SWC Launches Persian Translation of Wiesel’s Acclaimed Holocaust Account to Counter Tehran’s Holocaust Denial Campaign

November 10, 2008

WIESENTHAL CENTER LAUNCHES PERSIAN TRANSLATION OF WIESEL’S ACCLAIMED HOLOCAUST ACCOUNT TO COUNTER TEHRAN’S HOLOCAUST DENIAL CAMPAIGN Center officials say that ‘Night’ is "best way to challenge state-sponsored denial is with the truth" The Simon Wiesenthal Center will host the official launch of a Farsi-language translation of Night, Nobel laureate and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel’s autobiographical account of the horrors of the Nazi Genocide. The launch came the day after the 70th anniversary of Kristallnacht, the first state-sponsored pogrom by the Nazis against Jews. The Center will make the translation available on AskMusa.org, the Center’s website that aims to bypass the Big Lie about the Jewish people often regarded as truth in the Islamic community by creating a multilingual forum for young Muslims to ask questions directly about Jewish faith and culture and to have them answered promptly by scholarly experts. The Center hopes that this translation, published by the Los Angeles-based Graduate Society Foundation, will play an important role in counterattacking state-sponsored Holocaust denial in Iran. Photo: L-R: Iranian-Jewish activist George Haroonian; MOT Director Liebe Geft; Nina Ostovar, who translated the book from Italian to Farsi; Rabbi Abraham Cooper, Associate Dean, SWC "The vast majority of Iran's population is under 30 years old and they lack the knowledge to counter the State's campaign to deny the Nazi Genocide against the Jewish people," said Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Wiesenthal Center. "As the regime in Tehran continues to threaten Israel it is vital that the citizens of that country are armed with the truth. The survivors of the Holocaust are grateful for this initiative and we hope to use the Internet, Satellite TV and radio to beam the truth to the people of Iran," he concluded. The book’s launch came not long after the Center learned from UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon that he personally rebuked Iranian President Ahmadinejad and Iranian Foreign Minister Mottaki for Ahmadinejad’s usage of Nazi-like anti-Semitic imagery in his address to the UN General Assembly in September. Attending the launch was Rabbi Cooper, the book’s publishers, members of the Los Angeles Iranian community and Holocaust survivors.