A.Debrunner talks with M.Triandafyllidis

Some time ago Dr.Moshe made me aware of a beautiful passage in the correspondence between a swiss and a greek linguist which I think is worth bringing it to surface.

In 1938 the renown Swiss linguist Albert Debrunner (1884-1958) corresponded with Manolis Triandafyllidis who is the author of the famous “Grammar” of Triandafyllidis. Here’s an abstract of one of his letters:

Inzwischen habe ich freilich die Redaktion der IF aufgeben müssen: nach der neuesten Wendung in Deutschland müssen jüdische Mitarbeiter ausgeschalter werden und damit kann ich mich (gerade weil ich «Arier» bin) nicht einverstanden erklären.

Εν τω μεταξύ χρειάστηκε να εγκαταλείψω τη διεύθυνση του IF [Indogermanische Forschungen, κορυφαίο γλωσσολογικό περιοδικό στην Ευρώπη]: μετά την τελευταία αλλαγή στη Γερμανία, δεν γίνονται πλέον δεκτοί Εβραίοι συνεργάτες και έτσι εγώ (ακριβώς επειδή είμαι «Άρειος») δεν μπορούσα να φαίνομαι σύμφωνος με κάτι τέτοιο.

In the meantime I had to abandon the direction of IF [Indogermanische Forschungen, a top linguistic journal in Europe]: after the latest change in Germany, Jewish collaborators are not accepted and this way (exactly because I’m an “arian”) I could not appear to be in accordance with it.

This is the reason that when I hear people talking about who saved whom during the Shoah/Holocaust I become slightly irritated. Everyone claims everything and the moral standing, the physical courage that people like Debrunner is belittled. It took guts at those times to follow a just path and people like Debrunner or Archibissop Damaskinos do not deserve to be used as an excuse for the silence of others.

Still Dr.Moshe, (who’s linguistic blog I urge anyone remotely interested in the greek language to visit), ended with a remark which I share with you and I sincerely hope to be true:

“As long as there are still voices, which talked under these circumstances, I believe we can still hope.”

So a personal thank you and my deep gratitude to all the people who stood up then; my admiration to those who continue, under different circumstances of course, to do so today.

Burning jews…with a vengeance!

A year ago we had dealt with the evergreen folk custom of “The Burning of Judas/Jew” - “Το Κάψιμo του Ιούδα/Οβριού”.

Anyway a year passed, yet again nothing changed and yet again the only time anyone took notice was only when the State Department published it’s yearly report on religious freedom which reported the protests of the Greek Jewish Community. So I thought it would be rude not to re-propose the same article also this year. :)

Let’s go again though the salient points of last year:

1. The custom was an occasion for antisemitic outbursts during Easter.
2. These outbursts happened in all of Greece, including Asia Minor greek communities, Thessaloniki, Crete and the islands of the Aegean like Hydra or of Ionio like Corfu.
3. This is according to the Metropolite Anthimos a pagan custom and not a christian one and should stop.
4. The Catholic Church at Syros banished it because of the violence it procured, despite the people wanting it to continue.
5. University professors like F.Abatzopoulou agree that the “Burning of Judas” is the “most familiar and widespread manifestation of traditional anti-Semitism in Greece.”
6. The National Tourism Organization is proud of the custom and continues to promote it in various web sites.
7. Various elementary schools are proud to teach small children how one can burn Judas/Jew.
8. The Regional Directorship of the Primary Education in Thessaly, is happy to offer easter carols that tell the children how to “burn the Jew” and talk about “damned jews”. (By the way in the meantime let’s also talk about how the gipsies supplied the nails with which Jesus was crucified).
9. The Holy Synod of the Greek Church considers this custom to “incite to religious hatred” and “foster fanatism” and condemned it inqequivoabilly in encyclicals in 1891, 1910 and 1918. (Strangely it has failed to do so recently but that’s another story).
10. The Jewish Community has officially Metropolites like the one of Hydra to voice their dissent, (and they have refused to).

So unless the Greek Church was taken over by zionists that wanted Greece to appear evil, it has asked that Greek Orthodox Christians should refrain from the Burning of Judas/ Jew/ Niger because it is contrary to the religion and an antisemitic act of fanatism. If someone sees an american conspiracy of the State Department please check with the Holy Synod of the Church and ask if it was erroded by zionists back in 1891, (the year of the pogrom and the blood libel in Corfu), when not even zionism was even founded!

- link to the original article

“Burning jews, niggers and gipsies “ -

Some very interesting posts on the Greek Left

Here are some very interesting posts on antisemitism and the Greek Left΄, a huge subject and quite controversial I might add. They arrive from some great sites and I thoroughly recommend you to read more of their stuff; they’re jungle -report, tuki8eblom and terminal119. And if you’re further interested into this matter take a look at a recent interview from A.Tsipras to me, (unfortunately all four are in greek).

Greek newspaper condemned on racist remarks (!)

Wow, I can’t say that I’m not impressed! On March 5th a greek court condemned the publisher, the editor and the journalist of the newspaper Eleftheros Kosmos for the article of the latter that “insulted the religious group of the Jews“. The article appeared in 2006 and the lawsuit was an initiative of the Greek Helsinki Monitor which again proves worthy of it’s fame!

What did they guy said? The usual stuff like “Thank God not even 1500 Jews aren’t left in Thessaloniki…” , “…the supposed saponification of the Jews…”. Nothing new that I can’t hear every other day in some obscure or less obscure media. This time, maybe following the recent conviction of nazi-admirer K.Plevris, a greek court decided that this constitutes a violation of the renown but never applied anti-racism law 927/1979. The court decided that they expressed hate and denied the extermination of thousands of jews. For this Zafiropoulos Dimitrios, Georgiou Theodoros and Chatzigogos Theodoros were convicted to 7 months of probation the first two and 7 months to be bought with 5 euros/diem for the latter.

For the first time it was also allowed for the Central Jewish Board, (ΚΙΣ), to appear as civil part which overruled the previous scandalous decision during the Plevris trial. The well-known politicians S.Vougias and G.Boutaris were absent despite the fact that initially they had testified since the article had involved their names too.

What can I say? That I didn’t expect it but still it’s some great piece of news. Certainly will not deter any other racist journalist but acts as a statement that the greek Justice system recognizes that this stuff is the expression of pure hatred and Greece, at least in principle, does not accept it. In other words it’s a nice moral support which certainly is a positive step to the right direction - congrats on Petropoulou Salata, Tsangari and Velissariou who were the court members for their courage to apply the law and of course the Greek Helsinki Monitor.

DeviousDiva also posted about it and has the english translation of the  court decision.

An update on neonazi trial - Plevris condemned

On December the 13th the Athens Appeals Judicial Council condemned known nazi lover Plevris to 14 months of imprisonment for promoting racist violence and racist remarks in his book “Jews, the whole truth“. This conviction was the end result of a trial which became a mockery of the greek justice system and showed how deeply ingrained is antisemitism even in places which supposedly should be a safe-heaven.