We arrived safely and had a wonderful day walking around Athens yesterday.
The mission began today with a talk by the community’s president Minos Moissis at the Beit Shalom synagogue in Athens (first two pics below). The talk focused on the growing needs of the community–Greece has been particularly hard hit by the economic decline. Economic need has quadrupled since 2008. The president expressed his support for the support of the North American community through their local federations–annual campaign dollars provide the community significant social service relief through the JDC and JAFI, along with support for Jewish education. Additionally a recent rise in anti-semitism has left the community with significant concerns and doubly grateful for our choosing to visit with them at this time.
The welcome was followed by a brief talk by Rabbi Michael Paley, our scholar in residence, who spoke of the significance that Athens has played to both world and Jewish history.
The synagogue is located on a narrow side street that leads to the Holocaust memorial–a sculpture of a broken Jewish star withy the names of the cities and towns from which Jews were expelled during WWII. We visited there next and held a short memorial service. The narrow street was the sight of the gathering of the Jews by the Nazis on the assurance that would receive matzah for Passover only to be deported to Auschwitz. Anti-semitism is on the rise–the memorial was just defaced ten days ago–even amid a growing Jewish community in Athens.
Dinner tonight will be with members of the local community at the Acropolis museum after greetings from Olga Kefalogianni, Greece’s Minister of Tourism.