AJC Releases Arabic Video on the Holocaust Ahead of Yom HaShoah

Groundbreaking Arabic video project reaches tens of millions across Arab world, hits 150,000 followers on Facebook, 50,000 on Twitter

News provided by

American Jewish Committee

Apr 20, 2020, 14:19 ET

NEW YORK, April 20, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The American Jewish Committee (AJC) today, ahead of Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day, which takes place tomorrow), released an Arabic-language video about the Holocaust.

The video presents the basic facts about the Holocaust, as well as the stories of Muslims and Arabs who played an active role during that dark period. While the video features Nazi collaborators like the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem Haj Amin al-Husseini, an ally of Adolf Hitler's, it also highlights the stories of Righteous Among the Nations, such as King Mohammed V of Morocco, who protected his Jewish subjects, and other Muslims who risked their lives to save Jews. The four-minute video is based entirely on documented facts, maps, photographs, and quotations from primary sources to ensure that its contents cannot be dismissed by those who seek to minimize or deny the Holocaust. It is also being released in English.

The video's release follows the January 2020 historic visit to Auschwitz-Birkenau of the most senior delegation of Muslim leaders ever to tour a Nazi death camp, organized and led by AJC and the Muslim World League.

"The Holocaust was a cataclysmic event in human history, a unique act of mechanized mass murder visited upon the Jewish people by the Nazis and their allies," said AJC CEO David Harris.

"And yet, still today, far too many—including in the Arab world—deny that the Holocaust ever happened or claim that its scope has been exaggerated. This video is meant to present the truth about the Holocaust to millions throughout the Arabic-speaking world in a Jewish voice, speaking their own language."

"Only a few months ago, I was privileged to walk through the gates of Auschwitz with an international delegation of senior Muslim religious leaders to bear witness to the horrors of the Holocaust. We created this video in the same spirit of education and remembrance," said Harris.

The new video is the third in AJC's highly successful Arabic-language video series, 'An al-Yahud ("About the Jews"), which has thus far reached tens of millions across the Arab world. Launched less than three months ago, the project's Arabic-language Facebook page has over 150,000 followers and its Twitter account has over 50,000. The top locations of the videos' viewers include Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Tunisia, the West Bank and Gaza Strip, Jordan, and the United Arab Emirates. The previous two videos focused on the origins and beliefs of the Jewish people and the history of Muslim-Jewish relations.

'An al-Yahud is part of AJC's extensive and long-standing engagement with the Arab and Muslim worlds. For more than three decades, AJC leaders have regularly met with Arab and Muslim leaders across the Middle East and North Africa to exchange views on matters of mutual concern, among them the fight against extremism, Muslim-Jewish relations, and deepening ties between Israel and Arab states. In the United States, AJC co-convenes the Muslim-Jewish Advisory Council (MJAC) with the Islamic Society of North America, offering Muslim and Jewish leaders a platform for advocacy on combating hate crimes, religious discrimination, and other domestic issues of common concern.

https://www.ajc.org/news/ajc-releases-arabic-video-on-the-holocaust-ahead-of-yom-hashoah

SOURCE American Jewish Committee