Greece Jewish community president awarded national honors

(c) The Central Board of Jewish Communities in Greece

Greece President Prokopios Pavlopoulos awarded David Saltiel, President of the Central Board of Jewish Communities in Greece and World Jewish Congress Vice President, with the medal of the Grand Commander of the Order of the Phoenix at the Presidential Palace on 28 February. The award, which is considered one of Greece’s highest honors, is given to individuals who have raised Greece’s internationally prestige and have excelled in their field of practice or in public life.

In his remarks at the award ceremony, Saltiel thanked President Pavlopoulos for the honor and for his continuous support of the Jewish community. Saltiel also spoke of the symbolism of the Phoenix, saying that it “brings into our mind the rebirth of the Greek nation and the revival of the Greek Jewish Community after the Nazi conflagration. The will to start creating again – even after experiencing very hard times – is one of the fundamental characteristics between Greeks, Christians and Jews”. 

The ceremony was attended by Executive Vice President and CEO of the European Jewish Congress Raya Kalenova, Vice President of the Government Panagiotis Pikrammenos, Israeli Ambassador to Greece Yossi Amrani, the Head of the Greek Representation to IHRA Dr. Efstathios Lianos Liantis, the Representative of the World Jewish Congress to the UN in Geneva Dr. Leon Saltiel, as well as other important political and Jewish leaders in Greece. 

As President of the Central Board of the Jewish Communities in Greece, and Vice-President of WJC, David Saltiel promoted instrumental issues of interest to the Jewish community in Greece, including, but not limited to, ensuring the establishment of the Remembrance Day of the Greek Jewish Martyrs and Heroes of the Holocaust, ensuring the adherence of Greece to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA), and furthering the development of the bilateral relations between Greece and Israel.

(c) The Central Board of Jewish Communities in Greece