‘There is not a Jew in Athens who doesn’t receive our help if they need it’

Greece has only 5000 Jews but the community is united, passionate and proud, as EETTA PRINCE-GIBSON discovered during a recent visit to the capital

“I AM GREEK and I am Jewish. These are the most important parts of who I am.”

Kelly Nemia, 31, who works with a Greek NGO supporting refugees, chooses to meet in an upmarket coffee shop on the outskirts of Athens to talk about the Jewish community.

“Young Jews in Athens are especially connected to each other,” she says. “We have been together all of our lives. Most of us went to the Jewish elementary school and then, in our teens, we went to summer camp together. We are a family, celebrating our history and traditions together, and proud to be part of such an ancient community.”

She says that the group meets often, mostly virtually since the pandemic. “Another big part of our togetherness is volunteering with vulnerable members of the Jewish community, especially Holocaust survivors.  It’s a meaningful way to express who we are, and our Jewish values, especially here in Athens.”

If Nemia marries and has children, she says, she would want to raise them as Jews, but she doubts that she will marry a Jew. “There are so few of us, and we all know each other, we do not have the luxury to choose within the community.”

Athens, once a powerful city-state, was merely a backwater for centuries and only began to expand and modernise after World War II. Since World War II, Greek history has been turbulent, with a civil war from 1946-49 and a military dictatorship from 1967-76. In 2009, the financial crisis nearly forced Greece out of the Eurozone and demolished the life savings of millions of Greeks.

Today, Athens is the political, social, and economic centre of the country, with a population of over 3.5 million, (approximately a third of the population of Greece.) Despite a big-city vibe and strong cultural scene, however, the economic struggle remains visible in the uninhabited and neglected once-grand buildings and the poor infrastructure.