The Romaniote Jews have been living in Greece (mainly in Ioannina, Chalkis and Corfu) and in adjacent areas for more than 2000 years. Their name is derived from "Romanioi" (or "Romania"), which in Late Antiquity meant the Roman Empire and the Roman-Latin cultural environment.

Contact with the greater society and culture of the Mediterranean has brought about an independent tradition (e.g. language and customs) and a distinctive Romaniote Jewish repertoire of synagogue music that differs significantly from Ashkenazi and Sephardic traditions.

Thus, the Romaniote Jews have their own melodies that they use in their prayer chants, and are well-known for their piyyutim (hymns which are sung during the synagogue worship) and their own tradition of the Torah cantillation.

The EZJM has been in the process of recording the liturgical output of Cantor Haim Ischakis from Athens, one of the last people to perform the synagogal music tradition of the Romaniote Jews.

We are pleased to announce the release of our CD-set of ethnographic fieldwork recordings so to make this distinctive repertoire accessible to future generations. The CD-set includes 4 CDs with liturgical melodies for Shabbat, Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Sukkot, Pesach, Shavuot, Chanukah and Purim, and a booklet.