The Orthodox Church and The Shoah

On Wednesday 23 and on Thursday 24 of April, 2025, The Wheel journal, the “Orthodox Christians in Dialogue with Jews” working group, Volos Academy for Theological Studies, and ACER-MJO co-hosted an online conference on the topic “The Orthodox Church and the Shoah”. The Conference was held in commemoration of the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi death camps in the final months of the Second World War. It encompassed four sessions with 20-minute talks and an open discussion among all the participants in the end.

On Wednesday, April 23, speaking on the Contextualization of the Shoah, Rabbi Dr. David Sandmel, (International Council of Christians and Jews) spoke on the need for a continued commemoration of the Shoah, especially among the Orthodox Christians, emphasizing the anti-Hebrew rhetoric of many Orthodox hymns, and the Orthodox experience of persecutions, including the recent situation in the Middle East. Speaking next, Rev. Geoffrey Ready (University of Toronto) presented the theological problem the Shoah poses in Orthodox Christian tradition, focusing on the limited Orthodox engagement in the post-Shoah theological reflection, the Orthodox unwillingness for self-critique and for learning from others, and the inherent Orthodox traditionalism. Last in this session, Olga Meerson (Georgetown University) explored the subconscious antisemitism instilled in the Christian minds by the hymnography of the Church, especially the Holy Friday hymns, and discussed the ways of overcoming the situation.     

In the second session, Rev. Dr Hildo Bos (St. Nicholas Church, Amsterdam) pondered his family memories of helping Jewish people during the Shoah in the Netherlands, highlighting the fact that it was a simple act of humanism by the people of various religious backgrounds, improvised rather than planned. Taking the floor, Dr Andreas Alexopoulos (Volos Academy for Theological Studies) presented the case of St Maris Skobtsova of Paris and her applied knowledge of the Gospel, and Olga Lossky presented the example of Fr Cyril Argenti, highlighting the fact that Christians, by overlooking the plight of the Jews, become a kind of new Pharisees, thinking of the kingdom of God as their exclusive property. 

On Thursday, April 24, the third session referred to the behavior of the official Orthodox Churches during the Shoah. Rastko Lompar (Institute for Balkan Studies, Serbia) presented the ambivalent approach of the Serbian Church, including its admiration for Nazism in the mid-War years but also its humanitarian life-saving acts during the German Occupation of Serbia.

Dr Ionut Biliuta (Romanian Academy) presented the similar case in Romania, which was an ally of Nazi Germany, with massive participation of the clergy in the persecution and exploitation of the Jews, but also with many cases, especially of highly educated priests, showing solidarity with the Jewish people and saving many lives during the Shoah. Speaking last in the session, Dr Nikos Kouremenos (Volos Academy) presented the situation in Greece, where many high ranked clerics, including the Archbishop Damaskinos, significantly helped Jews to escape the persecutions, but where also the Monasteries of Mountain Athos applied to Hitler asking for his protection of the monastic community. The last speech, by Rev. Dr Filotheos Maroudas (Volos Academy) approached the Shoah in the Context of the interreligious dialogue, the current bioethics debate, and the support of the World Council of Churches. 

In the open roundtable that followed, moderated by Inga Leonova (The Wheel), there was a discussion of the above case studies and presentations in connection with the lessons of the Shoah but also the current complex situation in the Middle East.