ATHENS, Greece (JTA) — A high-level priest on the morning show of the largest television station in Greece blamed world Jewry for Greece’s financial problems.
The Metropolite of Piraeus Seraphim also blamed world Jewry for other ills in the country during his appearance on Mega TV.
Mixing Freemasons with Jewish bankers such as Baron Rothschild and world Zionism, the Metropolite said that there is a conspiracy to enslave Greece and Christian Orthodoxy. He also accused international Zionism of trying to destroy the family unit by promoting one-parent families and same-sex marriages.
Thirteen minutes into the program the Greek host asked the Metropolite, "Why do you disagree with Hitler’s policies? If they are doing all this, wasn’t he right in burning them?"
The Metropolite answered, "Adolf Hitler was an instrument of world Zionism and was financed from the renowned Rothschild family with the sole purpose of convincing the Jews to leave the shores of Europe and go to Israel to establish the new Empire."
Jews such as "Rockefeller, Rothschild and Soros control the international banking system that controls globalization," the Metropolite also said.
The Metropolite of Piraeus Seraphim is not the only Greek priest with such extreme ideas, as Salonika’s Metropolite Anthimos also has preached similar ideas from his pulpit.
"Watching and listening to the program, I felt disgust hearing the Metropolite of Piraeus expressing himself like that against world Zionism, and shamelessly saying that Hitler with the help of Jewish bankers did what he did," said Benjamin Albala, president of the Athens Jewish community.
The American Jewish Committee on Wednesday called on the heads of the Greek Orthodox Church to condemn the Metropolite’s statements.
"Seraphim’s horrendous lies on Greek TV demonstrate that anti-Semitism is alive and well within the Greek Orthodox Church,” said Rabbi David Rosen, AJC’s international director of interreligious affairs, in a letter to the head of the Greek Orthodox Church in Greece, Archbishop Ieronymos II, as well as Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew. “It is the responsibility of the church leadership to condemn and uproot anti-Semitism.”
The European Jewish Congress called for the priest’s removal.
“It is completely unacceptable that someone senior in a mainstream European religious denomination can make such repulsive and hate-filled claims,” said EJC President Dr. Moshe Kantor in a statement. “That they were said so openly on national television demonstrates that there are those who feel no shame expressing these views in front of a wide audience.”
“We call on the Greek government to implement its laws against such hate-speech and the leaders of the Greek Orthodox Church to immediately remove this person from his position.”
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