23 November 2015 – Together with the Philippine Embassy in Tel Aviv, Yad Vashem, the Jewish people's living memorial to the Holocaust, will host the premier in Israel of the documentary film "Rescue in the Philippines: Refuge from the Holocaust" on November 24.

The film features the invaluable roles of former Philippine President Manuel L. Quezon, the Frieder brothers, and then US High Commissioner to the Philippines Paul McNutt in providing a safe haven in the Philippines to more than 1,300 European Jews escaping the Holocaust in the late 1930s to early 1940s.

Not many Filipinos and Israelis are aware of this close historical connection between the Filipino and Jewish peoples even before the Philippines and Israel gained independence. To promote awareness of this little-known story, Yad Vashem and the Philippine Embassy collaborated to screen the film for the first time in Jerusalem. Philippine Ambassador to Israel Neal Imperial and Mr. Yossi Gevir, representative of the Chairman of the Yad Vashem Directorate, will open the event.

Dr. Barbara W. Sasser, Co-Producer of the documentary film and granddaughter of one of the Frieder brothers, will grace the occasion, together with two of the surviving Jews (called "Manilaners") who were given sanctuary in Manila in the 1930s -- Mr. Max Weissler and Ms. Margot Pins Kestenbaum. 

The screening at Yad Vashem will be preceded by a brief lecture by Dr. David Silberklang, Senior Historian at the International Institute for Holocaust Research and Editor of Yad Vashem Studies, on the topic "Hoping to be a Refugee: Jewish Migration Efforts during the Holocaust."

Diplomats, policymakers, academics, students, Holocaust survivors and historians, and members of the Filipino community in Israel are expected to attend the event.

The film has been broadcast over 2,000 times on PBS stations and Holocaust Museums in the US, and has been screened at the United Nations as part of its Holocaust Education Programme. The film premiered in Manila in 2012 at Malacañang Palace, with Philippine  President Benigno S. Aquino III in attendance. It was also broadcast a few times on CNN Philippines. END