Romaniote Jews

The Romaniote Jews or Romaniots (Greek:Ρωμανιῶτες Rōmaniōtes, Hebrew:רומניוטים‎ Romanyotim) are a Jewish community with distinctive cultural features who have lived in Greece and neighboring areas for more than 2,000 years. Their languages were Yevanic, a Greek dialect, and modern Greek. They derived their name from the old name for the people of the Byzantine Empire, Romaioi. Large communities were located in Thebes, Ioannina, Chalcis, Corfu, Arta, Corinth, and on the islands of Lesbos, Chios, Samos, Rhodes, and Cyprus, among others. The Romaniotes are historically distinct from the Sephardim, who settled in Greece after the 1492 expulsion of the Jews from Spain.