The halls of the Holocaust Memorial and Tolerance Center of Nassau County filled with an unusual mix of voices last week: Jewish educators, Arab peace-builders and young leaders from across the Middle East. The occasion was a dialogue with Sharaka, a nonprofit organization that emerged in the wake of the Abraham Accords, which normalized diplomatic relations between Israel and several Arab nations in 2020.
The event, on Jan. 24, had a particular resonance at HMTC, which was built to preserve the testimony of Holocaust survivors and to educate future generations about hatred and moral courage. The Sharaka delegation, made up of leaders from Morocco, Bahrain, Israel and the United States, came not only to share their stories but also to demonstrate the power of unlikely partnerships.
Alyssa Annis, who manages Holocaust education in Sharaka, opened the evening by recalling how she found the organization amid despair following Hamas’s attacks on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. “If you would have told me on Oct. 8 that an organization existed like Sharaka,” she said, “I wouldn’t have believed you.”
Annis’s work — bridging Holocaust memory with contemporary Arab engagement — developed into a mission to fight Holocaust denial and antisemitism in communities where it persists. “We have voices from the region who are devoted to make sure that history doesn’t repeat itself,” she said.
Youssef Elazhari, from Morocco, described a deep historical connection between Jews and Muslims in North Africa, stretching back over two millennia — yet he spoke candidly about how modern propaganda and mistrust had eroded that coexistence. Visiting Israel, Elazhari said, transformed his perceptions. “I unlocked a feeling — to be loved by the people you are supposed to hate,” he said. That realization compelled him to found Sharaka’s Moroccan branch, to “tell the Moroccans a reality that they are not used to.”
Fatima Al Harbi, director of Sharaka’s Persian Gulf affairs, recalled a similar awakening. Growing up in Bahrain, she was taught hostility toward Israel even though she lived among Jewish and Christian neighbors. Her first visit to Tel Aviv after the Abraham Accords shattered stereotypes she learned about Jewish people and their character.
“If you had told me 10 years ago that I’d be welcomed by a Jewish stranger in the middle of Tel Aviv’s streets, I wouldn’t have believed it,” Al Harbi said. Despite online harassment and death threats, she continues her outreach, often bringing delegations of Bahrainis to meet Israelis face to face. “Interactions like these can change a person in two hours,” she said. “Hate can dissolve over a single dinner.”
Their stories illustrated Sharaka’s underlying belief: that personal relationships and shared learning — particularly about the Holocaust — are central to reshaping narratives in the Middle East. Elazhari emphasized that Holocaust education is essential for Arabs to understand why Israel exists.
“It’s not about comparing miseries,” he said, “but about understanding history. Without Holocaust education, Israel will never make sense to them.”
The discussion was particularly fitting at HMTC, where Holocaust history meets the moral urgency of modern tolerance education. Donna Rosenblum, the center’s director of education, told the panel how inspired she was by their resilience despite the hostility they face online. “How do you persevere?” she asked, noting how much strength it must take to keep going when people tell you to “go die” or that “you don’t deserve to wear your hijab.”
Elazhari described refueling his spirit with encounters in the United States. “I meet with Jews in America — they hug me, they give me energy, and then I go back home to fight back,” he said.
Al Harbi explained that her motivation comes from faith and support. “An imam once told me, ‘You’re actually walking in the footsteps of the Prophet, peace be upon him, because he always chose peace over conflict,’” she said. “That reminder keeps me going.”
Rosenblum later reflected on how HMTC’s educational mission has only intensified since Oct. 7.
“Our work has grown, not diminished,” she said during the program’s closing. “Every student who walks through our doors is changed. It might only be for five minutes, but they are changed.” For her, partnerships like Sharaka reaffirm that Holocaust education remains vital, not only to remember but to inspire action against hate today.
HMTC’s executive director, Bali Lerner, highlighted that connection. Education, she said, must always reach young audiences who face a flood of misinformation online. “At the end of the day, until we teach the kids — because they’re on TikTok all day long and believe the propaganda — some of them may only hear the facts when they’re here,” Lerner said. She pressed the panel on whether Abraham Accord countries are reforming their school systems to reflect new values of coexistence.
Al Harbi responded that Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Morocco and even Saudi Arabia have begun updating curriculums to remove antisemitic content and emphasize tolerance.
After the event, Lerner reflected on the courage underlying Sharaka’s mission. In a message to the Herald, she wrote, “On the outside, they are very personable and genuine and appear so easygoing, but the truth is that what they are doing is extremely difficult. They get a lot of backlash every time they return home. It is amazing how some people find a way to do right — even though they were raised with hate and lies. They are truly remarkable and so admirable.”
