'Neo-Nazis are Raising Their Heads' in Greece
After the desecration of Larissa's Jewish cemetery, Rabbi Mordechai Frizis warns it is a 'sad symptom of what could happen in Greece.'
The Larissa Jewish cemetery was desecrated last Tuesday in the latest incident in a long string of anti-Semitic vandalism in Greece.
Larissa, a major city located in central Greece, is home to Greece's third largest Jewish community. The graffiti found on the Jewish cemetery in the city was signed by a group called the "Larissa Skins."
The vandals sprayed swastikas and other anti-Semitic symbols and slogans.
Several Jews from the community who came to visit the Jewish cemetery found "another six million" inscribed on the cemetery's gates. Vandals also sprayed the symbol of Nazi SS troops and the word "Jew."
Jewish communities in the country quickly condemned the incident in Larissa.
"Anti-Semitism is not only a threat to Jews, but a threat to our whole democracy," the Central Board of Jewish Communities in Greece said in a statement.
The organization then called on Municipal and State authorities to condemn the act and take all necessary steps to apprehend and punish those responsible.
Former rabbi of Salonika, Rabbi Mordechai Frizis, spoke with Arutz Sheva about the event and the anti-Semitic wave plaguing Greece, which in Frizis' opinion is likely only to increase.
"These are sad symptoms of what is taking place in Greece with regard to local Jewish history," Frizis said, adding that "what is happening in Greece is painful. The neo-Nazis are raising their heads."
"In the most recent case neo-Nazis desecrated the Jewish cemetery in Larissa, near [my former] community of Salonika. They painted swastikas and anti-Semitic slogans such as 'Jews Out,'" Frizis described.
"But it is not the only case in recent time," the rabbi continued.
"Last month, a monument erected in memory of the ancient Jewish cemetery in the city of Salonika was vandalized when leftist radicals spray-painted on it 'Release Palestine.'"
Other recent incidents include October's desecration of the Athens Holocaust Monument, which was vandalized with anti-Semitic graffiti by the ultra-nationalist neo-Nazi group, Unaligned Meander Nationalists.
The same group vandalized the Holocaust Monument on the island of Rhodes in October 2012.
"Greece of today is broken by poverty and the difficult social problems are gradually becoming more extreme," Frizis noted.
"Recently, there has been talk of early elections. The leading parties in the polls are the radical-left Syriza Party, which is also extremely anti-Israel, and the extreme-right neo-Nazi Golden Dawn Party."
"You can take this as a sad sign of what might happen in Greece with regard to Jewish history and tolerance," Frizis concluded.
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