History

• The Zionist movement existed in Greece before WWII: Greek Jewish women were involved in welfare activities
• Most of Greece’s Jewish population was wiped out by the Holocaust
• Sometime after the war, a meeting between Rebecca Sieff and Victorine Camchi from Athens resulted in the founding of WIZO in Greece
• In 1963, a group of young women formed the first Aviv group in Athens; from 1963 until 1991 there was a chain of Aviv presidents
• By 1990, approximately 5,000 Jews lived mainly in Athens and Thessaloniki and a handful in smaller town. WIZO Aviv had 700 members in 7 cities
• Regional group meetings were held with Zionist and Jewish themes; Jewish holidays were marked with local activities, bazaars and displays
• Bible Day was one of the largest events that took place from 1964 until the 1990s
• In 2022, the WIZO day care center in Ness Ziona was named after Rosa Asser Pardo – the WIZO leader of Greece in the 60s, thanks to the generous donation of Victor Asser, Rosa’s son
• In 2018,  President of WIZO Greece Gratciella Bourla gathered 100 chaverot (members)for the WIZO Greece conference in Athens