Minister, church sign MoU on antisemitism

Education Minister Athena Michaelidou on Tuesday signed an MoU with the churches of Cyprus and Greece, in addition to the Jewish community in Greece and the Jewish Museum there.

The MoU seeks to strengthen ties and undertake further actions to preserve the memory of the Holocaust and to combat antisemitism.

“I cannot but express my satisfaction for the strengthening of the ties between the parties and for the further undertaking of actions aimed at preserving the memory of the Holocaust and combating anti-Semitism, achieved through the signing of this Memorandum,” she said.

According to Michaelidou, Cyprus participates as an observer in the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance to contribute to the strengthening of efforts to promote and encourage actions for the study and preservation of this memory.

“The ministry has in recent years established an annual competition in secondary education on Holocaust remembrance, while in cooperation with the Yad Vashem World Holocaust Remembrance Centre, touring exhibitions on the Holocaust are hosted in schools in Cyprus.”

She added a new exhibition entitled ‘Stars without Heaven – Children in the Holocaust’ will be added to the existing ones, on the initiative of the relevant History Curriculum Group.

Commenting further on the training received by teachers, she said that a team of teachers from Cyprus visits the Yad Vashem Centre in Israel every two years for training on the teaching of the Holocaust, while the ministry also cooperates with other Holocaust teaching centres such as the Musee de la Shoah.

“An additional activity of particular interest, which is of great emotion to students and teachers, is the hosting of Holocaust survivors on school grounds,” she added.

She said that through cooperation of religions they can promote coexistence for a better future for children.