In a humble ceremony held at the Jewish Museum of Thessaloniki, on November 18th, 2019, Mr. David Saltiel, President of the Central Board of the Jewish Communities in Greece and President of the Jewish Community of Thessaloniki was decorated with the medal and title of Ufficiale dell’ Ordine della Stella d’ Italia - Officer of the Order of the Italian Star - by His Excellency the Ambassador of Italy to Greece Mr. Luigi Marras.

In its tweet the Italian Embassy mentioned David Saltiel as a "True friend of Italy". The title of Officer constitutes the highest level of the Order of the Italian Star, as Mr. D. Saltiel was already honored with the title of Commander of that Order, since 2008.  The Order is bestowed to outstanding personalities for their contribution in promoting business and cultural relations between Italy and other countries.

The 20^th anniversary of the restoration of the Synagogue of Hania, on the island of Crete, was marked with the series of cultural events that took place in Hania from October 13 to 27, 2019. The events, which were organized by the Non-profit Corporation Etz Hayyim, included the celebration of Sukkot, a photographic exhibition on the restoration of the Synagogue and its remarkable cultural activity for the past 20 years, educational workshops on Jewish Cretan history, a concert with the “Klezmer Yunan band” who remix Jewish Klezmer and Greek folk songs, the exhibition of the Heritage Contact Zone entitled “Parallel points of view”, an audio-visual presentation of material on Etz Hayyim, a culinary experience with food sampling of Greek Jewish recipes based on Nikos Stavroulakis’ “Cookbook of the Jews of Greece”, a literary reading by the renowned British poet Ruth Padel on the theme “Etz Hayyim in poetry and prose”.