Vartholomeos arrives in US for month-long tour
Washington, 21/10/1997 (ANA/T. Ellis/A. Kourkoulas)
Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarch Vartholomeos was received with head of state honours by the US administration, during his arrival here late yesterday for a month-long visit.
Several US media outlets covered the Orthodox Patriarch's arrival extensively, noting the visit coincides with the 75th anniversary since the founding of the Orthodox Archdiocese of America.
The Ecumenical Patriarch yesterday paid a visit to the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, a that was hailed by several Jewish-American leaders as a step of great importance as well as by the museum's director as "a significant step in averting the repetition of the tragedy this museum is devoted to".
Rabbi James Rudin was also present.
Ms. Yolanda Willis, a Greek Jew and survivor of the Holocaust, in an address for the occasion, noted the special role that the Greek Orthodox Church played in helping many Jews escape from the Nazis during the occupation of Greece (1941-44).
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"You not only saved our lives, you saved our belief in mankind, you saved the honour of our homeland," she said, addressing both Vartholomeos and Archbishop of America Spyridon and speaking about the Greek Orthodox leaders and faithful who jeopardized their safety to save members of Greece's Sephardic Jewish community.
[ Athens News Agency - www.ana.gr - October 21, 1997 ]