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The Central Jewish Council of Greece condemns the forcible cancellation of the Embassy of Israel's event on the theme "Changing Landscapes of Jewish Literature" within the framework of the International Book Fair in Thessaloniki. Book fairs are spaces for dialogue and the free flow of ideas that aim to foster intellectual understanding of different cultural and literary backgrounds.
Demonstrations of hatred against Israelis and Jews - particularly in the city of Thessaloniki, where 80 years ago 50000 Jews were deported and murdered in Nazi death camps - undermine the very essence of democracy and serve as a reminder that before the Holocaust came Kristallnacht, when the Nazis burned books.
More: KISE ANNOUNCEMENT ON CANCELLATION OF EVENT ON JEWISH LITERATURE
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Yom Hazikaron, Israel’s Memorial Day for fallen soldiers and victims of terrorism, began yesterday evening in Israel and throughout the Diaspora. It continues today and is immediately followed by the celebrations of Israel’s Independence Day.
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Today marks Holocaust Remembrance Day, which this year commemorates 80 years since the liberation of Auschwitz and the revelation of the greatest crime in human history: the Holocaust — the extermination of 6 million European Jews by Nazi Germany and its collaborators.
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Today, the funerals of the children Kfir and Ariel, and their mother Siri Bibas and Oded Lifshitz, who were kidnapped on October 7, 2023, tortured and brutally murdered by Hamas terrorists, are being held. The entire society of Israel mourns for its children, people accompany their children to their final resting place. We stand by them and support the pain of the Bibas and Lifshitz families and the national mourning of the entire Israeli society.
On this day of mourning, we remember all those who fell victims to the cruelty of Hamas terrorists and pray that all hostages still held in the tunnels of Gaza will be returned to their families in Israel.
Athens, 26.2.2025
Central Board of Jewish Communities in Greece
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Kfir Bibas was 9 months old and his older brother, Ariel, 4 years old when they were kidnapped by Hamas terrorists on October 7, 2023, with their mother, Shiri, holding them tightly in her arms. Oded Lifshitz was 84, a retired journalist and peace activist.
Today, the 4 hostages are returning, not to live, but to be buried in the land of Israel. The Israeli citizens, after continuing to hope for 503 days, are faced with the saddest picture of their own people.
An entire country was shocked on 7.10.23 by the photo of Shiri Bibas (32) hugging her two red-haired sons, 9-month-old Kfir and 4-year-old Ariel, as they were surrounded in Kibbutz Nir Oz by Hamas terrorists who were leading them to captivity in Gaza. Oded Lifshitz was kidnapped from his home in Kibbutz Nir Oz.
The heart of a society today is shattered when the news is confirmed that a mother with her two children and an elderly man were kidnapped, held, tortured and murdered by cruel terrorists. A society that stands united, respectfully in front of the Israeli flag-draped coffins of its own children. Our own children!!!
Athens, 20 February 2025
Central Board of Jewish Communities in Greece