UNESCO ENDORSES THE INITIATIVES OF THE HOLOCAUST RESEARCH INSTITUTE

Paris, November 18. The Governing Board of the World Jewish Congress (WJC) held a meeting in Paris, where participants expressed deep concern over the rising levels of antisemitism in Western Europe. Jewish community leaders endorsed the resolution "On the Working Definition of Antisemitism" and called on national governments and the international community to pay close attention to all instances of ethnic and religious intolerance. Furthermore, the Board resolved to launch a joint educational project with UNESCO dedicated to preserving the memory of the Holocaust.

The Euro-Asian Jewish Congress (EAJC) fully supports UNESCO's efforts to preserve the memory of the Holocaust. The new joint WJC-UNESCO portal, dedicated to the history of the Holocaust, is designed to provide fundamental historical information on Europe during World War II. The educational nature of this online resource aims to address the most common questions regarding this painful era in the history of the Jewish people.

The EAJC is confident in the synergistic effect of combining the efforts of UNESCO, the WJC, and the International Institute for Holocaust Research, whose activities are actively supported by the EAJC President Michael Mirilashvili.

The Moshe Mirilashvili Center for Research on the Holocaust in the Soviet Union, operating under the International Institute for Holocaust Research at Yad Vashem, was established in May 2016. Its mission is to support and conduct historical research on Jewish life within the territories of the former USSR during World War II.

With each passing year, the number of survivors of the Jewish genocide dwindles, and history is fading from public memory. Sociological surveys indicate that nearly half of the world's population today has never heard of this horrific tragedy, and the educational systems of many countries completely omit the history of the Holocaust. Therefore, it is of paramount importance for the Jewish community, and the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress in particular, to do everything in its power to counter the distortion of historical memory.

During the WJC Governing Board meeting, concern was expressed over attempts to not only deliberately obscure the events of the Holocaust but also over the direct, albeit "soft," denial of the involvement of local populations in Nazi-occupied territories in the genocide of the Jewish people.

UNESCO's focus on the Holocaust offers hope that the immense tragedy of the Jewish people will not be forgotten and that the continuity of historical knowledge will be preserved—aided, in part, by such collaborative projects between Jewish organizations and UN agencies.