Annual Holocaust Remembrance Day of the Greek Jewry

Thursday, January 19th, 2023

The event of the Consulate General of Greece in New York commemorating the Holocaust Remembrance Day of the Greek Jews took place at the Hebrew College of New York, on January 19th, 2023, with great success.

The Keynote Speaker of the event was the award-winning artist, designer, and educator, Viktor Koen who holds a BFA from the Bezalel Academy of Arts & Design in Jerusalem and an MFA with honors from SVA in NY and is the provost of the  BFA Illustration and BFA Comics at the School of Visual Arts. Mr. Koen presented the story of his family, which suffered the horrors of the Holocaust, with his grandmother, who lived in Thessaloniki, as the central figure of his narrative.

Α lot of distinguished guests were present at the event. Among them were the Permanent Representative of Greece to the UN, Ambassador Evangelos C. Sekeris, the Consul General of Cyprus Mr. Michalis Firillas, the Consul General of Germany Mr. David Gil, the Deputy Consul General of Israel, Israel Nitzan, the Deputy Consul General of Italy Cesare Bieller and the Chancellor of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America V.Rev.Archimandrite Nektarios Papazafiropoulos, representing His Eminence Archbishop Elpidophoros.
Also present were the Rabbis Diana Gerson and David Levy, the Former CEO of the American Jewish Committee, David Harris, the President of the American Friends of the Jewish Museum of Greece, Mr. Solomon Asser, the Chief Administrative Officer of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation, Vasilis Tsamis, the director of Greek-Jewish Romaniote Synagogue and Museum Kehila Kedosha Janina, Andrew Marcus, the President of Alma Bank, Michael Psyllos, and the Executive Advisor Nancy Papaioannou.

The Consul General of Greece in New York, Mr. Dinos Konstantinou, pointed out that the purpose of the event is to commemorate the six million Jewish and other minority victims of the Holocaust. Among them were 70,000 Greek Jews, who constituted 85% of the Jewish community of Greece, which has always been an integral part of the Greek Nation. He also emphasized that Anti-Semitism found its most horrific expression in the Holocaust where it
demonstrated the cruelty of which the human species is capable, as the Nazis carried out the annihilation of entire communities and unprecedented atrocities. He underscored that it is our sacred obligation not to repeat such cruelty. Pointing out that Anti-Semitism is one of the most powerful forms of discrimination, Mr. Konstantinou emphasized that even today discrimination is witnessed all over the world due to religion, ethnicity, race, sexual orientation, as well as for people with disabilities. Conspiracy theories and neo-Nazi hate speech are also widespread on Social Media. "We must stand up against and fight ignorance, indifference, and intolerance, and pass on the history of the Holocaust to our children and grandchildren, in order to prevent its future repetition" emphasized Mr. Konstantinou.

The President of the American Friends of the Jewish Museum of Greece Solomon Asser also addressed the event. Also, students Esther Errera and Sivan Koen read letters from mothers Sarina Saltiel, Mathilde Barouch, and Neama Cazes who lived in Thessaloniki and sent them to their children, with the fear that they will not see them again.

The last, musical part of the event was undertaken by Erini, Nektarios Antoniou (voice), and Michael Brown (piano), performing the traditional prayer Adonai Ata Yadata in Hebrew and Greek, the Asma Asmaton by Mikis Theodorakis, as well as Greek and Sephardic traditional songs.

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