Annual Report 2011 Standing Together Against Intolerance Building Bridges Through Education Annual Report 2011

ANNUAL REPORT 2011 STANDING TOGETHER AGAINST INTOLERANCE BUILDING BRIDGES THROUGH EDUCATION ANNUAL REPORT 2011 STANDING TOGETHER AGAINST INTOLERANCE BUILDING BRIDGES THROUGH EDUCATION TABLE OF CONTENTS 9 2011 IN REVIEW 10 A “historic” visit to Auschwitz-Birkenau 12 “In the Language of Thy Neighbor”: books, Internet, television, cinema 20 Knowing Your Neighbor’s History and Religion 23 International Outreach 26 Monitoring and Action 28 Reflections on Aladdin’s Strategies 31 LOOKING AHEAD: UPCOMING PROJECTS 34 PATRONS AND INTERNATIONAL SUPPORT 35 CHARTER OF THE ALADDIN PROJECT 36 ORGANIZATION 38 FINANCIAL STATEMENT 40 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 42 APPENDICES 4 LETTER from THE PRESIDENT For three years already, women, men, Christians, Jews, Muslims, atheists, right-wing, left-wing, from Europe, Africa and the Middle East, personalities and ordinary citizens, we have waged together in the Aladdin Project a battle for knowing and respecting the Other. We have worked to combat ignorance and hatred, denial and deceit, racism and anti-Semitism. Hatred of the Jew, hatred of the Muslim, hatred of the foreigner is intolerable: we say this in French, Arabic, English, Turkish and Persian. But our globalised and constantly changing society pressures us to act and react quickly, expecting to see immediately the results of our actions so that they can be widely communicated. Resisting this pace, resisting the desire to achieve everything at once and resisting the media’s tyranny means swimming against the flow: this is what we have decided to do. We are in this for the long haul, aware that knowledge needs to be learnt and prejudice vanquished; democracy has to be institutions, “friends of Aladdin” that I hope will constructed and respect for the Other acquired; increase even more so that we can achieve all the enlightenment is a gradual process. Learning projects that have been submitted to us or that we about the past and understanding current affairs wish to carry out. can be confusing, especially in countries whose cultures and histories are so remote from ours; Having said this, at the time this report is being achieving the change we are aiming at takes time, published, in the summer of 2012, I would like to notwithstanding the displeasure of Facebook and add that what is happening in France and in Europe Twitter fans. right now also gives us cause for concern. This year in France and in Europe, the rise of intolerance For each project we conducted in 2011, we held and anti-Semitism tinged with a depraved version forth these few basic principles without which we of Islam, as well as the violence inspired by neo- would have been led astray: the values of humanity, Nazi and Islamophobic ideologies, made us decide of justice, of respect for Mankind and peace that work also needs to be done at home, and we between peoples and nations. will contribute to it. I am therefore pleased to see that the number of The true believers have not forgotten that people who trust us and whose testimonies come respect for God is demonstrated by respect for from many different countries and continents is Mankind, the pursuit of justice and goodness. We steadily rising and I want to thank each and every rely on those accompanying our initiative “Know one of them. I also thank all those who, trusting the Religion of Thy Neighbor” to speak out and us, support us financially: public and private 5 remind everyone that they will not let their holy the name of Islam.” books be diverted from their original fraternal purpose. But the mantra of “never again” is not enough. We will therefore, in the wake of the actions Young people need to believe in the values of already taken, place our faith in education. The respect, peace and life that we acquired after Aladdin Project has chosen the motto “Bridges of centuries of wars, discrimination and reciprocal Knowledge”: a bridge between Jews and Muslims, humiliation. For these values, millions of brave and a bridge between religions, a bridge between the generous men and women fought and gave their various peoples of the Mediterranean, a bridge lives while millions of children, women and men between Palestinians and Israelis, a bridge between were being murdered. Let us say it once again, like cultures... All bridges unite the people against the I said after Mohammed Mérah murdered those fanaticism that divides them. Undoubtedly, the French soldiers and Jewish children: “The time of ropes are fragile. Nevertheless, I am convinced the Crusaders is over! The time of ‘Death to the that they will hold if more and more of us continue Jews’ is over! The era of ‘humiliated Arabs’ is over! to keep its knots tight. The time of the conquest of the ‘Dar al-Harb’ is over. Jewish children can never again be killed in • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Anne-Marie Revcolevschi 6 IntroDUCTION by THE EXECUTIVE Director STAYING ON COURSE In the months that followed the visit to Auschwitz, IN THE MIDST OF UPHEAVAL the Aladdin Project’s activities continued to grow: ten new books on the Holocaust were published The year 2011 was a year of political upheaval in Arabic and Persian; Claude Lanzmann’s Shoah, in the whole world, especially in North Africa subtitled in Turkish and Persian, was broadcast to and the Middle East. Yet, despite this different, millions of viewers in Turkey and Iran; conferences more complex and demanding environment, were organized in different countries and the Aladdin Project continued its progress, premieres for movies about the Muslim Righteous avoiding politicization and remaining faithful to its among the Nations gathered a large audience. original mission: to tell Muslims the truth about the Holocaust and to show the Jews that in the Throughout 2011, the Aladdin Project’s work Muslim world too, many are those who reject was repeatedly described as “indispensable” by Holocaust denial or trivialization of the Holocaust; personalities as diverse as Holocaust survivor to fight stereotypes and to encourage intercultural and UNESCO Special Ambassador Samuel Pisar; relations through mutual knowledge and mutual veteran U.S. Congressman Gary Ackerman; respect. former German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder; President of the Supreme Electoral Commission The year 2011 began with a journey of of Tunisia Kamel Jendoubi; Iranian philosopher remembrance and reconciliation to Auschwitz Hamid Ongha; former French Minister of Culture with, alongside Holocaust survivors, about two Frédéric Mitterrand; Turkish author and playwright hundred political, religious and civil society leaders Tarik Gunersel and the former Minister of Foreign from across the Muslim world, Israel, Europe, the Affairs of Spain Miguel Angel Moratinos… All United States, as well as international organizations concurred that the political changes sweeping parts such as the United Nations and UNESCO. After of the Muslim world make the work of the Aladdin Chief Rabbi Israel Lau and Archbishop of Paris Project more necessary than ever, for sustainable Cardinal Vingt-Trois’ speeches, on the windswept, change can only happen through education and snow-covered and eerily silent plains of Birkenau, awareness-raising. the Grand Mufti of Bosnia Mustafa Ceric recited in Arabic the Muslim prayers for the dead and It is those principles that have inspired our projects uttered, in one phrase, a vehement rejection of in 2011 and that encourage us to stay focused on attempts by some in the Muslim world to deny or our goal. trivialize the Holocaust: “Not in our name!” • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Abe Radkin The year ended in the cavernous chamber of the Brussels Parliament in December, with the launch of the Belgian Friends of the Aladdin Project. Morocco’s former Minister of Education Professor Rashid Benmokhtar lamented the failure of Jews and Muslims to pass on their shared history to younger generations, adding: “There is nothing worse than ignorance, except indifference. We left our young to drift away; now is the time to reclaim them.” 7 8 2011 IN REVIEW 9 A HISTORIC VISIT TO AUSCHWITZ More than two hundred personalities from the Middle East, Africa, Asia, America and Europe braved sub-zero temperatures on Tuesday, February 1, 2011, to pay tribute to the victims of the Holocaust in the Nazi camp of Auschwitz-Birkenau, at the invitation of the Aladdin Project in partnership with UNESCO and the City of Paris. and government of France, Poland, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Morocco, Russia, Turkey, the UK and the USA were also present. Ten Holocaust survivors - Raphael Esrail, Roman Frister, Ida Grinspan, Ginette Kolinka, Meir Lau, Yvette Levy, Samuel Pisar, Izio Rosenman, Nicolas Roth and Marian Turski - took part in the visit and shared with the visiting dignitaries their experience and the horrors they suffered in the camps. The visit of this international delegation, led by Aladdin Project President Anne-Marie Revcolevschi; Aladdin Fund Chairman David de Rothschild, UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova, and Paris Mayor Bertrand Delanoë, was to recall the dramatic consequences of Nazism and fascism, to reject Holocaust denial and trivialization of the Holocaust and to call on political leaders, intellectuals and religious figures around the world to fight against old and new forms of anti-Semitism, racism and intolerance. Abdoulaye Wade, President of Senegal and of the Organization of the Islamic Conference, and three Algerian, American, British, French, German, Iraqi, former heads of state, Nicéphore Soglo of Benin, Iranian, Israeli, Jordanian, Moroccan, Pakistani, Stepjan Mesic

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