Mayor Lili Bosse has signed an historic declaration in Athens, Greece, as part of the second annual Mayors Summit Against Antisemitism. Bosse joined municipal leaders from 53 cities and 23 countries at the summit this week. The event is co-hosted by the Combat Antisemitism Movement and the Center for Jewish Impact in partnership with the Jewish Federations of North America.
The inaugural Mayors Summit took place in 2021 as a virtual event hosted by the city government of Frankfurt, Germany. This year’s event is in person.
Mayor Kostas Bakoyannis, the summit’s chair, noted the significance of the Athens setting.
“Athens is the birthplace of democracy, and the significant rise of hate and antisemitism we are witnessing around the world is a threat to our cherished democratic values. That is why this event is so important and timely. We see an insidious spread of antisemitism, so there is a need to fight this scourge at the local level as well as to see how these trends are global and learn best practices from each other towards combating them.”
The Dec. 1 “Joint Declaration of the Second Annual Mayors Summit Against Antisemitism” signed by Bosse and the other leaders made commitments to “fight antisemitism in all its manifestations” by cooperating in the areas of education, raising awareness and promoting interfaith relations.
It is a lifelong commitment for Bosse. In an exclusive interview with the Courier for its Nov. 25 issue, she noted, “I, as a daughter of an Auschwitz survivor, feel it is my duty in my life to stand up and speak out with every ounce of my soul, and go anywhere in the world to speak out against antisemitism.”
Additional reporting on the Mayors Summit Against Antisemitism will appear in the Dec. 9 issue of the Courier.
