NEW YORK – The Consulate General of Greece in New York presented a moving commemoration once again at this year’s Holocaust Remembrance Day of Greek Jewry on January 23. The event was held at Hebrew Union College in Manhattan for the third straight year and included remarks from distinguished speakers, a clip from an upcoming documentary, and a touching musical tribute.
Robert Shaw, managing director of Sea Trade Holdings, Inc. and a director and vice chairman of the Hellenic American Cultural Foundation, served as Master of Ceremonies and gave the welcoming remarks. Consul General of Greece in New York Konstantinos Koutras also welcomed everyone to the commemoration and reminded everyone to continue to stand up against intolerance. He quoted the writer Heinrich Heine, who said, “Where they burn books, they will, too, in the end burn people,” and also quoted Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. about the power of words and silence. Noting that “words are tools meant to shift us from our slumber,” Koutras concluded his remarks by saying that intolerance can never and will never be tolerated.
Consul General of Israel Dani Dayan spoke about Thessaloniki, known as Salonica in the Ladino language spoken by the once-thriving community there, and as “the Mother of Israel.” He pointed out that the port was closed on the Sabbath because the workers were mostly Jewish before the community was devastated by the Holocaust.
Dayan then spoke about Zakynthos and how the small Jewish community was saved by Bishop Chrysostomos and Mayor Loukas Karreris who when the Nazis demanded a list of the names of all the Jews on the island gave their two names only while the Greek Christians hid their fellow Greeks who happened to be Jews in the mountain villages. The bishop and mayor were later honored as “Righteous Among the Nations,” an honor given to non-Jews who, at personal risk, saved Jews during the Holocaust.
Dayan noted the responsibility to combat anti-Semitism and bigotry in all its forms everywhere and added that as the representative of Israel, “when we say ‘never again,’ we mean never again.”
Rabbi Dr. Martin A. Cohen then thanked all those for their presence, especially his good friend Archbishop Demetrios and also Metropolitan Evangelos of New Jersey and all the dignitaries and representatives from Greece and Israel. He led the prayers, first explaining the meaning of the memorial prayer and the affirmation of faith in God.
Rabbi Dr. Cohen also recounted his time as a young man in the Air Force when he volunteered to help fight wildfires in California, dousing the embers that could re-ignite at any moment, and noted we all have “the collective responsibility to douse the embers of hate.”
Solomon Asser, President of the American Friends of the Jewish Museum of Greece, thanked all those present and spoke about the nearly 2500 year presence of Jews in Greece. He noted that in remembering the Holocaust, we have prevailed and led a moment of silence. Asser concluded by saying, “We must never forget.”
Greek filmmaker Steven Priovolos then introduced a clip from his documentary film about Zakynthos, Life Will Smile. The moving story of survival brought tears to the eyes of many in the audience.
Keynote speaker Katherine E. Fleming, Alexander S. Onassis Professor of Hellenic Culture and Civilization and Provost of New York University spoke about the remarkable letter written by Marcel Nadjari, a Greek Jewish prisoner in the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp and a member of the Sonderkommando work detail. The farewell letter addressed to his friends was unearthed in 1980 at the concentration camp but was almost completely illegible. Recently modern technology has made the letter 85 percent legible. The 12 pages reveal the horrors of the concentration camp and also Nadjari’s Greekness.
Composer/pianist Phyto Stratis on piano and singer Nektarios Antoniou then presented a beautiful and moving musical performance, the Greek lyrics offering a poignant tribute to the victims of the Holocaust.
His Eminence Archbishop Demetrios gave the closing remarks, praising the event and the presentations, and noting that he was born and raised in Thessaloniki, Salonica, and the Jewish community had 31 synagogues and two newspapers which were “very cosmopolitan.” He offered his memories and thoughts on the war and the devastation of the Holocaust. “Never again,” His Eminence said.
Among those present were the Permanent Representative of Greece to the United Nations Maria Theofili, Consul of Greece in New York Lana Zochiou, Atlantic Bank President Nancy Papaioannou, David Harris, Prof. Demetrios Argyriades, Olga Bornozi, Dr. George Liakeas, Marilena and Ari Christodoulou, and many members of the community.
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