The Second Edition of THE SYNAGOGUES OF GREECE: A STUDY OF SYNAGOGUES IN MACEDONIA AND THRACE: With Architectural Drawings of All Synagogues of Greece first published in 2011, is an updated, corrected, and enlarged republication of the first printing, covering the continuing research, in-situ work and architectural interventions of nearly three decades by the author, an Ivy League educated architect, and an offspring of Greek Jewry himself. The manuscript, based on research in archives around the world, the author's Ph.D. dissertation at the National Technical University of Athens, Greece and subsequent research, traces the history of the synagogues, the Jewish quarters and Jewish communities in Greece, from antiquity, through Byzantine and Ottoman times, contemporary history and the Holocaust. The book includes a first-ever full scale in-situ surveys, undertaken since 1993 by the author, and the drafting of architectural drawings of the synagogues of Greece, some of which have since been demolished. The book traces the history of the nearly 100 synagogues and numerous Jewish quarters standing in Greece before the Second World War, most of which no longer exist.

"Elias Messinas is an architect who has devoted himself to recording Greece's Jewish architectural heritage."
Mark Mazower, Bulleting of Judaeo-Greek Studies (22, 1998)

"Elias Messinas has made it his mission to document the surviving Jewish heritage of Greece, to publish this account and remember the synagogues of those towns."
Samuel D. Gruber, President of the International Survey of Jewish Monuments

"Elias Messinas was one of the first, when at a young age and in a climate of relative indifference, if not negativity, he raised in the public debate the issue of rescuing the synagogues in Greece."
Nikos Vatopoulos, Journalist KATHIMERINI Newspaper, Greece

"Elias Messinas has studied systematically the Greek synagogues, contributing in a decisive manner, in the current efforts to protect and preserve them."
Manolis Korres, Architect, Head of the Acropolis Restoration Service, Professor NTUA

Elias V. Messinas is an architect and urban planner, sustainability and public participation expert. Graduate of Athens College, of the Yale School of Architecture, of Bezalel Academy, he holds a PhD in Urban Planning and an MSc in "Environment and Development" from the National Technical University of Athens, a postdoctoral fellowship from the Faculty of Architecture and Town Planning of the Technion Institute of Technology, with published research on bioclimatic design at the Desert Architecture Unit of the University Ben Gurion. Undertook, for the first time, the extensive study and survey of synagogues in Greece since 1993. From 1995 until today he has undertaken with associates the study and restoration of synagogues in Veroia, Salonika, Trikala and Kos, while in Aegina, together with Yvette Nahmia-Messina and in collaboration with the Ephorate of Antiquities of Piraeus and Islands, undertook the initiative to preserve the mosaic floor of an ancient synagogue. Creator of the website "Kol haKEHILA" for the Jewish monuments of Greece and ECOWEEK, which since 2005, promotes sustainable and participatory design in 17 countries. He has shared his work in books, dozens publications, lectures, reports, blog pages, and newspapers, among others of the "Jerusalem Post" and "News of Saronic Gulf". He has been nominated for the Tallberg / Eliasson Global Leadership Awards and European Prize, and participated in the Greek catalogue of the Venice Biennale in 2006. Teaches sustainable design at Patras University and at the Holon Institute of Technology. He practices urban planning and public participation at Ginot Hair in the city of Jerusalem.