Monastir Synagogue (Thessaloniki)
The Monastir Synagogue (, Judaeo-Spanish "Kal de los Monastirlis") is a historic synagogue of the once vibrant Jewish community in Thessaloniki. History The construction of the synagogue lasted from 1925 till 1927. The funding was due to Jews from Monastir in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, chiefly by Ida Aroesti, in the memory of her late husband Isaac, and the families Camhi, Joseph Nahmias, Massot, Barouch, Halevi, Israel, Calderon, Faradji, and Meir. The synagogue was designed by architect Ernst Loewy (1878-1943) from the city Buchau of Austria-Hungary. He was based in Karlsbad of Czechoslovakia, visiting Thessaloniki often as the engineer for the Austrian Company that built that railway line between Thessaloniki and Vienna. Loewy moved to Thessaloniki in 1938. The consecration by the locum tenens Chief Rabbi of Thessaloniki, Haim Raphael Habib, took place on the 27th Eloul, 5687 (September, 24th, 1927). These families have fled Monastir during the Balkan Wars (1912-1913) and World War I (1914-1918) and established themselves in Thessaloniki creating their own kehila (community) within the greater Jewish Community. The Monastir synagogue is the last traditional synagogue of Thessaloniki in the great tradition of Salonican synagogues bearing in their name the place of origin of the congregation members