Holocaust Remembrance Day of the Greek Jewry An event by the Consulate General of Greece in New York

On January 21st, the Consulate General of Greece in New York commemorated for the third time the International Holocaust Remembrance Day (January 27th) with an event dedicated to the memory of the victims of the Greek Jewry during WWII. The event was held at the Hebrew Union College in Manhattan.

American Jewish Committee (AJC) Chief Executive Officer David Harris gave the keynote speech at the event, following the greetings by Greece and Israel’s Consuls General, Konstantinos Koutras and Dani Dayan, as well as the remarks by Rabbi Diana S. Gerson, Assoc. Executive Vice President of the New York Board of Rabbis. The President of the American Friends of the Jewish Museum of Greece Mr. Solomon Asser delivered his greeting on behalf of the Greek-American Jews.

All speakers emphasized the importance of preventing the 21st century to be marred by the same atrocities stemming from bigotry and anti-Semitism. Consul General Koutras stressed the need to stop stepping aside and start stepping in, whenever and wherever it may be that our brothers and sisters are victimized by a blow, a push, a slur, or by the writing on the wall. Consul General Dayan underlined the responsibility of each and every one of us to learn from the lessons of the past century and use this collective experience as a shield against violence. David Harris informed the audience about the events taking place in Israel and Poland concerning the official commemoration of the 75th anniversary since the liberation of German Nazi concentration and extermination camp Auschwitz. He also urged people not to commemorate Holocaust Remembrance Day ritualistically but in a meaningful way which will improve our civic reflexes. He said that “we can cry upon the dead, but we will not restore them to life”. He added, “left unchecked, evil will metastasize”. He finally applauded Greece, its leadership and its people for taking a stance on the matter then, and now.

The event closed with a musical performance by Chamber Music Hellas and mezzo-soprano Maria Zoi, with compositions by Olivier Messiaen, Mikis Theodorakis, Sergei Prokofiev, and Maurice Ravel.

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