Greece: Public outrage at cemetery desecration

Marcia Haddad Ikonomopoulos is the museum director of New York City’s Kehila Kedosha Janina (Ioannina), a congregation formed by early immigrants from this ancient Jewish Romaniote community.

Recently, she passed on good news concerning Christian citizens demonstrating publicly in support of the Jewish cemetery in Ioannina.

Marcia writes:

Normally I would wait for our monthly e-newsletter to pass on recent news from Greece, but some news deserves to be passed on immediately, especially when it is such good news. Too often, negativity makes the front page.

In recent years, anti-Semitism is all too prevalent.

What then can be more emotionally rewarding than to pass on the news of a recent mass demonstration against anti-Semitism?
Where did this demonstration take place? In Ioannina! It was organized by the Christian citizens of the city and was heralded as a “a human chain against racism.”

The cemetery was surrounded by the citizens of Ioannina to show their support for the Jewish community of the city and to publically show their outrage at recent desecrations of Jewish tombstones. In addition, a public exhibition was held, highlighting the ancient Jewish presence in the city and the importance of the Jewish cemetery as a monument to the long Jewish presence in Ioannina.

The committee that organized the public display of support made the following statement: “The Jewish cemetery is not only the religious space of the Jewish Community but, also, a cultural monument of our city, the protection of which, like other historical monuments of our city, is the duty of every citizen.”

Let us all applaud the good citizens of Ioannina who organized and took part in this historic event.

Marcia Haddad Ikonomopoulos
Museum Director
Kehila Kedosha Janina
280 Broome Street
NYC, NY 10002

Visit the congregation’s website for more information. Click “Other Links” (on the left menu of that homepage) for many additional resources for Greek and Sephardic research. Read the online accessible newsletters and view other pages.

Vancouver, BC: Jewish Museum, Archive events, September

The Jewish Museum and Archives of British Columbia sponsors tours and talks on various regional aspects. The Vancouver institution’s next two events cover Vancouver’s Art Deco Bridges and a cemetery tour including the Beth Israel Cemtery.

The last scheduled Jewish walking tour of this season is from 1.30-3.30pm, Thursday, September 17

Tuesday, September 8, 7.30-9pm

Vancouver’s Art Deco Bridges will include Lions Gate and the Burrard Bridge, by author and historian Donald Luxton. The program includes the history and construction of the bridges, archival images and footage, along with updates on their current preservation.

This is in conjunction with the Jewish Museum and Archives’ current exhibit, Vancouver: Bridging its History 1895-1980.

The exhibit features hundreds of black-and-white photos of area bridges shot by Otto F. Landauer, the city’s renowned mid-century Modernist Jewish photographer. Images were selected from the The Leonard Frank Photos Studio fonds. Frank, whose early bridge photos are also on display, was a famed Vancouver Jewish photographer.

The Frank collection is one of the largest held by the Jewish Museum and Archives of British Columbia, covering 1880-1983 with nearly 40,000 images. German Jews Leonard and Bernard Frank later sold their studio to Landauer, who operated it until his death.

Luxton is president of Heritage Vancouver and the Canadian Art Deco Society, and co-author of the award-winning book “Lions Gate,” and author of the Burrard Bridge Heritage Study.

Sunday, September 13, 10am-12.30pm

There will be a Masonic and Beth Israel Cemetery Tour.Tour two side-by-side little-known Burnaby cemeteries.

At the Masonic Cemetery, learn about a fallen police officer, an Olympic gold medalist, a Victoria Cross winner, Mr. Whistle and the Woodward Mausoleum. At the Beth Israel Cemetery, Jewish burial traditions and biographies will be explored.

This is presented in collaboration with the Burnaby Village Museum (registration required; tickets $10.50; click on the website for more information). Tracing the Tribe had trouble connecting with this URL and it’s possible the site is being worked on.

Spain: Toledo medieval cemetery

According to JTA, the remains of some 100 individuals exhumed from a Toledo Medieval Jewish cemetery during construction works were reburied in the cemetery.

A Conference of European Rabbis spokesman said the reburial took place during a ceremony attended by local Jewish leaders and regional authorities.

The reburial was the result of recently concluded lengthy negotiations that recently concluded. The Conference noted the Spanish government and local Jewish federation’s solidarity and cooperation to achieve a historic solution under Jewish law.

Following protests and demonstrations by Orthodox Jews outside Spanish embassies in other countries, the government had halted construction.

Although Toledo authorities had offered to hand over the remains for reburial elsewhere, the Jewish community, Conference of European Rabbis and the Committee for the Preservation of Jewish Cemeteries in Europe, demanded the remains be returned to their original site.

Construction on the school site will continue, but only around the cemetery, and the area will be marked as an ancient Jewish cemetery.