Editorial by Elias V. Messinas
Welcome to the second
issue of the second volume of Kol haKEHILA! October was a month
that left us with a feeling of optimism and gave us energy to continue
our efforts towards the preservation of the Greek Jewish heritage. I was
fortunate enough to participate in the events that took place in Washington,
DC commemorating the Holocaust in Greece; I was present at the
highly emotional dedication ceremonies and services that took place in
Hania, at the newly restored synagogue Etz Hayim. Only a day later,
the Jewish Community of Athens witnessed the mayor renaming a square
in Athens to honor the Jewish victims who perished in the Holocaust;
the nomination of the Kahal Shalom synagogue of Rhodes to the prestigious
WMF 100-most endangered sites in the world, which will allow the Rhodes
Jewish community to preserve this important synagogue, the oldest standing
in Greece; finally, the revitalized Jewish Community of Salonika made
its presence felt at the two Sephardic music evenings it organized
in Israel. All this activity together with the ever increasing response
from our readers and visitors to our web site, strengthen further our
commitment to our goals.
We have made every possible effort to complete the construction of the
Kol haKEHILA site on the internet before the end of the
millennium; in the coming year we will use this sophisticated infrastructure
to increase our activity. We invite our readers to visit our site and
offer suggestions, ideas, and comments towards its improvement and increase
of services. We also welcome organizations and institutions to establish
links to and from our site.
In the site you will also find our new culture shop, in which our readers
will find books, cards, back issues of Kol haKEHILA and much more,
relating to Greek Jewish history, culture, and architecture.
Finally, due to demand from our readers, Kol haKEHILA is organizing
its first Jewish Heritage Tour to Greece to take place in April.
More details inside.
We welcome our new subscribers and we express our gratitude to our
dedicated sponsors who make this publication and our web site possible.
We thank our readers who contributed letters and articles. We thank Prof.
Carol Krinsky for her help with this issue. |