Moses Elisaf
Moses Elisaf (; born 17 July 1954) is a Greek pathologist, academic, and politician. He has served as mayor of Ioannina since September 2019, making him Greece's first Jewish mayor. Early life. Elisaf was born in Ioannina on 17 July 1954, the son of Romaniote Jews and Holocaust survivors who had escaped the Nazi roundup which saw all but 9% of Ioannina's Jews deported to Auschwitz. After liberation, survivors suffered discrimination for their involvement in communist resistance groups such as the Greek People's Liberation Army. Elisaf graduated from the University of Athens in 1979. Career. Elisaf  is a pathologist and professor of internal medicine at Ioannina Medical School. He is the director of the school's Lipids, Atherosclerosis, Obesity and Diabetes Department. Between 1993 and 1994, he worked at the Sackler Faculty of Medicine at Tel Aviv University. He has several relatives living in Israel. He has been the president of the Romaniote Jewish community of Ioannina for more than a decade, and previously served as the president of the Central Board of Jewish Communities in Greece. Elisaf has also served on the city council and as the president of a cultural center. Running as an  independent, Elisaf obtained 50.3% of the vote during the second round of elections for mayor of Ioannina in June 2019, winning the election with 17,789 votes (235 more than his runoff opponent). He took office in September, becoming the first Jewish mayor in the history of Greece. He says that he is a centrist who aims to build consensus around policies for the city's development, such as improving infrastructure and public services. During his campaign, political opponents falsely claimed that he was a Mossad agent. He called the claims antisemitic, but reaffirmed his belief that antisemitism in Greece is  not a serious issue. Personal life. Like most Jews in Ioannina, Elisaf is a non-religious Jew.