AJC Delegation, Greek Leaders Discuss Shared Concerns

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Jan 30, 2012, 11:14 ET

ATHENS, Greece, Jan. 30, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- An AJC leadership delegation has just concluded a three-day trip to Greece, marking the agency's third visit in the past 17 months.

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Led by AJC Executive Director David Harris, the group met with, among others, Defense Minister Dimitris Avramopoulos; President of the "New Democracy" Party Antonis Samaras; PASOK party officials; Thessaloniki Mayor Yiannis Boutaris; Deputy Foreign Minister Dimitris Dollis; Israel's Ambassador to Greece Arye Mekel; and leaders of the Greek Jewish community.

Discussions with key officials focused primarily on the Iranian nuclear threat, blossoming Greek-Israeli relations, ongoing developments in the Arab world, and Greece's domestic challenges.

"AJC returns again and again to Greece for one fundamental reason," Harris explained. "We do so as a sign of our abiding friendship and solidarity with Greece, the Greek people, and Greek Jewry, which today are weathering immensely difficult times."

On Sunday, January 29, Harris spoke at the annual Holocaust remembrance ceremony in Thessaloniki, an event he has attended on three previous occasions, including in 2005 with then German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer and in 1996 when the city's Holocaust monument was inaugurated. In addition to the U.S. Consul General, a number of European diplomats also attended the ceremony, together with civic leaders and members of the Jewish community.

Proportionally, Greece lost a larger percentage of its Jewish population in the Holocaust than any other European country. Moreover, ninety-six percent of Thessaloniki's 50,000 Jews were deported and murdered in the Nazi death camps.

In late 2011, given the economic crisis engulfing Greece, AJC made an emergency humanitarian donation to assist in the care of elderly and vulnerable Greek Holocaust survivors in Thessaloniki.

"Before the war, Thessaloniki was a vibrant center of Sephardic culture and the Jews played a vital role in the city's life," said Harris.

"Today, the community is a bare shadow of its former self, but laudably determined not only to remember the past but chart a brighter future," Harris added. "To visit Greek Jewry, with which AJC has an association agreement, is to be inspired by their tenacity and pride. And to visit Greece is to be struck by the growth spurt in Greek-Israeli bilateral ties in recent years. In a period of great tumult, the strategic alliance developing between these two democracies is a natural and mutually beneficial partnership."

"If history is a guide, we'll be back soon," Harris concluded. "Since AJC began engaging Greece three decades ago, it has been gratifying to see such dramatic improvements on so many issues of mutual concern."

SOURCE American Jewish Committee