NEW YORK – The American Friends of the Jewish Museum of Greece (AFJMG) sent greetings for the High Holy Days this year. AFJMG President Solomon Asser shared his best wishes for the New Year 5782. The text of his message follows:

Dear Friend of the Jewish Museum of Greece,

All of us at AFJMG hope that you and your family are well as you prepare for The High Holidays in this challenging “not new and not normal” era. What we had hoped for was an Exodus from the COVID Pandemic and a resumption of our lives as we had known them. What we have seen instead are variants of the crisis and an uncertain exit. Hopefully, in the New Year 5782, we can turn the page and look to the future with confidence once again.

Remarkably, the pandemic has changed our lives substantially in many ways, possibly, forever. It taught us many lessons and ways of coping with daily difficulties. We have embraced new forms of learning and interacting distantly. At AFJMG meetings organized either to mark special events or to fulfill by-law requirements, we never lack a quorum. We now have record numbers in attendance. However, we miss the human touch since “Friends” means more than mere numbers. It is this human touch that we hope to recover and reaffirm in all our future gatherings as soon as possible.

Visiting our communities and our Museum and celebrating holidays in our traditional ways belong to this category. Those who visited Athens this summer know full well that this “jewel of a museum” always enjoyed its complement of visitors, in spite of known restrictions. We look forward to a resumption of all of its activities, as in the “good old days”. Meanwhile, let us all take advantage of opportunities offered by science and technology to strategize and plan our programs of activities for the Next Forty Years!

Our Organization – AFJMG – is turning 40 in 5782. The Jewish Museum of Greece is 45 years old. It is an anniversary that we shall celebrate in proper and due form, in Athens and New York, free from any restriction that we still have to endure. In spite of the COVID pandemic, the context and the prospects for our Museum have never looked brighter. In Greece, southeastern Europe, Israel and the surrounding countries, the prospects and opportunities for the future have never looked more promising. Let us now think of the ways of grasping these opportunities and turn them into goals for the next decades.

Dear Friends, please renew your pledge to the Museum, the Communities it serves and the world of which they are a part. Let us all continue to pledge support, both moral and financial, to the Jewish Museum of Greece for 40 years and beyond.. At the approach of the New Year 5782, please remember JMG with a generous donation. Finally in closing, especially this year, let me wish you all and your respective families, a Happy, Healthy and Prosperous New Year.

Sincerely,

Solomon Asser, AFJMG President