THE PATRIARCH OF JERUSALEM PARTICIPATES IN EVENT OF THE COMMEMORATION OF JEWISH VICTIMS OF NAZISM

On the morning of Easter Thursday, the 3^rd/16^th of April 2015, the B’nai B’rith Organisation and Keren Kayemet Le – Israel hosted an event in the memory of World War II Jewish victims of Nazism in Greece, mainly Volos. The event was also held in honour of rabbi Pesah of Volos who, in collaboration with the then Metropolitan of Demetrias, Joachim Alexopoulos, the Mayor of Volos, and Greek rebels, helped approximately 1,000 Jewish citizens flee the town and find refuge in Greek families in the countryside. Of the Jewish residents in Volos, 85% survived the war to return to their hometown. 

The event took place in a vast forest where 6.000.000 trees have been planted, as many the Jewish victims of Nazism. It was attended by representatives of the B’nai B’rith, Mr Haim Katz of Keren Kayemet, Mr Efi Stenzler, grandson of rabbi Pesah, the President of Jewish Communities in Greece, Mr Moses Constantinis, and the Greek Ambassador to Israel, Mr Spyridon Lamprides.

In the addresses heard at the event, special reference was made to the harmonious coexistence of Greek Jews with the rest of the Greeks in Greece, especially Volos, and the contribution of the Greek nation to the rescue of Greek Jews from Nazi mania.

Patriarch Theophilos was the first to speak at the ceremony, see link:http://www.jp-newsgate.net/en/2015/04/16/13879

The event ended with the reading of the names of children victims from Volos, and a performance of the Israeli National Anthem.

From the Secretariat-General

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