The Israel Advocacy Club at Bi-Cultural Hebrew Academy Upper School recently partnered with StandWithUs to share with students the story of Hussein Aboubakr, who was raised in a traditional Arab Muslim home in Egypt and was on a path to becoming a jihadist until his study of Jewish culture drastically changed his views. After being imprisoned by the Egyptian military for his writings and activities to combat anti-Semitism, he participated in the Egyptian revolution until 2012 when he was forced to seek political asylum in the U.S. He now lives in the United States where he is an educator and speaker for StandWithUs as well as a writer focusing on anti-Semitism, Islamism and Israel education.

The BCHA Upper School students first watched the documentary “Minority of One,” in which Aboubakr discusses growing up in Egypt in a culture steeped in anti-Semitic and anti-Israel sentiment, his discovery of information that shifted his own perspective, his subsequent detention and torture at the hands of Egyptian State Security and his goal of spreading the message that, “the answer to bad ideas is good ideas.” Aboubakr participated in the Egyptian revolution until he was forced to depart Egypt as a political refugee.

Following the film’s screening, students had the opportunity to meet virtually with Aboudakr to learn more about his story and his message.