The Anti-Defamation League (ADL), an organization fighting anti-Semitism, expressed outrage over the decision by the City Council of Kavala, Greece to cancel the unveiling of a monument dedicated to the 1,484 Jews of the community who were murdered in the Holocaust.
According to the Central Board of Jewish Communities in Greece, the mayor of Kavala objected to the Star of David engraved on the monument and asked for its removal before the monument could be officially presented.
“To object to a Star of David on the monument is morally reprehensible,” said Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director and a Holocaust survivor.
“Kavala’s Jews were killed because they were Jews, and the value of a monument is to make that fact demonstrably clear. The mayor and the City Council have insulted the memory of victims, the Greek Jewish community, and Jews around the world, and we join with the Greek Jewish community in voicing our outrage.”
Mr. Foxman added, “We appreciate the immediate and meaningful condemnation by Giorgos Kalantzis, the Greek government’s Secretary General for Religious Affairs, and support his call for the citizens of Kavala to act to overturn this insulting decision.”
A recent ADL poll in 100 countries found that 69 percent of those surveyed in Greece harbor anti-Semitic attitudes, including 60 percent of the respondents agreeing with the statement, “Jews still talk too much about what happened to them in the Holocaust.”
The Anti-Defamation League, founded in 1913, is the world’s leading organization fighting anti-Semitism through programs and services that counteract hatred, prejudice and bigotry.
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