Page 35 - Jewish News_March-2020

COMMENTARY March 2020 35A

How Auschwitz has united Muslims and Jews

By Mohammad Al-Issa and David Harris, January 28, 2020
their windows. The message was clear: American Jewish Committee CEO Da- trust and ignorance of the other. When ideology at Slavs, Roma, people of col- other belongings of those deported to
Anti-Semitism and racism had no place vid Harris and Muslim World League we met last April, we recognized the or, the handicapped and many others. this accursed place, led to believe it

there. Secretary General Mohammad Al-Issa interconnectedness of our missions. Seventy-five years later, it would was for relocation, not annihilation.
In a survey of American Jews by co-authored this groundbreaking op- Our organizations, the Muslim World be naïve of us to believe we are im- The stark barracks with bare, three-

the American Jewish Committee, re- ed, published by the Chicago Tribune, League and American Jewish Com- mune to the possibility of another tiered bunk beds, once overflowing
leased in October, 31 percent of re- following the unprecedented joint visit mittee, signed an agreement to “make industrialized genocide fueled by ideo- with skeletal, lice-infested, terrorized
st
spondents said that they had taken of Muslims and Jews to Auschwitz they the 21 century an era of harmony and logical extremism. Left unchecked, the women, men and children. The rem-
steps to hide their Jewish identity in led on January 23. friendship” that unites our communi- forces of evil could threaten any mi- nants of the gas chambers and crema-

public, while 25 percent said they now e come from very different ties against all attempts to divide us by nority community, anywhere. toria. The execution walls and hanging
avoided Jewish sites. And this survey backgrounds. One of us is a race, faith, nationality or ethnicity. As the last remaining survivors and sites. The train tracks that brought peo-

was conducted before the recent at- WMuslim, born and raised in Words are important, but insuffi- liberators pass on, we have a shared stake ple packed in suffocating cattle cars.
tacks in Jersey City and Monsey. Saudi Arabia, a country where Islam is cient. The ultimate test is action. in ensuring the lessons of Auschwitz And where Nazi doctors performed

This is unacceptable. It is not our the official religion and the vast major- That explains why we co-headed do not disappear with them. To forget medical experiments that are an eternal
America. We call on all Americans of ity of the population shares the same a joint Jewish-Muslim delegation to would be to invite a new Auschwitz. abomination of science.
th
good will to ask ourselves how each of faith. There is no local Jewish commu- Auschwitz to mark the 75 anniversary We must not forget. We dare not forget. These 1.1 million people murdered
us can defend our inclusive vision for nity and no direct connection to World of the Nazi German camp’s liberation. Visiting Auschwitz is an impor- in Auschwitz were human beings, each
this country. War II. At a site of unconscionable pain, the tant education for anyone who wants with his or her own story, their world
Nita Lowey is a United States congress- The other is a Jew, born and raised images of Jews and Muslims praying to build a better world. It cannot be- brutally cut short.
woman whose district includes Mon- in a secular United States, exposed in their own manner and to the same gin to fully convey the agony of those As Muslim and as Jew, we remem-
sey. David Harris is the chief executive to few Muslims during his formative God should give the world hope that who were imprisoned, tortured and de- ber them. And we honor their memo-
of American Jewish Committee. years, his life shaped by the events of adherents of both faiths are determined humanized within – the fear, hunger, ries by bearing witness, linking arms
World War II and the experiences of to build a more humane and harmoni- disease, loneliness, family separation, and saying “Never Again.”
his parents, both Holocaust survivors. ous tomorrow. indignities, exhaustion and, ultimately,
Yet on January 23, we stood to- The visit marked the most se- death. But it is a start. The AJC West Coast Florida

gether with united resolve in the face nior Islamic delegation ever to visit Together, we saw the shoes, suit- o ce, located in Sarasota, can
of history’s greatest horror, the Holo- Auschwitz, including Muslim leaders cases, eyeglasses, prosthetics, hair and be reached at 941.365.4955.
caust, at the Auschwitz-Birkenau death from more than two dozen countries shaving brushes, pots and pans, and
camp where more than 1 million Jews in Africa, Asia, Europe, the Middle
perished. Never Again. Not for Jews. East and North America. But it ought
Not for Muslims. Not for any of God’s to represent a seminal moment for SERVING THE JEWISH
COMMUNITY
children. Jews as well, a reminder that both our SINCE 1978
We have come together, believ- faiths compel us to act against injus- L’Dor Charter Members of
ing that the world desperately needs tice. Temple Sinai
greater interfaith understanding and In Hebrew, we speak of “tikkun
cooperation. The terrible attacks on olam.” In Arabic, “islah.” Each de- Selling
Jews in Pittsburgh, San Diego, Jersey mands of us to repair the world through V’Dor
City, Monsey and Halle, Germany; the education and action, among our own Real Estate to
genocide against the Rohingya Mus- communities and through partnerships Every Generation
lims in Myanmar and the massacre of such as ours.
Muslim worshippers in Christchurch, Our presence at Auschwitz was as
New Zealand; and the wanton killing much about the present as the past.
of Christians celebrating Easter in Sri The Holocaust reminds us of the Selling the “Sarasota Lifestyle”...
Lanka demonstrate the global threat human capacity for inhumanity, de- be it Downtown, Waterfront,
we are all facing. pravity and bestiality. Two-thirds of
Within our own communities, we European Jewry was destroyed. But Golf or other Residential Communities
both have been confronting fear, dis- the Nazis directed their supremacist

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