Crete, Greece – The Jewish community of Greece protested today after an arson attack against the only synagogue on the Island of Crete, urging the authorities to take measures in order to get rid of “similar phenomenons of anti-Semitism.”
According to local police, unknown individuals broke into the Etz-Hayyim synagogue’s yard an hour after midnight and set fire to an outdoor wooden ladder which leads to the library.
The synagogue is located in the city of Hania’s historic old quarter.
Thanks to the swift intervention of the fire brigade, the fire was extinguished immediately before it threatened the temple and the adjoining library, which features roughly 1,600 rare books and manuscripts.
Hania Fire Brigade chief said that at the scene, firefighters found a bottle with a flammable liquid still burning.
Authorities in the port city said the synagogue’s main doors were locked and that the alarm system sounded when firefighters broke down the main gate to enter the building.
The medieval Etz-Hayyim synagogue serves as a place for prayer, a museum and memorial and a library recording the long and troubled history of Crete’s Jews.
Until 1999 it was a desecrated house of prayer that remained the sole Jewish monument on the Island of Crete after the destruction of the Jewish community in 1944.
From 1996 until the year of its re-dedication in 1999 the structure has been painstakingly restored. It is mentioned on the it was still mentioned on the World Monument Fund’s list of most endangered sites.
The nearly 300 members of the Hania Jewish community were shipped out by the Nazi invaders in 1944, and died when their ship was sunk in transit by an Allied torpedo.
The synagogue’s director, Nikos Hanaan Stavroulakis, warned in a daily newspaper of Crete against racist act aiming in particular the immigrants in Hania.
Acts of vandalism sporadically aim Jewish cemeteries and buildings in Greece, whose community counts only a few thousands of people, after its extermination to more than 80% by the Nazis during WWII.
Last June, unknown people desecrated the Jewish cemetery in Ioannina, in the North-West of the country.
(Source: EJP)
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5 Responses
its gentiles responsibility in that and every community where it occurs to round up money from all the citizens in the area and give it to the jews and publisize it to show these criminals that it only hurts themselves and THIER COMMUNITY. it will solve the problem and it is right. im waiting…..
Greeks and Jews have a long complex history with many ups and downs but on balance I think each group has benefited tremendously from knowing one another.
Jews as a nationless nomadic minority have suffered greatly at the hands of many people over the ages (including Greeks). On the other side as Palestinians in Israel shows it is sometimes not as easy as it looks to balance minority rights once one has control of a nation.
In any case, I’m terribly ashamed of this incident.The wonderful Jewish people have suffered this sort of thing long enough. I can only hope Jews don’t think all Greeks hate them because of the occasional hateful troll. I’m Greek, and I think you are a great light on this earth.
Hopefully the authorities will find the perpetrator to bring him to justice.
~ shalom
i am very pleased to read your comment Demetri. My father was born and raised in Thesaloniki where my grand mother and oncles still leave. they are part of the reamin of what was the pride of worlds jewery.
I have to disagree witht the comparaison with the palestinains. They have so much land and coutries that could accept them.egypt, lebanon, syria,S arabia etc…. We never had where else to go.we often suffered from our host countries. and the land we have is soooooooooooo small.
Anyway thank you so much for your comment
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Kapetas,
No offense was intended. I used to lean on the Palestinian side but as I’ve grown older I’ve changed my mind. After all the arguments are said and done, I’ve observed you are a good people. You are talented. You work tremendously hard. You use reason to produce way beyond your numbers.
This is your time so it’s not my place to lecture you self-righteously on what you should do for yourselves but at some point my hope is that you become secure enough in your own strength that you can finally find a place for them too.
I as a Greek born Australian am also very offended by the actions of a few .
In my dealings with Jewish people i have found they are fair and honorable and hard working people who adapt and benefit their communities .
I hope the person or person(s) responsible are not of Greek heritage cause this is not the way we have been taught .