Greek Premier Refuses To Wear Kippah at Yad Vashem
No Kippah: Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras visits the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. When he got to Yad Vashem, he refused to don a yarmulke. Image by getty images
Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras refused to cover his head at a Yad Vashem memorial ceremony.
Organizers of the ceremony at the Hall of Remembrance urged Samaras to respect Tuesday’s ceremony and cover his head with a kippah or hat, but he laid a wreath at the memorial bareheaded, Ynet reported.
Samaras is leading a fight in Greece against right-wing extremists, as well as racism and anti-Semitism.
Yad Vashem said it regretted that Samaras would not wear a kippah, according to Ynet, “but that was his decision.”
The Holocaust memorial said guests are asked to cover their heads only when visiting the Yizkor tent, where ashes of the camps’ victims lay. In 2005, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan also refused to cover his head. Former French President Jacques Chirac opted for a hat, according to Ynet.
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we still need 300 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Only 300 more gifts needed by April 30
