Turning the city of Ioannina into a ‘Balkan hub’

The election of Greece's first Jewish mayor, Ioannina's Moisis Elisaf, was news that was heard around the world last May. Pundits had been dismissive of his chances when he first announced his candidacy, but by the second round it was evident that the respected academic, a professor of internal medicine at Ioannina Medical School, was a serious contender in the race for the northwestern city.

"Seriously? You're going to vote for a Jewish mayor?" his opponents and other parts of the local community wondered - albeit discreetly - chiding his supporters.

"Some of the other parties used my religious identity extensively in the pre-election period. Not openly, but tacitly," he told Kathimerini in a recent conversation at a cafe in the northern port city of Thessaloniki, where Elisaf had read poems by George Seferis the previous night.

Other opponents spread rumors...