Ochrida

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OCHRIDA

OCHRIDA (ancient Lychnidos ), town on Lake Ohrid/Ochrida in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. There were Jews living in Ochrida during the Middle Ages. The scholar Judah Leon *Mosconi lived in Ochrida. He studied under Shemariah ha-Ikriti (the Cretan) and authored Even Ha-Ezer, a commentary on Abraham ibn Ezra's Torah commentary. Jews were probably moved from there under the Ottoman system of sorgun. It is therefore not surprising to find in Constantinople a Romaniot synagogue named after Ochrida. The Jews of Ochrida engaged in the preparation of furs and those of them who settled in *Kastoria developed the same profession there. There is no information on the Jews of Ochrida in recent times.

bibliography:

Perles, in: Byzantinische Zeitschrift, 2 (1893), 569–84. add. bibliography: V.S. Bowman, The Jews in Byzantium 1204–1455 (1985).

[Simon Marcus]

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