Moses Elisaf, a doctor and Professor of Medicine, became the first Greek Jew to be elected Mayor. The voters of Ioannina, a major Greek city in the northwestern part of the country, elected Moses Elisaf, who ran as an independent candidate in the second round of local elections, on 2 June 2019.
Professor Elisaf was born in Ioannina, in 1954. He graduated from the School of Medicine, University of Athens, in 1979. He is currently Professor of Internal Medicine at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Ioannina and Director of the 2nd Department of Internal Medicine (University Hospital of Ioannina). He is also Head of the Lipids, Atherosclerosis and Obesity Department of the University Hospital of Ioannina.
Elisaf comes from the Romaniote community of Ioannina. The Romaniotes are one the most ancient extant Jewish communities in the world and the oldest Jewish community in Europe. Their distinct language was Judaeo-Greek. They derived their name from the old word for the people of the Byzantine Empire (Eastern Roman Empire). Greece’s Romaniote population was decimated during the Holocaust, yet active communities still exist in Ioannina and a few other Greek cities. Greek News Agenda spoke* with Moses Elisaf on the occasion of his appointment as Mayor.
