OXI COURAGE AWARDS HONORING INDIVIDUALS WHO TODAY DISPLAY GREAT COURAGE FOR FREEDOM AND DEMOCRACY

The Washington Oxi Day Foundation

 

 

The 2017 Oxi Courage Awards on October 26, 2017 will honor two people who today display the great courage for freedom and democracy that the Greek people exhibited during World War II following Oxi Day and an individual fighting anti-Semitism and discrimination as the Greeks did during the Holocaust. Washington’s top policymakers, opinion leaders and leaders of the national Greek-American community will be in attendance.

 

The honorees are:

 

•     Ji Seong-ho, a North Korean defector and leading activist protecting the human rights of North Koreans
•     Ayaan Hirsi Ali, referred to by the Wall Street Journal as “the most dangerous foe of Islamist extremism in the Western world”
•     Bruce Mosler, Chairman of Global Brokerage at Cushman & Wakefield and a tireless advocate for the Jewish community

 

Previous recipients of the Oxi Courage Award have included:

 

•      In 2016, Vice President Joseph R. Biden and his son Beau Biden (posthumously) and escaped ISIS sex slave and UN Goodwill Ambassador Nadia Murad, nominated by Amal Clooney;
•      In 2015, Bono selected for our Foundation and introduced Leyla Yunus, a leading human rights activist imprisoned in Azerbaijan;
•      In 2014, just weeks after he became the first American brutally and publicly executed by ISIS, conflict journalist James Foley was honored. President Bill Clinton introduced Foley and his parents accepted the award;
•      In 2013, Bono selected for our Foundation and introduced John Githongo, a journalist who risked his life fighting corruption in Kenya;
•      In 2012, blind Chinese human rights activist Chen Guangcheng, whose US-aided escape from China led the world news in the spring of 2012

 

To view a short video of highlights from last year’s very emotional ceremony, please click here

 

Greece displayed this David vs. Goliath courage when it said “Oxi” (“No” in Greek) to the request to surrender to the Axis Forces during World War II. Greece’s subsequent actions led President Franklin Roosevelt to say, “When the entire world had lost all hope, the Greek people dared to question the invincibility of the German monster raising against it in the proud spirit of freedom,” and led Winston Churchill to say, “If there had not been the virtue and courage of the Greeks, we do not know which the outcome of World War II would have been.”

 

This black tie gala will begin with a cocktail reception at 6:00 pm (with the Award winners), followed by dinner at 7:00 pm at the United States Institute of Peace. We would love to see you there.