Editorial by Elias V. Messinas
Welcome to the issue
which concludes two years of growth and expansion, both of the Kol haKEHILA
newsletter and Kol haKEHILA online. With increasing activity and
postings, both reflect a growing interest in Greek Jewish heritage and
an increase in the ties between the Greek and the Jewish cultures and
peoples.
The most important event since our last issue was undoubtedly the official
visit of the Greek President Costantinos Stephanopoulos, to Israel,
the honorary doctorate bestowed by the Hebrew University of Jerusalem
to the Greek president, and the announcement of the creation of a Center
for Greek Studies at the Hebrew University. Kol haKEHILA is
proud to have assisted in the success of the doctoral ceremony, and to
have invited our Israeli readers to attend.
In this issue, Samuel Gruber presents the efforts of the Jewish community
of Greece to preserve its Jewish monuments. Raphael Frezis briefly
presents the conference in Volos on the preservation of the Jewish
monuments of Greece. Asher Matathias and Isaac Dostis report on ceremonies
honoring the Righteous of the Nations who hid and saved Greek Jewish
families during the Holocaust. The Jews of Athens were shocked to find
their cemetery desecrated in mid-May. Vassilios Katsoupas presents
his documentary film on the Jews of Ioannina. Daniel Ractliffe
informs our readers on the exhibition organized by the Jews of Sicily
and makes known their plans to establish a Jewish museum. Finally,
in this issue we briefly present two new books: one on the Jews of Rhodes
and the other by the late Rabbi of Hania, Crete.
We thank all of you for keeping us informed. Especially, we thank Prof.
Carol Krinsky, Asher Matathias, Marcia Haddad-Ikonomopoulos, Stella Levi,
Raphael Frezis, Leon Saltiel, Sabis Kamhis, Marcos Kamhis, and Natalie
Pisante, for their help in this issue.
We thank our sponsors and welcome our new subscribers for joining and
supporting Kol haKEHILA. |