Robert Satloff to Speak in Egypt, Israel on Arab Heroes - and Arab Perpetrators -- of the Holocaust Robert Satloff to Speak in Egypt, Israel on Arab Heroes -- and Arab Perpetrators -- of the Holocaust
Washington, DC -- Robert Satloff, author of a bestselling new book that chronicles his four-year search for Arabs who rescued Jews during the Holocaust, is traveling to Egypt and Israel on a 10-day speaking tour, sponsored by the U.S. Department of State, to deliver the first-ever series of lectures to Middle East audiences on the Arab role in the Holocaust and its political relevance today.
"With ignorance and denial of the Holocaust so widespread in the Middle East, I am hopeful these lectures will provide an opportunity for people of goodwill -- both Arabs and Israelis -- to learn about a long-forgotten chapter of their common history," said Satloff, a world-renowned Middle East expert and director of The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, a foreign policy 'think tank'.
Satloff's book, Among the Righteous: Lost Stories from the Holocaust's Long Reach into Arab Lands (PublicAffairs, November 2006), recounts previously untold stories of Arab valor during the Holocaust, as well as details of Arab complicity with Nazi-led persecution of Jews in Arab lands. His discoveries have already helped convince the German government to offer financial compensation to thousands of Jews who suffered in more than one hundred labor camps set up by Germany and its allies in Arab lands.
A Washington Post bestseller, Among the Righteous has been the praised by critics as "groundbreaking," "inspiring," "riveting" and "compelling." In the words of the New York Post, "[Satloff's] book will force a rewriting of the history of the Holocaust. It has been hailed as an antidote to the Holocaust denial popularized by Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. In recent weeks, Satloff has been featured on PBS's Newshour with Jim Lehrer and three nationally syndicated National Public Radio shows (Fresh Air, Talk of the Nation, and All Things Considered). In addition, he has been awarded the Daniel Pearl Prize, for tolerance promotion, and the Herbert Katzki Prize, for outstanding historical writing.
Satloff will open his Middle East tour in Cairo, capital of the most populous and powerful Arab state, with lectures and seminars at Cairo University, al-Ahram newspaper, and the Egyptian Diplomatic Institute. In Israel, his speaking venues include Hebrew University and Yad Vashem, Israel's national memorial to the Holocaust, which he hopes will soon recognize its first-ever Arab rescuer of Jews, the "righteous" of the book's title.