December 27, 2011 – New York – AJC is providing emergency financial aid to the Thessaloniki (Salonika) Jewish community to help Holocaust survivors pay for their medical care and other daily expenses. Given the deep economic crisis in Greece, the Jewish community’s resources are being stretched to the limit.

"We feel privileged to assist our cherished friends in Thessaloniki, who are few in number and face extraordinary financial challenges at this critical time,” said AJC Executive Director David Harris, who has visited Thessaloniki, as well as Athens, numerous times over the years. “The Thessaloniki Jewish community’s determination to provide essentials to improve the quality of life for the remaining Holocaust survivors is laudable and deserves help."

Before the Nazi invasion of Greece, Thessaloniki was one of the most vibrant and pulsating centers of Sephardic Jewish life in the world. During the war, an astonishing 96 percent of the Jewish community there was deported and killed in the Nazi death camps. Only a handful survived.

In a letter thanking AJC for the grant, David Saltiel, President of the Thessaloniki Jewish community, wrote:  “Through this generous gesture, you have given a prime example of solidarity, a fundamental element of world Jewry.”

AJC has long had an association agreement with the Greek Jewish community.

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