A Conversation with the Mayor: The Honorable Moses Elisaf, Mayor of Ioannina
by ZoomMoses Elisaf was born in Ioannina in 1954 and graduated from the University of Athens in 1979. His parents were Holocaust survivors who managed to escape the roundup during which most of Ioannina's Jews were deported to Auschwitz; only 9% of the community survived. Elisaf is a pathologist, a professor of internal medicine at Ioannina...
Marcia Haddad Ikonomopoulos, Museum Director, Kehila Kedosha Janina, “Meet Me on the Corner of Broome and Allen: A Visit to Kehila Kedosha Janina”
by ZoomMarcia Haddad Ikonomopoulos gives us a virtual tour of Kehila Kedosha Janina, the only Romaniote synagogue in the Western Hemisphere. The congregation was founded in 1906 by Greek Jewish immigrants from Ioannina, but the synagogue itself was not erected until 1927. The years from then until the Second World War were a time of prosperity...
Greek Book Club: Ρίκα Μπενβενίστε, Λούνα
Στο βιβλίο αυτό, η βιογραφία της Λούνας ανοίγει ένα μονοπάτι για να ξανασκεφτούμε τους Εβραίους της Θεσσαλονίκης στην πόλη τους, τη Shoah, τη φτώχεια και τα ανάποδα μεταπολεμικά χρόνια. Επειδή ήταν φτωχή, αγράμματη και γυναίκα, τα ίχνη της εύκολα χάνονται ανάμεσα στους αφανείς της ιστορίας. Αρχειακά τεκμήρια, καταγεγραμμένες μαρτυρίες, φωτογραφίες και προσωπικές αναμνήσεις συναρμόζονται ως...
Leon Saltiel, “Dehumanizing the Dead: The Destruction of Thessaloniki’s Jewish Cemetery during World War II”
by ZoomThis lecture will discuss the destruction of Thessaloniki’s ancient and vast Jewish cemetery which commenced in December 1942. The cemetery, located close to the city center, had long become the object of a dispute between the Christian and Jewish communities, with the former wishing to expropriate it in favor of the city’s new University and...
Rena Molho, “Problems of Incorporating the Holocaust into the Greek Collective Memory”
by ZoomTolerance of antisemitism and neo-Nazism in Greece in recent years shows that the Holocaust has not yet been incorporated into the Greek national consciousness. This could be (partly) because Greece did not commemorate the Holocaust until it became a member of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance in 2005. By reviewing the reactions of the Greek...
A Celebration of Greek Language Day: Professor Kathryn Morgan, “Know Thyself: Ancient Proverbs and the Road to Wisdom.”
Professor Kathryn Morgan, UCLA Department of Classics “Know Thyself: Ancient Proverbs and the Road to Wisdom” The Sages of Ancient Greece were renowned for their pithy formulations of proverbial wisdom. Perhaps the most famous of these was the saying inscribed on the temple of Apollo at Delphi: “Know thyself!” (γνῶθι σεαυτόν), a command that had...
James Barron, The Greek Connection: The Life of Elias Demetracopoulos and the Untold Story of Watergate
The event will be offered on Zoom. RSVP to shorturl.at/dhjAU to receive the link. Download the Zoom app prior to the lecture to participate. He was one of the most fascinating figures in 20th-century political history. Yet today, Elias Demetracopoulos is strangely overlooked--even though his life reads like an epic adventure story. As a...
Thomas Gallant, “From Orphan to Abolitionist: Photius Fisk and the Making of Greek America”
by ZoomTo participate in this event, RSVP here.
Josiah Ober, Mitsotakis Professor of Political Science and Classics, Stanford University “Bargain/Revolution/Bargain. An Ancient Athenian Recipe for Democracy.”
To participate in this event, RSVP here.
Greek Book Club: Γιώργος Κυριακόπουλος, Η τρισεγγονή της Aραπίνας και άλλες ιστορίες
by Zoom«Να μπω εγώ σε ξένη κάμαρη; Ποτέ», απάντησε η σπιτονοικοκυρά με την αρχοντιά γυναίκας με άμεμπτες αρχές. Όμως σαν πήγε τρεις και κάτι, κάποιος της υπέβαλε την ιδέα πως μπορεί να μην είναι καλά, να είναι μέσα και να χρειάζεται βοήθεια. Με κατεβασμένα τα μούτρα πήγε η Γεωργία στο σκρίνιο, που φυλούσε το κουτί...
David A. Bell, Sidney and Ruth Lapidus Professor in the Era of North Atlantic Revolutions; Professor of History, Princeton University, “The Greek Revolution in the Age of Revolution”
David A. Bell is a historian of early modern France, with a particular interest in the political culture of the Old Regime and the French Revolution. He attended graduate school at Princeton, where he worked with Robert Darnton, and received his Ph.D. in 1991. From 1990 to 1996 he taught at Yale, and from...