In late October, seventeen community members journeyed to Greece on a United Jewish Federation (UJF) Mission led by UJF President Beverly Stein and UJF CEO Diane Sloyer. The mission began in Athens, where the group was able to visit the Parthenon, without scaffolding, for the first time in 200 years. Athens included visits to Beth Shalom Synagogue, the Jewish Museum of Greece, and the Holocaust Monument, a broken Star of David made of marble.

 

Traveling north to Thessaloniki, the group enjoyed a meaningful Shabbat at the Yad Lezicaron Synagogue with the Jewish community and also paid tribute to the tremendous loss in World War II, visiting the train station from where approximately 90 percent of the Jewish population was sent to Auschwitz. Participants also visited the Monastirioton Synagogue, the only surviving pre-WWII synagogue in Thessaloniki, and had time to explore the beautiful city.

 

Traveling southwest, the group journeyed to Ioannina, one of the largest Romaniote Jewish communities in Greece, established 300 to 400 years after the destruction of the First Temple. The mission concluded back in Athens. 

 

Mission participant Meryl Gordon shared, “This was an enlightening, yet heartbreaking journey. We were able to bear witness to the ancient Jewish communities that were decimated by the Holocaust, and to show the few remaining Jewish community members that they are not forgotten.”