Photo: Religious leaders commemorate International Holocaust Remembrance Day at Auschwitz-Birkenau, credit: Weronika Kuzma for KAICIID
At a time of increased anti-Semitism, anti-Muslim hate, and xenophobia in Europe, it is a powerful moment when a rabbi and an imam stand side-by-side in solidarity, with Holocaust survivors, one another, and on behalf of Europe’s Jews and Muslims.
On Thursday, 27 January Rabbi Michael Schudrich, Chief Rabbi of Poland and Imam Adham Abd El Aal, representative of the Grand Mufti of Poland in Warsaw, did just that at the International Holocaust Remembrance Day (IHRD) ceremonies at Auschwitz-Birkenau, a Nazi death camp where more than 1.1m people, mostly Jews, were killed.
The pair are part of the Muslim Jewish Leadership Council-Europe (MJLC), a KAICIID-facilitated organization founded to serve the need to free members of religious minorities from prejudice, false claims, discrimination, and violence…