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Monday, 07 December 2020 10:31 |
  On December 3, 2020, a man wearing a cassock and holding an icon, sprayed a Christogram cross with the words “Jesus Christ Conquers” on the Holocaust monument of Larissa. He did the same on the outer wall of the Synagogue which is currently being restored. The incident was recorded on cctv street cameras which were examined after the President of the Jewish Community of Larissa informed the police and filed a lawsuit. The man was arrested the following day in the nearby area of Tempi. He was charged with damaging property and violating antiracism law.REACTIONS:
-The Central Board of Jewish Communities in Greece (KIS) issued the following announcement stressing that the action “emanates religious fanaticism and intolerance”:
“KIS, Dec. 4, 2020: Religious fanaticism and bigotry emanate from the new desecration attacks against Jewish sacred sites in Larissa, that occurred on December 3rd, 2020. The vandals used religious symbols to leave the mark of their anti-Semitic hatred on the exterior surrounding wall of the Synagogue of Larissa and the city’s Holocaust Monument, as a statement of contempt towards the sanctity of the sites and devastation of the memory of the Holocaust victims.
The Greek Jewry strongly condemns these hideous attacks. We urge the competent authorities to trace down the perpetrators, arrest them and bring them to justice.
We quote the Vice President of the European Commission Margaritis Schinas who just a couple of days ago stated: “Europe stands firm against all forms of antisemitism. Jewish life is and always will be part of European societies and our way of life…”. Zero tolerance to fanaticism, intolerance and antisemitism”.
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Friday, 27 November 2020 12:13 |
In his “open letter to the Ambassador of Israel in Athens” (published in the website of the daily “Efimerida ton Syntakton”, efsyn.gr, on Nov. 19, 2020), Greek-Armenian writer Sifis Kassesian drew parallels between the Israeli policy on the Azerbaijani-Armenian war over Nagorno-Karabakh and the Nazis, and made comments relating Israel to Judas and Shylock with regard to Israel’s selling of weapons to Azerbaijan. The writer skillfully promotes anti-Semitic stereotypes by denying any intention of doing so: “Far from me the thought of correlating the present Israeli policy with stereotypes such as the 30 silver coins or the Merchant of Venice, which for so long have linked the image of the Jew motivated by economic interest to the collective conscience… Maybe many others will do it… Even further far from me is the thought that the murderers of your own people had also argued their own raison d'etat in order to justify their crime against the Jews and that now you are assimilated with them…”. The writer, after referring to his many Jewish friends and his feelings of sympathy towards the Jews over the Holocaust, he mentions the tears he shed for the Holocaust victims when, as a young man, he had visited an exhibition. “You abused of that tear Mr Ambassador, therefore I ask you to find a way to give me back my tear”, Kassesian concludes.
In reaction to Kassesian’s open letter, the Israeli Ambassador to Greece Yossi Amrani, as well as Victor Eliezer, journalist and KIS Secretary General, replied with their respective letters, published in the website of “Efimerida ton Syntakton”, on November 25, 2020. Both letters, translated into English, are published here under:
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Wednesday, 11 November 2020 12:02 |
 Daily “Makeleio”, known for frequently publishing incendiary anti-Semitic articles, on November 10, 2020, circulated with yet another anti-Semitic front-page title related to the announcement made by Albert Bourla, the CEO of the Pfizer pharmaceutical company, on the upcoming vaccine for covid. The front-page (as well as the teaser of the on-line Makeleio.gr) is illustrated with the photo of the Nazi doctor Josef Mengele next to the photo of Dr. Bourla whose Jewish faith is used in the title to disseminate stereotypical propaganda, while in the surtitle of the front-page the term "poison" is used for the vaccine.The Greek Jewry’s outrage was expressed with the following announcement of the Central Board of Jewish Communities in Greece (KIS), which was followed by the immediate reaction of the General Secretary for Religious Affairs, Mr George Kalantzis, who issued the statement below:
KIS ANNOUNCEMENT FOR THE ANTISEMITIC FRONT-PAGE TITLE OF THE NEWSPAPER “MAKELEIO”:
The front-page title of “Makeleio” of November 10, 2020, overwhelms us with outrage and repulsion, as its content perpetuates hatred and bigotry against the Jews and it becomes -once more- the carrier of the most hideous anti-Semitic propaganda.
The identification of the CEO of Pfizer as Mengele, the so-called butcher of Auschwitz, is an appalling and unethical assault against Albert Bourla only because he is a Jew. The huge-lettered front-title “Jewish veterinarian will stick the needle in us! Nightmarish admissions by force in ‘chamber – camps’ as flocks” is nothing but a clear incitement to violence against the Jews.
The vaccine of a company suddenly becomes “poison” due to the Jewish religion of the company’s CEO, Albert Bourla, and its production is compared to the Nazi experiments in Auschwitz, in an attempt to prevent people from using it, should it be proven effective in dealing with the coronavirus that has inflicted mankind. Shame!
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Tuesday, 03 November 2020 14:00 |
 A few days after the attacks in France, new bloody terrorist attacks occurred in the center of Vienna, the capital of Austria, during the night of November 2nd, 2020. Gunmen opened fire, killed four people and wounded several others at several locations in Vienna, starting from the street where Vienna's main synagogue is located. The Central Board of Jewish Communities in Greece addressed, today November 3, 2020, the following letter to the Ambassador of Austria in Greece, expressing the solidarity of the Greek Jewry to the people of Austria for the heinous terrorist attacks:
"Dear Mrs. Ambassador,
The Greek Jewry is shocked after the bloody terror attacks of extreme Islamists against innocent people, that struck the center of Vienna yesterday night, and caused the death of four people and several casualties.
Our thoughts and payers are with the families of the tragic victims. Our solidarity is with the Austrian people at large that was terrified by the extremists who assaulted a symbolic area of the Austrian capital, where churches and synagogues stand close to one another and in vicinity with museums and a number of multi-ethnic restaurants, a place where people enjoy culture, a place that represents collectivity and brotherhood, a district that is a small scale model of European core values.
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The Jewish Community of Thessaloniki has organized on-line candle lighting ceremonies via zoom and facebook, on daily basis. The first candle was lit on December 10, 2020, by the President of the Central Board of Jewish Communities in Greece and of the Jewish Community of Thessaloniki, Mr David Saltiel, and the Mayor of Thessaloniki Mr Konstantinos Zervas, with the participation of Rabbi Aaron Israel and many Community members who joined in via zoom.
