In its first meeting in Paris on Monday, November 9, the Aladdin Project's new Board of Directors approved a multi-faceted program that focuses on education, public information, network-building and the Internet to raise awareness of Holocaust history, promote intercultural dialogue and understanding and wage a common struggle against all forms of Holocaust denial, anti-Semitism, racism and xenophobia.
The Board, which is based on gender parity and composed of prominent intellectuals from different faiths, cultures and countries, adopted initiatives that build on, and enlarge, the program launched at UNESCO in March. They include expansion of the Web site and translation of six new books to enlarge the existing collection of the online library.
Also included in the new projects is a first-ever visit of remembrance and peace by a high-profile delegation of mayors of major cities in Europe, Asia and Africa, Muslim leaders and United Nations and UNESCO officials to Auschwitz-Birkenau next spring. Board member Anne Hidalgo, who is the Deputy Mayor of Paris, declared the support of Bertrand Delanoë and the City of Paris for this project.
Two conferences and exhibitions will be organized in Egypt and Turkey in May and November respectively. Also in 2010, the Aladdin Project in partnership with a major British university will set up an online degree course on Jewish-Muslim relations available to students in Islamic countries, while preparations are being made for a summer school that will together students from around the Mediterranean for conflict prevention training as well as educational programs that enhance mutual knowledge.
In her opening remarks, Anne-Marie Revcolevschi told the Board: "The salient feature of the Aladdin Project has been its ability to implement concrete educational initiatives that have an impact on the ground. We must now expand our efforts and promote mutual knowledge in place of the 'clash of ignorance'."
"When we launched the Aladdin Project, we said we were putting our faith in education, diffusion of information and the good will of men and women of conscience opposed to injustice and perversion of history. The fact that we are all working together and that hundreds of intellectuals and civil society actors, particularly from the Muslim world, have welcomed our initiative shows we were right," she said.
David de Rothschild, president of the Aladdin Project's endowment fund, told Board members that the impressive array of talents and competence in different fields that they brought to the table reassured him of the success of the project. He recalled that funding for the project's initial stages came almost entirely from the Foundation for the Memory of the Shoah, but with the new independent bodies that have been created - a non-profit organization and an endowment fund - private and corporate donors, institutions, international organizations and governments would provide the necessary funds.
Board members discussed different approaches and strategies to achieve the goals of the Aladdin Project. André Azoulay, advisor to the King of Morocco and president of the Anna Lindh Foundation, said the impressive success of the Aladdin Project up to this stage showed that we must continue along the same course and fight Holocaust denial while not forgetting that at the same time that the Holocaust was taking place in Europe, Jews found refuge in certain parts of the world, including Morocco.
Prominent Moroccan philosopher Professor Abdou Filali-Ansary laid particular emphasis on the necessity to teach the history of Jewish-Muslim relations particularly to younger generations in countries such as Morocco and Tunisia, where they are largely unaware of this long history, with all its ups and downs.
Egypt's Dr. Aly El Samman, an advisor to the late President Anwar Sadat and a veteran campaigner for improved Jewish-Muslim relations, underlined the importance of educating people on both sides of the cultural divide about the other's history and culture to achieve better understanding and mutual respect.
Turkish anthropologist and world authority on Muslim women's movements Dr. Nilüfer Göle proposed the creation of a working group to study different approaches to memories, histories and narratives, particularly with regard to genocides.
Iranian sociologist Chahla Chafiq said projects should also focus on the role of women in different societies as key agents of change on the road to intercultural understanding.
The Board also discussed the composition and activities of the different committees, including the Committee on Conscience, the Aladdin Project's international advisory board chaired by Ambassador Jacques Andréani, the Book Committee chaired by Jean Mouttapa, the Interreligious Engagement Committee chaired by Chief Rabbi René Samuel Sirat, and the Committee on Universities chaired by Jean-Claude Lescure.
The Board noted with satisfaction that UNESCO's General Conference has recently adopted a new resolution expanding the organization's role in Holocaust education and remembrance in "all countries".
Members of the Board of Directors
Jacques Andréani, veteran French diplomat, former Ambassador to Cairo and Washington
André Azoulay, advisor to the King of Morocco, President of the Euro-Mediterranean Anna Lindh Foundation for Dialogue between Cultures
Fatiha Benatsou, Algerian-born, Member of the Economic and Social Council of France, Prefect for equal opportunities in Val d'Oise
Marie-Hélène Bérard, former presidential adviser, CEO of MHB SA
Anne Hidalgo, First Deputy Mayor of Paris
Chahla Chafiq, Iranian sociologist and women's rights activist
Anny Dayan-Rosenman, professor of literature, University of Paris VII
Abdou Filali-Ansary, Moroccan philosopher, Director of the Institute for the Study of Muslim Civilizations in London
Nilüfer Göle, from Turkey, professor of sociology at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes in Paris, a leading authority on contemporary political movements of Muslim women
Hakim El Karoui, Franco-Tunisian, founder and chairman of XXI Century Club
Serge Klarsfeld, president of the Association of Sons and Daughters of Jews Deported from France
Jean-Claude Lescure, Senior lecturer, founder of School of Journalism in Sciences Po
Roch-Olivier Maistre, Magistrate at the Court of Accounts (France's state audit office), former presidential adviser on cultural and educational policies
Jean Mouttapa, head of department at Albin Michel Publishing House in Paris
Ndioro Ndiayae, former minister in Senegal, chairperson of the African Women's Conference, until recently Deputy Director General of International Organization for Migration (IOM)
Martine Ouaknine, barrister, Deputy Mayor of the city of Nice
David de Rothschild, President of the Foundation for the Memory of the Shoah
Anne-Marie Revcolevschi, Former Director General of the Foundation for the Memory of the Shoah
Aly El Samman, adviser to the late Egyptian President Sadat, President of the International Union for Muslim-Jewish Dialogue and the Christian Peace Education, Chairman of the Committee for Interreligious Dialogue of the Higher Islamic Council of Egypt
Rene Samuel Sirat, former Chief Rabbi of France, Holder of the UNESCO Chair for "Reciprocal Knowledge of the religions of the Book and teaching of Peace".