Nicos Stavroulakis 1932-2017

Nicos Stavroulakis, the co-founder and first director of the Jewish Museum of Greece, has passed away.
The American Friends of the Jewish Museum of Greece write in statement:

“Stavroulakis was exceptionally gifted in many ways and deeply motivated to make his contribution to a needed Greek Jewish revival after the devastation of WWII and of the Holocaust. He readily responded to a call to help towards the establishment of the Jewish Museum of Greece forty years ago. In those very early days, the Jewish Museum was housed in the Athens Synagogue, at Melidoni Street. The initial collection was limited to watches and other personal items that had been confiscated from the Greek Jews of Thrace and Eastern Macedonia. They were returned to Greece and to the Jewish Communities in the mid-1970s by Bulgaria. The idea of founding the Jewish Museum of Greece was thus born and Nicos was entrusted with its implementation. He gave it all his energy and many talents including fund-raising, in Greece, USA and Europe, to foster its development. Later, he turned his energies and talents to the tasks of reconstruction and upkeep of Etz Hayim, the 17^th century Synagogue in the old city of Chania, Crete. He kept it going relentlessly, counting on regular flows of visitors for services on Sabbaths and High Holidays. His friends will mourn his passing, but all those who have met him will certainly remember him, with gratitude, respect and admiration. ”

Jewish Heritage Europe has collected memories and tributes from Stavroulakis’s colleagues here.