Washington, DC, November 15, 2018 – As the Washington Post reported this week, according to newly released FBI data, anti-Semitic hate crimes rose 37% last year. This new FBI data comes less than one month after the worst anti-Semitic attack in U.S. history — a shooting at a Pittsburgh synagogue that killed 11 and wounded six.

Weeks ago, the Washington Oxi Day Foundation undertook a national campaign to encourage people to emulate today the courage of the Greek Orthodox church during the Holocaust. The foundation provided each of the over 500 Greek Orthodox Churches across the country with a DVD to show parishioners, particularly students. The short film produced by the Foundation is titled “You Should Too: The Moral Courage of the Greek Orthodox Church During the Holocaust”

The video highlights how the Greek Orthodox Church was unsurpassed in its reaction to the Holocaust as it was happening and explains some of the troubling instances of anti-Semitism alive in our world today. The video ends with a young Greek Orthodox student saying that if she encounters such horrors today, she hopes she knows how she would react. Then she turns to the camera (the audience) and says, “And you should too”.  

To see a trailer to this video click here

To see the full short film (5:20) click here

In addition, on October 25, at the Oxi Courage Awards in Washington, DC, the Founation presented its annual Metropolitan Chrysostomos Award for efforts to combat anti-Semitism and discrimination to the Chairman of the United States Holocaust Museum Board (Memorial Council) Howard Lorber.  Previous recipients of this distinguished award have included Nobel Laureate and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel, former President of Israel Shimon Peres, mother of HRH The Duke of Edinburgh who defied the Nazis Princess Alice, CEO of the American Jewish Committee (AJC) David Harris, leading humanitarian Bruce Mosler, President of the Board of the Jewish Museum of Greece Makis Matsas, and historian and archivist of Jewish History Photini Tomai.