Antisemitism without Jews in Kavala during Populism by Ioannis Stylianidis

The article presents a case study of critical antisemitism, focusing on an incident of vandalism in the Greek city of Kavala, located in Northern Greece. It aims to contextualize Greek populism and its xenophobia, highlighting how an ‘antisemitism without Jews’ phenomenon yields comparable outcomes. The article delves into the broader political landscape surrounding a local controversy involving a memorial in the Northern Greek port of Kavala dedicated to the approximately 1,500 Jews deported and murdered in 1943 during the Bulgarian occupation. In 2015, when the memorial was unveiled, the mayor demanded the removal of the Star of David (which was not complied with), and shortly thereafter, the memorial was vandalized.
These events took place in May 2015, amid the  governmental coalition comprised of the radical-left-wing SYRIZA party and the ultra-right-wing ANEL party. Their common stance was a protest against the EU’s austerity policies. The author contends that historical discourse strands are evident in the anti-communist agitation of the so-called ‘ethnikofrosyni-politics’  after the Greek Civil War (1946-1949), as well as in confessional nationalism in Greece since the 19th century.

The article is a component of an ongoing doctoral project at Heidelberg University/Hochschule für Jüdische Studien Heidelberg entitled ”The Representation of Jews in the Greek Press,” which investigates contemporary expressions of antisemitism in Greece.

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