas Stavroulakis, director Emeritus of the Jewish Museum and author of The Cookbook of the Jews of Greece.
''A restaurant that reflects the continuance of Sephardic culinary traditions throughout the Mediterranean would be of great appeal.''
