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Friday, 29 June 2018 08:14 |
 
Vandals defaced the Holocaust Monument in Thessaloniki with red paint in the night of Wednesday June 27, 2018. According to authorities and press reports, perpetrators may have been participants in a rally held earlier that day outside the Macedonia-Thrace Ministry to protest the name deal signed between Athens and Skopje.
The President of the Hellenic Republic Prokopis Pavlopoulos, in a telephone conversation with David Saltiel, the President of KIS and the Jewish Community of Thessaloniki, condemned the attack and expressed his firm opposition to any form of antisemitism. Mr Pavlopoulos confirmed also his participation in the March of the Living 2019.
The hideous attack was immediately condemned also by the Government, the political parties, the local Prefecture of Central Macedonia, the Municipality of Thessaloniki and many politicians. The Justice system was mobilized through the head prosecutor of Thessaloniki who ordered a preliminary investigation into the vandalism. The Central Board of Jewish Communities in Greece (KIS), and the Jewish Community of Thessaloniki issued press announcements.
“The Central Board of Jewish Communities in Greece expresses the profound sorrow, the intense concern, and the outrage of the Greek Jews for the latest vandal attack against the Holocaust Monument of Thessaloniki that occurred in the night of June 27, 2018, for the third time during the last seven months.
The image of the Monument covered in red paint clearly indicates the intent of the vandals to paint in blood -once more- the Jews of Thessaloniki, a city that saw 50.000 of its Jewish citizens deported and murdered by the Nazis in the German extermination camps.
The Central Board of Jewish Communities in Greece calls upon the State and the social institutions to firmly condemn the desecration of the Holocaust memory, of the history of Thessaloniki and of the whole Greece. In the same time, the Authorities need to bring to Justice the seekers of darkness that aim at discrediting in the most deplorable way the image of the city.
The Monument will not lose its meaning and value: To remind to visitors the barbarity that led to the death of the Jews of Thessaloniki, only because they were Jewish, and alert society that absolute evil may happen again if we do not fortify the principals of our democracy and our humanism”.
Athens, 28 June 2018
Central Board of Jewish Communities in Greece
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Tuesday, 05 June 2018 10:19 |
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The Ministerial Decree 42856/Θ2 of the Ministry of Education Research and Religious Affairs (published in the Official Gazette of Greece, issue no 950 B / March 16, 2018), entitled “Student Contest – Educational Program on teaching about the Holocaust” comes as a capstone of a long term fruitful cooperation between the General Secretariat for Religious Affairs, the Jewish Museum of Greece (JMG) and the Central Board of Jewish Communities in Greece for the institutionalization of Holocaust education in Greece.
It was the JMG that spearheaded Holocaust education in Greece in 2002, with specific programs for schools and educators. Later, by the continuous efforts of the General Secretariat of Religious Affairs and its Secretary General George Kalantzis, the programs were expanded to more and more schools in Athens, Thessaloniki and other Greek cities as Ioannina, Larissa, Volos, Tripoli, Patras, Chania and included also a video contest on the Holocaust. And on the top of these programs, more than 80 Lyceum Greek students pay a visit to Auschwitz memorial and Museum, under the auspices of the Greek Ministry of Education.
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Monday, 07 May 2018 09:57 |
 On Saturday, the most holy day in Judaism, it is imperative and we are accustomed to abstain from everyday activities and, of course, from announcements. In the context of this almost absolute rigor of observance of the Sabbath holiday, there are exceptions that have to do with dealing with the threat of a life or a great pain.
Such is the pain that caused us, today, on Saturday, May 5, 2018, the revelation of a new wave of vandalism in the Jewish Cemetery of Athens.
Unknown vandals entered our Cemetery during the night and destroyed nine commemorative marble struts kicking them with fury, leaving them to peel off their bases and crushing them on the ground. These marble slabs are used to mark the sectors of our Cemetery and are dedicated to the memory of the dead by their families.
The scene is repulsive and our disappointment is great. This is not the first time we see the result of a degrading act at our Cemetery but it is the first time we see such act was organized and planned in part of the Cemetery that is not visible from the neighboring houses and with incredible fury. The view of the results of this abominable act causes us deep sorrow and anger. |
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Friday, 04 May 2018 13:06 |
 Equating Nazi practices with Israeli policy is anti-Semitism. Equalisation and drawing similarities regarding the Holocaust, the planned genocide of 6 million Jews solely because of their religion, is anti-Semitism.
It is its worst and most despicable form, it has other connotations, it creates stereotypes, it erodes societies by inciting hatred, and it operates in sinister ways. Its adoption and dissemination, either through rhetoric or through sketches (such as the recent ones by Mr. M. Kountouris published in the Editors' Newspaper on 10th – 11th April and 2nd May 2018) even including religious symbols, is dangerous and unacceptable. Be it new or old, anti-Semitism is always the same. It encourages hatred and fanaticism in order to serve political purposes, thus sacrificing every concept of criticism, commentary and information on the altar of cheap propaganda.
Athens, May 4th, 2018
Central Board of Jewish Communities in Greece |
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