Former Governor Michael Dukakis to Speak at KSA Program

Former Governor Michael Dukakis and his wife Kitty Dukakis will be the keynote speakers at a program “Everyday Heroes: The Power of Truth, Knowledge and History,” at the Kehillah Schechter Academy in Norwood.

The program, set for Wednesday, May 2, will focus on historic Greek-Jewish relations and the little-known relationship between the Greek and Jewish communities of Greece. It is open to the entire community and will begin at 7 p.m., presented and hosted by the Israel Arbeiter Gallery of the Kehillah Schechter Academy.

Filmmaker Laura Zelle will screen the award-winning documentary, “In the Shadow of the Acropolis,” that she produced with Maxine Davis, tracing the 2,000 year-old Romaniotes, the Greek Jewish community nearly wiped out during World War II. The film is narrated by actress Jamie-Lynn Sigler (of HBO’s The Sopranos). The film recounts how, 70 years ago, a woman in Athens risked her life to save Zelle’s mother, four sisters and an uncle from certain death at the hands of the Nazis occupying Greece. Zelle’s cousin, Mark Ettinger, honorary event chairperson, says many family members were shipped from Greece in 1944 and died in Auschwitz.

“The only reason I’m here today is that a Greek Orthodox woman in Athens risked her own family’s life to save my family,” he said.

Speaker Michael Dukakis, former Governor of Massachusetts and the Democratic Presidential nominee in 1988, was born to Greek immigrants. He is Distinguished Professor of Political Science at Northeastern University, and Visiting Professor of Public Policy at UCLA. Kitty Dukakis was appointed by President Jimmy Carter to the Commission on the Holocaust and was a founding member of the United States Holocaust Memorial Council. In 1985, the couple chaired the first major fundraiser for Washington’s Holocaust Museum. They recently returned from Europe where Kitty traced maternal family roots to Hungary.

Michael Dukakis said that “most Holocaust studies focus on Eastern Europe and little is known of the Greek-Jewish experience.” As an example, he notes that in 1942, the Nazis rounded up 46,000 Jews in Thessaloniki. At war’s end, only 1,950 returned. Today just 1,000 Jews reside in the city. Early records show a Jewish community in Greece dating back to Roman times; hence the name Romaniotes.

Suggested donation for the program is $10 per person. Donors (2 tickets for $250) are invited to a pre-event reception with the evening’s guests. Complimentary admission for Holocaust survivors.

Advance reservations are requested. For more information and reservations, visit www.ksa-ne.org, email gallery@ksa-ne.org, or call 781-769-9400.