Mark Okrent – Anti-Semitism at the Kalamata Carnival
Recently, my wife and I spent a week touring the Peloponnesian peninsula, an area of Greece, famed for its historical, cultural and natural beauty. During this time, we spent the weekend in Kalamata, a seaside city of about 70,000 located in the south of this peninsula and noted for its history ranging back to the era of Homer. We were fortunate to be present during the city’s annual pre-lenten Carnival, during which many of its citizens, young and old, masquerade in a variety of colorful costumes. On Sunday afternoon (March 10, 2019), a 90 minute parade of local groups, led by a king and queen with their regal entourage danced its way through the streets of the old town to the beat of ear-splitting Mardi Gras-type music. Each group wore distinctive costumes – cartoon characters, children’s fable characters, cheerleaders, Chinese dragons, beer bottles, Sylvester cats, musketeers, zombies, cavemen, etc.
For us, as Jews, the final group was absolutely disconcerting. At first glance, the group approaching, appeared to be innocent, dressed in Hassidic garb. They could just as easily have been dressed in kilts to portray Scottish people. The clues to the anti-semitic message of this group were apparent from the wads of fake euros falling out of their coat pockets, the sign over the pickup truck leading them with the words in Greek “Arfa Bank” and on the platform of the truck a hassidic banker stitting behind a desk with stacks of fake euros. Behind the truck several of these “Hassidim” were carrying a coffin, also with fake euro bills stuck to the sides. There were a large number of placards in Greek which we were unable to read.
We saw no one in the crowd perturbed by this group and there were no authorities in the vicinity to question. From a brief investigation, we learned that the only known Kalamata Jewish community was massacred in 1822 by the Greeks duing their War for Independence because they were seen to side with the Ottomans. From that time, there is no record of a Jewish community in Kalamata but only of individual Jews so the question for us was why would a group of local residents feel an urge to dance through the streets of Kalamata to declare that Jewish financial interests are controlling the world. It appears that Anti-Semites feel a need to hate Jews wherever they exist even without the availability of a local Jewish target.
