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Greece elects Jewish mayor for the first time in its history

Moses Elisaf, an independent candidate, won 50.3 percent of the vote in the mayoral race in the northwestern city of Ioannina.

Moses Elisaf was elected Greece's first Jewish mayor on June 2, 2019. Credit: Screenshot.
Moses Elisaf was elected Greece’s first Jewish mayor on June 2, 2019. Credit: Screenshot.

A Greek town has elected the first Jewish mayor in the country, a 65-year-old doctor.

Moses Elisaf, an independent candidate, won 50.3 percent of the vote in the mayoral race on Sunday in the northwestern city of Ioannina.

Out of 10.8 million people, approximately 6,000 Jews live in Greece.

Almost all of Greek Jewry was annihilated in the Holocaust during the years of World War II.

“We already have demonstrated that hate and hateful acts are not going to be tolerated, and so if we could even take it a step further to define antisemitism and what that is like, then I want to be able to take that,” Jeannette Sánchez-Palacios told JNS.
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