New York, NY, March 17, 2016… Leaders of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations (COP) met with Nadia Murad, a 22-year-old Yazidi woman who escaped from Islamic State (ISIS) militants in Iraq after being captured when her village came under attack in August 2014. Murad shared the story of her horrific captivity and the effects on all Yazidis, an ethno-religious minority, suffering from brutal persecution at the hands of ISIS. She lost her mother and six brothers in the attacks and still has family being held captive by the terror group.
In the meeting, Murad called on the American Jewish community for help in raising awareness of the plight of Yazidis who have been mercilessly driven from their homes, murdered and enslaved for refusing to convert to ISIS’s perverted form of Islam.
Murad spoke in her first address to a Jewish audience about the atrocities committed by ISIS, also known as Daesh, and about the ongoing genocide being committed against Yazidis and other minorities in Iraq and Syria. In January 2016, she was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by Iraq for her activism on behalf of the Yazidi people.
The Conference of Presidents has long advocated on behalf of the Yazidis, calling it a “moral imperative.”
Stephen M. Greenberg, COP Chairman, and Malcolm Hoenlein, Executive Vice Chairman and CEO, stated:
“We were deeply moved by Nadia Murad’s personal account of the atrocities she and thousands of other Yazidi women and girls have endured. The chilling story of ISIS’s brutal acts of ethnic cleansing against the Yazidi people involving mass murder, systematic starvation, rape, torture and forced displacement touches us deeply.
As Jews, we are particularly sickened by the images of unarmed and defenseless men, women and children targeted for destruction simply because of who they are and how they worship. It is a moral imperative for the international community to respond to these atrocities and to heed Nadia’s plea for assistance in dealing with the humanitarian crisis which has been inflicted upon hundreds of thousands of Yazidis who have been displaced from their homes and the thousands still being held captive by ISIS.
We welcome Secretary of State Kerry’s announcement today that the U.S. has determined ISIS is carrying out a genocide against Yazidis and other minorities in Iraq and Syria. The unanimous vote in the U.S. House of Representatives that took place this past Monday, which officially designated ISIS’ assaults on minorities in Iraq and Syria as constituting genocide, is very important.
It is now imperative to work to ensure that Yazidis and other victims of ISIS’s crimes against humanity receive the aid and assistance needed to help them repair their shattered lives.”
Joining Nadia at the meeting was Murad Ismael, Executive Director of the Yazda Foundation, a U.S. based Yazidi aid organization working to support Yazidis in the United States, Northern Iraq and Northeastern Syria.
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