Jewish groups are expressing outrage and concern after Greek officials demanded that the Star of David be removed from the outside of a new Holocaust museum on the eve of its opening, according to multiple statements released by these groups.
Several Jewish organizations revealed over the weekend that local officials in the Greek town of Kavala canceled a Sunday ceremony meant to mark the official opening of a Holocaust memorial museum in the city, where nearly 1,500 Jewish people were killed by the Nazis.
The ceremony was canceled at the last minute after Greek officials demanded that the Jewish Star of David "be removed before the monument can be displayed," according to the American Jewish Committee (AJC), which became aware of the controversy following an alert from its partner organization, the Central Board of Jewish Communities in Greece.
Only two days before the ceremony, the mayor and a majority of the city council are insisting that the image of the Star of David be removed before the monument can be displayed," the AJC said in a statement.
"There are no words to express adequately our shock and dismay at this news," said AJC executive director David Harris was quoted as saying in the group’s statement.
Greece, like other countries in Europe, continues to be plagued by growing anti-Semitism. Nearly all of Greece’s once-vibrant Jewish population was murdered during the Holocaust.
"How can it be that the eternal symbol of the Jewish people—the very symbol that the Nazis required Jews to wear in the death camps and ghettos of Europe during the Second World War—is deemed unfit for public display in Kavala?" Harris asked. "What gall for the Jewish community to be asked to remove the Star of David as a condition for allowing the monument to be displayed!"
B’nai B’rith International (BBI) also referred to the incident as "deplorable"
"The stunning demand by the mayor and city council of Kavala, Greece, to remove the very symbol that was used to separate Jews from the rest of the community during the Holocaust is beyond insensitive," BBI said in a statement. "This is an attempt to erase history."
BBI said it is contacting Greek government officials directly in order to make them aware of what they called a "deeply troubling situation."
Kavala Mayor Dimitra Tsanaka confirmed to news outlets that some officials had "objected to the size and placement of the Star of David," Fox News reported. A new ceremony to mark the Holocaust memorial’s opening is slated to take place "very soon," according to these reports.
AJC’s David Harris urged Greek officials to immediately reconsider their decision to object to the memorial.
"We stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the Greek Jewish community, and indeed with all Greeks who are as outraged as we are, by this brazen insult to the memory of Greek citizens who were arrested, deported, and murdered simply because they were Jews," Harris said.