AJA Conference Breaks Ground in Raising Awareness of Slavery and Terrorism in Africa

Distinguished speakers and survivors address packed house in DC

On June 25 and 26, 2024, the newly-formed African Jewish Alliance held a highly successful conference in Washington to raise awareness of slavery and terrorism in Africa.

Experts, activists, and African survivors of slavery, terrorism, and religious persecution — from Darfur, South Sudan, and Nigeria — gathered with their Jewish allies to explain why Americans must respond to the expanding jihad assaults against both Africans and Jews. The attendees spoke to journalists and briefed congressional staffers.

The first day’s proceedings, held in congressional meeting room 2255 of the Rayburn Building, featured three panels, including speeches by former Representative Frank Wolf (R-VA), Dr. Gregory Stanton of Genocide Watch, and Dr. Charles Jacobs of the African Jewish Alliance; Dr. Okere Sylvester of Strategic Groups USA, former slave Simon Deng of South Sudan, Darfuri refugee Daowd Salih, and Olga Meshoe Washington of the Institute for Black Solidarity with Israel; and Faith McDonnell of Katartismos Global, former Assistant Secretary of State for Human Rights Robert Destro, and Rabbi Abraham Cooper of the Simon Wiesenthal Center (via pre-recorded address).

Deng, a Christian of the Shilluk tribe in Southern Sudan, explained how he was taken as a slave by Arabs when he was a child and held for three years in bondage.

Salih, an African Muslim from Darfur, spoke of the extreme famine and renewed genocide his people experience today, perpetrated by the same government-backed Arab paramilitary groups which enslaved Deng’s people.

Both Deng and Salih declared that what happened to Israeli Jews on October 7, 2023, was no different than what happened to their Christian and Muslim peoples in Africa.

Jacobs explained the need for Jews — who have been abandoned by so many “human rights” and “social justice” movements in the West — to join with other victims of jihad.

McDonnell spoke while holding up a Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph taken in 1993 of a black Sudanese child starving during the Second Sudanese Civil War bearing the words “Remember Sudan? It’s happening AGAIN!”

The press conference at the National Press Club the following day featured other speakers, including Pastor Dumisani Washington of the Institute for Black Solidarity with Israel, Ben Poser of the African Jewish Alliance, Erica Kasraie of Empower Women Media, Doug Burton of TruthNigeria.com, Dr. Chukwuemeka Offor of American Veterans of Igbo Descent, Judd Saul of Equipping the Persecuted, Dede Laugesen of Save the Persecuted Christians, and Stephen Enada of the International Committee on Nigeria. Deng, Jacobs, McDonnell, Salih, and Mrs. Washington also spoke again.

Pastor Washington detailed Christians’ Biblical responsibility to support Israel and combat anti-Semitism vigorously.

Jacobs listed 10 African countries where Christians and African Muslims are under regular, sometimes daily, assault.

Poser explained that Jews were the first slaves of jihad, just over a decade before the Islamic conquest of Africa began, through which millions of Africans were killed and enslaved. He added that, while Noa Argamani, an Israeli hostage (confirmed to have been enslaved by her Hamas kidnappers) has since been liberated, Nigerian captive Leah Sharibu is still in bondage and is yet to be rescued.

Saul detailed the constant, horrific slaughters of Christians in Nigeria and the role of his organization in providing aid for survivors.

Laugesen reiterated the Christian mandate to protect Jews and condemned the Chinese Communist Party’s funding of both Christian persecution in Africa and anti-Semitic movements in the United States.

The events attended by at least three national news outlets whose reports and videos will soon be published.