The Holocaust, Antisemitism and the Memory of the Jewish Past in the Arab World

Over the past 75 years, since World War II, the Arab world has been transformed by a massive demographic un-mixing, as their Jewish communities largely left for Israel or elsewhere. What place do the few remaining Jews have in Arab societies? What memories do Arabs have of the Jews who used to live among them? What legacy remains of centuries of coexistence among Muslims, Christians, and Jews? How have the cataclysmic events of the mid-20th century, namely the Holocaust and the establishment of Israel, transformed historical attitudes?

These are some of the questions which three experts in the field will discuss: Aomar Boum is a socio-cultural anthropologist at UCLA, whose work has focused on the anthropology and history of Jewish-Muslim relations from the 19th century to the present. His books include Memories of Absence: How Muslims Remember Jews in Morocco. Robert Satloff, Executive Director of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, has written extensively on Jewish-Muslim and Arab-Israeli relations. His books include Among the Righteous: Lost Stories from the Holocaust's Long Reach into Arab Lands. Mehnaz Afridi, author of Shoah through Muslim Eyes, is Director of the Holocaust, Genocide & Interfaith Education Center at Manhattan College, where she teaches Contemporary Islam and the Holocaust. The moderator is Elizabeth Thompson, Mohamed S. Farsi Chair in Islamic Peace at American University.

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