Cyprus and Eretz Yisrael had trade relations by the third century B.C.E., and Jews began to settle the island. In the first century B.C.E., the Roman emperor Augustus gave Herod, king of Judea, part of the management and revenue of the island’s copper mines. Jews were among the miners and copper workers. After Herod’s death, his granddaughter Alexandra married a Cypriot Jew.
The community prospered, and synagogues existed in at least three locations: Golgoi, Lapethos and Constantia-Salamine. Some Cypriot Jews moved to Jerusalem, and the Talmud mentions imports of cumin, wine and dried figs from Cyprus.
The European Jewish Congress gives further information:
In 142 BCE, Cyprus was one of the countries that safeguarded Jewish rights at the request of the Romans. Cypriot Jews seem to have participated in a rebellion in 177 CE against Emperor Trajan. After the revolt was crushed, Jews were strictly forbidden to set foot on Cyprus, but this prohibition did not last long.
“Jews returned to the island shortly thereafter,” adds the World Jewish Congress. “Jewish community in Cyprus continued to thrive throughout the centuries, and between the twelfth and fifteenth centuries, there were more Jews in Cyprus than on any other Greek island.”
Cyprus today is a majority Christian country, and its patron saint is a Cypriot Jew: St. Barnabas, who, accompanied by Saul (Apostle Paul) and Mark, sailed to Cyprus to preach there (Acts: 13).
Today, the relations between Cyprus and Israel are thriving. “Throughout the history of Cyprus, Jewish people have always lived on the island,” the project manager of the Jewish Museum of Cyprus, Skevi Philippou, said. “There has always been a bond between Israel and Cyprus, especially now between tourism and business cooperation. Being so close to the Holy Land, Cyprus is a popular place for Jews to visit or make their home. Today, there are over 6500 Jews living in Cyprus. Most are from Israel, UK, Eastern Europe and Russia.”
The Chief Rabbi of Cyprus, Arie Zeev Raskin, has been officially serving the community since 2005. The rabbi and his wife, Shaindel Raskin, together with their four children, arrived in Cyprus in 2003. Five years later, their fifth child was born in the island country. The Chabad house – “Chabad of Cyprus” – was opened in 2005.
Today, the Cyprus Jewish Community Center in the city of Larnaca is open to serve the community all year around. And the Jewish Museum there raises awareness about the Jewish ties to the island. The museum’s current exhibit is the “Nissen hut,” an original WW2 artefact.
According to its website, the museum aims to educate the public concerning the important role played by Cyprus and Cypriots “in assisting Holocaust victims escaping Europe after World War II as they made their way to Israel.”
From 1878 to 1960, when Cyprus became independent, the island was under British rule. After the rise of Nazism in 1933, hundreds of Jews escaped to Cyprus. The British government then set up 12 detention camps there for Holocaust survivors who had immigrated or attempted to immigrate to the then British Mandate of Palestine. The camps operated from 1946 to 1949 and held over 53,000 internees. Once the State of Israel was established, most refugees moved there.
“Conditions in the camps were horrific,” reported the newspaper Cyprus Mail. “But there was one ray of light for those on the long journey home: the local Cypriots who, for three long years, helped to feed, clothe and nurture the interned at their own expense. The brainchild of Rabbi Arie Zeev Raskin, the Chief Rabbi of Cyprus, the museum is the Jewish Community’s way of thanking those who helped the interned.”
“Rabbi Raskin felt an overwhelming need to thank the people he sees as heroes,” Philippou said.
Ordinary people – farmers, workers, people who barely had enough to feed their own families – gave food, water and medicine to the refugees in the camps. And the next generation of Cypriots must know and remember what their ancestors did, so that the cycle of kindness will continue.
Those 53,000 Jewish refugees and their descendants owe their health and wellbeing to Cyprus and to the compassion of the Cypriots; by aiding those who were starting a new life, the Cypriots not only played an important role in assisting Holocaust victims escaping Europe after World War II, but they were also responsible for helping to promote the re-birth of Jewish life, culture, religious observation and Jewish heritage around the world.
Meanwhile, the tradition of opposing antisemitism is ongoing in Cyprus. In 2019, Cyprus endorsed the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism. Then-Jewish Agency chair and current president of Israel Isaac Herzog praised the move, as did American Jewish Committee CEO David Harris.
Many Cypriot municipal leaders have also signed the American Jewish Committee’s (AJC) Mayors United Against Antisemitism statement. More than 500 European and U.S. mayors, including 22 mayors from Cyprus, joined the initiative.
“The relations between Israel and Cyprus have never been stronger than today,” AJC Jerusalem Director, Lt. Col. (Res.) Avital Leibovich, said. “They are not only based on mutual interest but also on strategic challenges and cooperation on many levels – from cultural to academic, tourism to startups. In a changing Middle East, such partnerships are important and cherished.”
Since 1974, however, around 40 percent of the Cypriot territory in the north of the island nation has been illegally occupied by Turkey. That year, Cyprus was invaded by the Turkish military twice and exposed to an ethnic cleansing campaign which forcibly changed the demographic character of the island country.
Many crimes were committed by Turkish troops against indigenous Greek Cypriots. Civilian targets such as hospitals were bombed. Greek Cypriots, including children, were murdered. Civilians were arbitrarily detained by the Turkish military authorities and were put either in prisons or concentration camps. Some were made to perform forced labor. The European Commission on Human Rights documented the rape of women and children aged 12 to 71, including those who were pregnant or mentally retarded. The rapes were so widespread that the Church of Cyprus was compelled to relax its previous strictures on abortion.
Nearly 200,000 Greek Cypriots were forcibly expelled from their homes by the Turkish invasion forces and were replaced by illegal settlers from Turkey and Turkish Cypriots. Lands, houses and other properties belonging to Greek Cypriots were seized, looted and distributed to Turks. As a result of this ethnic cleansing, northern Cyprus, which was for millennia a majority-Greek area until 1974, has been turned into a Turkish colony.
Historically, large Jewish population groups lived across coastal towns in Cyprus such as ancient Salamis in the city of Famagusta, which is today under Turkish occupation. Sadly, the invasion campaign has brought widespread destruction to all non-Muslim Cypriot historic sites.
To this day, the occupying forces continue to plunder and destroy the Cypriot cultural heritage, including the Jewish heritage of the occupied area. The Jewish cemetery there, for instance, has been destroyed. According to the 2012 report “The Loss of A Civilization: Destruction of cultural heritage in occupied Cyprus,”
The historic Margo Jewish Cemetery, a national monument for the Jewish people, southeast of Nicosia, has been desecrated and destroyed in the same way as Christian cemeteries in the area occupied by Turkish troops have been desecrated and destroyed.
The Margo Jewish Cemetery is home to the graves of Jews of the diaspora of 1885 and of Jewish refugees who came to Cyprus after the Second World War.
The cemetery is located in a strictly controlled military area and is guarded by an armed Turkish soldier. Jewish organisations and other groups have persistently petitioned for free access to the cemetery to conduct religious ceremonies, but these requests have not been granted by the occupying power and its puppet regime.
“We have visited the cemetery several times,” Philippou confirms. “But we haven’t been able to hold any religious ceremonies, just a quick visit under supervision. We would like to have it restored, but no permission was given thus far.”
See a video of the destroyed Jewish cemetery in the Turkish-occupied part of Nicosia here.
Cypriot-Dutch author, cultural campaigner and activist Tasoula Hadjitofi became a refugee at age 15 when Turkish troops invaded Famagusta, the city of her birth, in 1974. For several decades, she has collected artifacts and other symbols of cultural heritage that has been looted and stolen to bring them back home to Cyprus. Referring to the liberation of prisoners from Nazi concentration camps in 1945, Hadjitofi said:
Cypriots fought alongside the allies as British troops during the liberation of the Jews and other prisoners, for Cyprus was then a British colony. There are no poppies for those heroes on Holocaust Memorial Day in the United Kingdom or in Cyprus and little is known anywhere about them. Most of these forgotten heroes died quietly and took with them so many untold stories. Perhaps a handful are still around? Their stories must be told and their courage must be honored.
“The historical ties are strong between Israel and Cyprus,” added Hadjitofi. “I do hope that our Jewish brothers and sisters worldwide are watching attentively the Islamisation of northern Cyprus by Turkey, as well as the destruction of the Christian and Jewish sites in the occupied area. And for the sake of our shared heritage, historical and current struggles for freedom, as well as fundamental principles, they must do their best to stop them.”
Uzay Bulut is a Turkish journalist and political analyst formerly based in Ankara. This article is cross-posted with the author’s permission from Israel National News.
mortimer says
Muslims see themselves as Allah’s replacement for Israel. So whatever happens to destroy Israel is a punishment from Allah.
Turk-occupied Cyprus apparently wants to return to union with rest of the island which is still suspicious of the Muslims after the atrocities of the past. Another generation may be able to accomplish the island’s reunification.
born saturday says
are you a muslim troll friend??
somehistory says
Don’t expect an answer.
Johnny B says
Erdogan already declared how Europe was to be overtaken; not by armed forces but the wombs of Muslim women. It’s no secret or conspiracy. All they need are open borders.
gravenimage says
Mortimer, it is only surviving Infidels in northern Cyprus who want to reunify Cyprus. Muslims certainly are not interested in ousting the Turkish Muslim invaders.
Boycott Turkey says
+1
Gravenimage that’s true infact the Turk Cypriots along with the Turkish invaders want to take all of Cyprus they don’t want to return stolen land and homes to the people they forced out they have no morals Unfortunately Cyprus is just a island and can’t reclaim there stolen land but I pray for some miracle to happen
GreekEmpress says
Me too.
I have family in Limassol.
born saturday says
what happened in cyprous in 74 was another genocide which the country that has a criminal record, rather than history commited… the turks gave life to their barbaric traditions of exterminating populations in order to expand to new lands and take new belongings…. turkey barbaric tradition is the most barbaric… the arabs have a barbaric religion only, the turks are twice barbarians because of their religion and because of their mongolic past history of expanding to the west using terrorism to advance….
some people are overwelmed, or even haunted by the extend of the barbaric acts of the turks historically because they indulge in fear…. other we are just disgusted of the barbarocity that is introduced even in 2021 from all the mercenaries of the turks around the world….
somehistory says
In the Book of Acts of the Apostles, we can find that the “good news about the Christ,” which many Jews accepted, was taken by Paul, Silas and Barnabas to Cyprus.
The fact that mozlums want to take everything away from everyone else, is because satan is envious, jealous of what Almighty God has…the love and obedience of His creation…and makes every attempt to see that God’s people have only trouble, strife and fear in their lives, until that demon murders all.
Ray Jarman says
The difference between real Cyprus and the Turks’ desecrated area. When I visited the island 2000, I walked into the Turkish side and it was like another world. I don’t believe that I saw even one person smile or looking happy and when I re-entered the real Cyprus, I felt clean again. As I was walking down the street towards the Churchill Hotel, a car stopped and the passenger asked me if I spoke English, to which I responded, “sort of.” We had a laugh as the couple were English. This could not have happened on the other side of the Green Gate for it seemed that humour was forbitten.
The tragedy is that the Muslims have desecrated so much of the heritages of the once great empires of North Africa, Syria, Iraq, Iran and many other places. Even today, the Europeans are permitting these ungrateful jihadi slugs to destroy Christian and Jewish places of worship with little consequence.
GreekEmpress says
Hi Mr. Jarman,
By any chance did you visit Famagusta?
The last time some of my Greek friends were there, they said the Turks had turned it into a dump—
This is the Turk MO.
Anything to complete the annhilation of Christians, Jews, Armenians, Greeks,
etc. etc.
Ray Jarman says
Greek Empress,
I am not sure and it was a long time ago but I saw nothing in the Turk enclave that was other than a dump and the people were also very grim. As I said the Greek portion of the island was extremely clean and the people were very gregarious and the food was great.
I did however go snow skiing on the island even though it was only a kiddy run but just to say that I skied there was worth the trip.
gravenimage says
Ray, thank you for that grim account. Unsurprising, though.
maria says
If EU should have guts, they would demand to get Cyprus back to the Greeks,and if the animal Turks don´t want to allow it, the whole non-muslim Europe should chase them away.
but the present EU is more for the animal Turks than for the Greeks whose culture is the foundation of the whole Europe
Boycott Turkey says
+1
Boycott Turkey says
+1
Mark Spahn (West Seneca, NY) says
Hello, Uzay Bulut. You write, “wine for the incense used in the Temple (Jerusalem Talmud Yoma 4)”. Pardon my ignorance, but I thought incense is a burnable substance that produces smoke having a distinctive smell. How is wine used in making incense?
Boycott Turkey says
Great Article my Grandad was one of the Cypriots who fought in WW2 with the British he was 16 at the time and was awarded a medal.
My parents and grandparents where forced from there homes when Turkey invaded and there homes stolen by illegal settlers from Turkey I pray for justice and that Turkey is destroyed that country shouldn’t exist it’s stolen land from Greeks Armenians Assyrians and Kurds
gravenimage says
Kudos to your brave grandfather!
Ray Jarman says
I second GravenImage’s kudos.
GreekEmpress says
Ditto!???
gravenimage says
The extinction of Jewish heritage in northern Cyprus
………………..
This is all due to the Muslim invasion of the 1970s. As noted, Cyprus has had a large and thriving Jewish population.
There are only about 100 Jews surving in northern Cyprus. The only Jewish institution there is a Chabad House run out of the home of a young Anerican Jew, Rabbi Chaim Azimov, established in 2005.
There was a Synagogue but it has been destroyed, and he doesn’t even know where it was located; the Jewish cemetery is inside a closed Turkish military zone.
Ray Jarman says
+1
Very sad and anywhere Muslims overpower the population of any area, there is only heartache and misery left.
Boycott Turkey says
+1