Rhodes (Rhodos), a Greek island in the Aegean Sea, with city of the same name. Although it is uncertain when the first Jews settled in Rhodes, it appears that a Jewish community existed on the island at least toward the end of the Hellenistic period. Herod the Great had occasion to visit the island a number of times.

Jews are again mentioned in Rhodes at the time of the Arab conquest in the seventh century C.E. In 653 the Arab conqueror, Muawiya, ordered the destruction of the remains of the colossus of Rhodes. It was sold to a Jew from Edessa who carried away 90 camel loads of bronze (Theophrastus, Chronographia, 1:345). Benjamin of Tudela, the 12th-century traveler, found some 400 Jews in the city of Rhodes. Meshullam of Volterra and Obadiah of Bertinoro visited Rhodes in 1481 and 1488, respectively. The latter found only 22 Jewish families, the others having left after the 1481/82 earthquakes which again destroyed the Jewish quarter. The remnant was living in poverty, mainly on its womenfolk's earnings (the anonymous Pilgrim of Cologne noted the Jewesses' skill in making silk clothes), but some men worked in tanning. After a plague (1498–1500), the order decided to expel within 40 days all Jews who would not become baptized. Under the benevolent Ottoman rule Rhodes became an important Sephardi center, the Jews outnumbering the Turkish population. Rhodes became known as the "small Jerusalem." Among the noteworthy rabbis of Rhodes were: Judah ibn Verga (16th century); Moses Bussal (17th century); Jehiel Bassan (18th century); Judah Moses Franco, who became rishon le-Zion in 1890; and, above all, the long line of the rabbis of the Israel family. The Jews of Rhodes were merchants, manufacturers of arms, moneychangers, tax farmers, and physicians; the middle class were craftsmen: carpenters, tanners, goldsmiths, and bookbinders, and others made a well-known wine, silk clothes, and wove cloth.

בפרט יש להביא בחשבון את שם ההויה במלואו. דף קמז,א-קמט: סדר הגיטין שניתנו על ידי.