The World Jewish Congress and the Conference of European Rabbis today issued the following joint statement calling on the head of the Greek Orthodox Church in Greece, Archbishop Ieronymos II, and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew to condemn vitriolic, anti-Semitic public statements recently made by Metropolitan of Piraeus Seraphim and Metropolitan Anthimos of Salonika. The Metropolitan Seraphim, one of the Greek Orthodox Churches highest officials, appeared on a morning show on Greek television and falsely charged world Jewry with causing the current financial crisis in Greece. He also articulated the outrageous libel that the Jews had financed Adolf Hitler with the “sole purpose of having the Jewish people leave the shores of Europe and go to Israel to establish a new Empire.”
Chief Rabbi Joseph Sitruk, Honorary President of the Conference of European Rabbis, said, “We had hoped that such vicious accusations and canards would no longer emanate from the Greek Orthodox Church in view of the many years of dialogue and cooperation between our two communities to advance ecumenism and mutual understanding. Such insidious pronouncements on the part of high-level Church leaders at such a sensitive time of economic and social instability in Greece are provocative to say the least and have the potential to cause violence.”
Ronald S. Lauder, President of the World Jewish Congress, said, “We call on the Ecumenical Patriarch, head of the Greek Orthodox Church, Archbishop Ieronymos II, to publicly repudiate and condemn these anti-Semitic statements made by Metropolitan Seraphim and Metropolitan Anthimos so that they may not be construed as official Church positions. We hope that the many years of interfaith efforts made by the World Jewish Congress and the Conference of European Rabbis will now demonstrate that positive relations developed between the Church, the Greek government, and the Jewish community and Israel have grown and matured and that these horrendous expressions of anti-Semitism will be immediately renounced.”
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Leaders of Greece’s small Jewish community objected on Wednesday to televised remarks by a Greek Orthodox bishop who blamed the country’s financial problems on a conspiracy of Jewish bankers and claimed that the Holocaust was orchestrated by Zionists.
The Central Board of Jewish Communities in Greece complained to church authorities about the anti-Semitic remarks made by the Metropolitan Seraphim of Piraeus during a recent interview on Greek television, according to a statement (in Greek) on the group’s Web site.
The Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported that the bishop “said that there is a conspiracy to enslave Greece and Christian Orthodoxy. He also accused international Zionism of trying to destroy the family unit by promoting one-parent families and same-sex marriages.”
According to the news agency, when the bishop was then asked, “Why do you disagree with Hitler’s policies? If they are doing all this, wasn’t he right in burning them?” he replied: “Adolf Hitler was an instrument of world Zionism and was financed from the renowned Rothschild family with the sole purpose of convincing the Jews to leave the shores of Europe and go to Israel to establish the new Empire.” He added that Jewish bankers like “Rockefeller, Rothschild and Soros control the international banking system that controls globalization.”
Greece’s Jewish community is ancient, but only about 10,000 Greek Jews survived the Holocaust.
The president of the European Jewish Congress, Moshe Kantor, called for the bishop to be fired in a statement sent to reporters on Wednesday. He added: “It is completely unacceptable that someone senior in a mainstream European religious denomination can make such repulsive and hate-filled claims.”
Earlier this year, the bishop wrote to Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II to demand that Elton John be stripped of his knighthood for telling Parade magazine, “Jesus was a compassionate, super-intelligent gay man.” The bishop also complained to Britain’s ambassador to Greece about the singer’s “unacceptable and absurd” comment, which, he said, had caused “deep pain and bitterness.”