While Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad continues to fan Holocaust denial propaganda, a group of Jordanian educators secretly attended a seminar on the Holocaust at Yad Vashem.
The delegation of Muslim Jordanian teachers learned about the history of the Holocaust for a month, toured the country and met with senior Israeli officials.
The seminar was organized by the Foreign Ministry and the School for Holocaust Studies at Yad Vashem.
Yad Vashem official Yaakov Yaniv conceived the project during talks with Jordanian officials who showed interest in sending a Jordanian delegation to Israel to learn about the Holocaust.
"They had no knowledge whatsoever of the Holocaust, they were unfamiliar with its effect on Israel society," Yaniv said.
Taught in English and Arabic, the seminar opened the Jordanian participants' eyes to the horrors committed by the Nazis against the Jews and other groups, the history of anti-Semitism in Europe and WWII.
A special class was dedicated to Muslim Righteous Gentiles who saved Jewish families from Nazi capture.
The apprentices were treated to a tour in Jerusalem which included stops at the Western Wall, the Church of the Holy Sepulture, and the al-Aqsa Mosque where they prayed.
Officials at Yad Vashem said the one-month stay in Israel changed the Jordanian teachers' perception of Israel, the Jews and Judaism.
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