Jewish community deplores desecration of monuments, cemeteries

Greece’s Jewish community has expressed abhorrence over the recent desecration of several Jewish monuments in the country. The latest incident was the vandalism last Friday of the Thessaloniki Holocaust Memorial where unknown assailants spray-painted the monument with the phrase, With Jews you lose.

In a statement, the Jewish Community of Thessaloniki (JCT) deplored what it said was an insult to the symbol erected by the Greek government to honor the memory of the 50,000 Thessaloniki Jews who were exterminated by the Nazis. The incident follows the vandalism of the Jewish cemeteries of Athens on October 5 and of Thessaloniki on October 10, as well as the desecration of the Jewish Cemetery of Rhodes on October 11.

Referring to the spate of attacks, the Central Board of Jewish Communities in Greece (KIS), the umbrella organization of Greek Jews, said they do not frighten us. It linked the attacks to the recent conviction of neo-Nazi groups as criminal organizations. Tolerance of vandalism of cemeteries and monuments is tolerance of vandalism of memory and culture; it is tolerance of anti-Semitism.

NEWS SOURCE:- ekathimerini