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Wednesday, 12 June 2013 07:56 |
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“The Spiritual and Physical Environment:
Respecting Our World, Respecting One Another”
Coordinated by: The Liaison Office of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, Office of Interreligious and Intercultural Affairs and the International Jewish Committee for Interreligious Consultations
At the invitation of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, distinguished theologians, scholars, and religious leaders met in Thessaloniki, Greece, on June 6, 2013 to commemorate the solidarity Jewish and Christian Orthodox citizens of Thessaloniki displayed at the time of the Shoah orchestrated by the Nazis in World War II, and to discover what processes are necessary to sustain that level of solidarity in the world today. The list of participants is attached.
After being received by the Mayor of Thessaloniki, Ioannis Boutaris, and high level governmental representatives, the consultation opened with a welcome message from His all-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew. Other messages were delivered from the Primates of the Orthodox churches and both Israeli and Greek government officials.
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Thursday, 30 May 2013 13:16 |
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The Central Board of Jewish Communities in Greece calls on all democratic political forces of the country to overcome their differences and vote for a law which would show zero tolerance to racist violence, xenophobia, anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial.
Today, more than any other time in our country’s postwar history, it is necessary to deal with extreme practices and ideologies.
Today, more than ever, it is necessary to enact legislation in order to shield society and democracy against phenomena of racism, xenophobia and anti-Semitism.
In addition, we consider as a very important issue the enhancement of Education through specific programs and initiatives that will provide young people especially with the knowledge and the strength of judgment, so as not to allow society to be drifted into those ideologies that wrote the darkest and most abominable pages of the European history. Ideologies that are responsible for the industrialized death of millions of innocent people, including 6 million Jews.
Athens, May 30, 2013
The Central Board of Jewish Communities in Greece
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Wednesday, 29 May 2013 09:48 |
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The president of the World Jewish Congress (WJC), Ronald S. Lauder, today expressed disappointment with Greece for its continued failure to adopt new legislation to combat hate speech, racism and the denial of the Holocaust. “It is very worrying that the mainstream parties in Athens are apparently unable to find a compromise on this important matter. Hate mongers and extremists such as the leaders of Golden Dawn are not only a threat to minorities such as the Jews; they are a threat to democracy as a whole. Hence, they ought to be fought vigorously by all democratic forces, and with the full force of the law,” Lauder declared.
On Monday, a meeting of the leaders of the parties that form the Greek government on this issue broke up without an agreement. A draft bill by the Greek Justice Ministry is reportedly being opposed by Prime Minister Antonis Samaras’s New Democracy party, which argues that existing legislation suffices in order to deal with racism and hate speech. |
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Friday, 31 May 2013 07:34 |
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President of the European Jewish Congress (EJC) Dr. Moshe Kantor has called on Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras to support an anti-racism bill which would outlaw incitement against people because of their race, religion, ethnicity or sexual orientation, and impose jail sentences of up to six years on offenders, according to reports.
“It is imperative that Prime Minister Samaras support this law which would bolster existing legislation against hate and racism,” Kantor said. “With anti-Semitism, racism and xenophobia on the rise in Greece, the law enforcement authorities need tougher tools to curb this growing wave of hate rapidly spreading across the country.” |
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Friday, 31 May 2013 08:02 |
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Peddling xenophobia, racism and anti-Semitism is not the path to a restored and vibrant Greece,”says David Harris, executive director of the American Jewish Committee (AJC), in an interview with Kathimerini, in which he expresses concern about the growing influence of Golden Dawn, the neofascist party elected to Greek Parliament last summer.
Harris talks about the growing interest of US investors in Greece and stresses that Washington welcomes the ever-closer cooperation between Greece, Israel and Cyprus in the area of energy.
The AJC chief also talks about Washington’s ties with Ankara and US diplomatic efforts to improve ties between Turkey and Israel, which became strained following a 2010 Israeli raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla, in which eight Turks and a Turkish-American were killed.
How do you feel about the decision by the Greek prime minister to cancel his scheduled participation at the upcoming AJC Global Forum, as he failed to also secure a meeting with US President Barack Obama?
Needless to say, we were very disappointed to receive the news, as we had been most eager to welcome Prime Minister Samaras to the AJC Global Forum. He has been a long-standing and cherished friend of AJC for over two decades, and he would have received a rousing ovation from the audience of over 1,500 attendees. That said, we fully understand the decision he took. This would be his first visit to Washington as the Greek prime minister, and it is obviously important that he also use the occasion to meet President Obama. Due to White House scheduling difficulties, regrettably, that was not possible at the time of this year’s AJC Global Forum. But even if Prime Minister Samaras is unable to join us this time, we are delighted that our good friend Foreign Minister [Dimitris] Avramopoulos will be addressing us in Washington on June 3.
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