On Monday 15 April 2019, a new display case of the JMG was inaugurated. This display case, dedicated to the Jews of Crete, will enrich the museum’s permanent exhibition.
Ms. Zanet Battinou, director of the JMG, opened the event welcoming the attendees, followed by the reverent Rabbi of the Jewish Community of Athens, Gabriel Negrin, who led in a memorial prayer for the Jews of Crete, noting that “… with this display case, we do not commemorate the death of the victims. Instead, we praise their lives. Their souls will live forever in our memory…”.
Next, Ms. Dona – Lilian Capon, gave thanks to the Museum on behalf of the families for their collaboration in realizing this project, while she expressed her emotional burden, as well as her commitment to save the heirlooms and revive a part of the past which is lost, with the aim “… to prevent the world to forget the Jewish life of Crete…”.
During the event, Mr. Moissis Capon guided the attendees, giving them further information on the exhibited artefacts, which are primarily heirlooms of the Capon, Minerbo and Albert families, in combination with relevant artefacts from the JMG collections.
Among others, the event was honoured by the presence of members of the Association of Friends of the JMG, of the Capon family and of the Albert family, who had travelled from Italy to attend the opening, as well as the last Jew of Crete, Mr. Iosif Ventura, and the Cultural Attaché of the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany in Athens.
In parallel, in an adjoining room, the awarded documentary film on the fire of 1917 in Thessaloniki, entitled: “The Great Fire of Salonica: Birth of a City” by G. Vardarinos, was screened, in the presence of the film director. At the same time, unpublished photographic material of this catastrophic event, kindly donated by Maurice Gormezano, was presented.
