April 14, 2026
When El Mehdi Boudra hosted Morocco’s first conference for Holocaust educators in 2011, he dreamed of one day inviting curious and committed citizens from across the Arab world to shape how the region remembers, teaches, and moves forward from such a tragedy.
Fifteen years later, El Mehdi came closer to fulfilling that aspiration when partners from at least six Arab countries and Israel convened in Morocco for the very conversation he envisioned.
In March, American Jewish Committee, the American Sephardi Federation, and El Mehdi’s Association Mimouna, with additional support from the Claims Conference, welcomed educators from Iraq, Tunisia, Lebanon, Syria, Azerbaijan, Egypt, Morocco and the U.S. to exchange tools, confront difficult histories, and rethink how the Holocaust and other genocides are taught across the Middle East and North Africa.
“The Holocaust is so politicized in the Arab world that a conference like this, especially during a war, with people from countries across the region is so potentially divisive and explosive,” said Dr. Ari Gordon, AJC’s Director of Muslim Jewish Affairs and the grandson of Holocaust survivors. “The fact it was done in Morocco was not an accident. Being in a country that is so effective and so invested in preserving the heritage and memory of Jews is the right place to have a conversation about some of the most challenging questions. How do we preserve memory of a tragedy like the Holocaust and how do we learn to share the narrative that preserves the Jewish particularity of that story but also allows us to embrace it as a human story?”
Participants traveled through Marrakesh, Casablanca, Rabat, and Tangier and stopped for a two-day conference in Essaouira, one of the strongest living examples of Muslim–Jewish coexistence. There, inside “Bayt Dakira,” or House of Memory, a former residence that now includes a Jewish museum and small synagogue, Gordon said the scholars acknowledged how the Holocaust has been politicized and rejected as nothing more than “Exhibit A” for why Israel exists.
Scholars also explored how the Holocaust has been wrongfully dismissed as a European story that’s not relevant to the Middle East and North African region – an approach that discounts the impact of antisemitic ideology in the region, which Nazis spread through Arabic and Persian language propaganda. That lens also ignores the heroism of many Arabs and Muslims who went out of their way to protect their Jewish neighbors, earning them a place in the Righteous Among Nations.
Scholars also discussed how cultural destruction is often a precursor to mass violence and how the preservation of heritage – not just buildings and places, but intangible memories such as melodies and recipes – can serve as a tool against genocide and hate speech.
“Parts of this need to be done through investment of material sites and objects, but a piece of it can only be done by bringing the people in,” Gordon said. “When firsthand witnesses are dwindling, we can’t do it alone as Jews.”
Gordon added that the scholarly presentations were as equally beneficial as the “very real and uncomfortable conversations that could happen at meals and in the hallways that built trust between people who don’t necessarily have that,” especially when their loved ones are under fire.
Benjamin Rogers, deputy director of AJC’s Center for a New Middle East, said the center’s dedication to promoting a more integrated Middle East was perfectly positioned as a partner for the weeklong program.
Fostering understanding and building a strong network of individuals committed to working together is central to this mission,” Rogers said. “This gathering marked an important step forward in furthering that central goal. At a moment of war in the Middle East, AJC was on the ground – with close partners and its sleeves rolled up - helping to physically promote engagement and understanding.”
Gordon said the in-person engagement created mutual understanding one struggles to find on social media platforms.
“Through all the noise and social media and images on our screen when you get people into a room together, you can create a different reality,” he said. “The suspicion doesn’t melt away instantly. But when you’re talking about kids or areas of scholarship or how a war is impacting family and loved ones, something melts away from the polarizing demonizing language and you can have a basis for common ground.”
