The Jewish Community of Crete

Little is known about the Jewish community in Crete until the conquest of the island by Venice in 1204. Jews, including Romaniotes (Greek-speaking Byzantine Jews), lived mainly in the port areas of Candia (today Heraklion, Crete), Chania, and Rethymno, and they dominated the export trades in sugar, wax, indigo, wine, and more. Following the Turkish conquest in 1669, the community entered a period of decline. The regulations of the community of Candia were collected and compiled by Elijah Capsali in the second decade of the sixteenth century. These cover the thirteenth through sixteenth centuries, when the community was under Venetian rule, and address issues such as commerce and dealing with non-Jews, halakhic issues regarding prayer, ritual slaughter, burial of the dead, and more.