Did Patriarch Athenagoras Serve as a Rabbi for Jews?

 

Many things have been written about the former Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras and his ecumenist activities, some of which can be viewed as positive steps, but there are also things so cringeworthy awful that one can hardly believe they are true without seeing the evidence first. One of these things is the claim that he had once served as a Rabbi to Jews at the same time he was a Metropolitan for Orthodox Christians.

As evidence for this claim, we are told to look into the archives of the New York Times, specifically for the issue dated November 25, 1940. The title of the article is "GREEK JEWS HERE PRAY FOR VICTORY". I decided to look it up to see what I would find. After paying a subscription fee, here is the article:

Was Saint John of Kronstadt an Anti-Semite and Pogromist?

There is no evidence - neither in the texts of Father John of Kronstadt, nor the memoirs of his contemporaries - where he would have expressed something anti-Semitic. As for being called a "pogromist" - it is exactly the opposite. When in 1903 there was a terrible pogrom in Chisinau, Father John, together with Bishop Anthony Khrapovitsky, signed a sharp statement - "Word on the Chisinau Events", where he very harshly condemned the pogroms from a Christian standpoint. Furthermore, this text was later disseminated by Jewish societies, which attracted the attacks of extreme reactionaries on Father John.

A Jewish Woman Who Survived the Holocaust With the Help of a Greek Priest

Before the Holocaust, Thessaloniki was home to 80,000 Jews. In 1943 under Nazi occupation some 60,000 Jews were deported to Treblinka and Auschwitz, approximately 90% of whom were murdered. A number of Thessaloniki Jews were involved in resistance acts both in the Warsaw uprising and the October 1944 attack and bombing in Auschwitz. Over 300 Greek Gentiles have been recognized by Yad Vashem as Righteous Among The Nations for risking and giving their lives to help the Jewish people during this time.

Sermon Against the Anti-Jewish Pograms in the Russian Empire (Metr. Anthony Khrapovitsky of Kiev)

Introduction

Anti-Jewish pogroms in the Russian Empire were large-scale and targeted. Anti-Jewish rioting first began in 19th century Russia. Pogroms began occurring after the Russian Empire, which previously had very few Jews, acquired territories with large Jewish populations from the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth during 1791–1835. These territories were designated "the Pale of Settlement" by the Imperial Russian government, within which Jews were reluctantly permitted to live, and it was within them that the pogroms largely took place. Most Jews were forbidden from moving to other parts of the Empire, unless they converted to the Russian Orthodox Church.

The term "pogrom" became commonly used in English after a large-scale wave of anti-Jewish riots swept through south-western Imperial Russia (present-day Ukraine and Poland) from 1881 to 1884; during this time, more than 200 anti-Jewish events occurred in the Russian Empire, notably pogroms in Kiev, Warsaw and Odessa.

Philoumenos of Jacob’s Well: The Birth of a Contemporary Ritual Murder Myth

“Philoumenos of Jacob’s Well: The Birth of a Contemporary Ritual Murder Myth”

By David Gurevich and Yisca Harani

Israel Studies

Volume 22, Number 2, Summer 2017

pp. 26-54

Abstract

In 1979, the Orthodox monk Philoumenos Hasapis was violently murdered in Jacob’s Well Church in Nablus. His death was described as a ritual murder performed by a fanatical Jewish-Israeli group. Philoumenos was later sanctified by the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem. The story gained publicity among Orthodox Christian communities around the world and was accredited by various NGOs and scholars. However, the factual basis of the event dismissed any ritualistic motives or collective accusations for the murder. The development patterns of the popular narrative are assessed against the backdrop of similar accusations levied against medieval Jewish communities in Europe, as well as contemporary framing of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict in the media. The conclusions suggest reasons for the wide publicity that the narrative received, based on the cultural context of its target audience, the interests of the Orthodox Church, and the role of political actors involved.

When St. Gabriel the Fool Visited a Synagogue, a Mosque and a Baptist Church

Fr. Gabriel often visited people who had different religious views. He tried to share grace with everyone and lead them to the true faith. He says himself:

"Once, dressed as I was in my monastic schema, I went to the Synagogue. At the entrance hung a large portrait of Moses. I venerated it. The attendees liked this. Moses was a great prophet and I gave him his due respect. I had entered as they were reading from the Bible. Few were there and they looked at me with surprise. I began to preach, and when they heard about Christ they called for their High Priest. He came out but he did not stop me. Afterwards he invited me into his office. He listened with great interest and attention to what I said about Christ. Finally, he thanked me and we bid farewell.