On 18 January 2024, the Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre’s founder and director, Tali Nates was awarded the US Secretary of State’s International Religious Freedom Award by US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken in Washington DC. Nates was the only South African to receive the 2023 award which is given in recognition of courage and commitment to promoting and defending religious freedom globally and on promoting human rights and mutual respect for all.
The press statement by the US Secretary of State described the work that won her this prestigious award:
“Born to a family of Holocaust survivors, Tali Nates’s father and uncle were saved by Oskar Schindler. The rest of her family was murdered. As xenophobic rhetoric is on the rise in South Africa, Nates leverages her personal story and her position as the founder and director of the Johannesburg Holocaust and Genocide Centre to inoculate South Africans—especially youth—from growing rhetoric that dehumanizes vulnerable groups. Nates uses case studies from the Holocaust, the genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda, and Apartheid in South Africa to teach youth to stand up to antisemitism, racism, xenophobia, homophobia, and all forms of othering. Nates also works to promote reconciliation and healing in post-conflict societies torn by religious and ethnic conflict and is contributing to a growing body of scholarly work on the African historical experience of trauma.”
Tali Nates is a historian who lectures internationally on Holocaust education, genocide prevention, reconciliation and human rights. She has lectured at a number of prestigious international universities and organisations, including the United Nations and is a fellow of the Salzburg Global Seminar as well as the Summer Education Academy of the International Nuremberg Principles Academy. In 2021 she was part of the 12-member Expert Group of the Malmö Forum, serving in an advisory capacity to the Secretariat of the Malmö Forum regarding the content of the programme on Holocaust remembrance, education and for actions to combat antisemitism. She curated exhibitions and has also been involved in the creation and production of dozens of documentary films about the Holocaust and genocide. She serves on many Advisory and Academic Boards including the Contested Histories Initiative, the Interdisciplinary Academic Journal of Babyn Yar Holocaust Memorial Centre and the Academic Advisory Group of the School of Social and Health Sciences, IIEMSA, South Africa.
In 2010, Nates was chosen as one of the top 100 newsworthy and noteworthy women in South Africa by the Mail & Guardian. She won many awards including the Kia Community Service Award (South Africa, 2015), the Gratias Agit Award (Czech Republic, 2020), the Austrian Holocaust memorial Award (Austria, 2021), the Goethe Medal (Germany, 2022) and the International Religious Freedom Award (USA, 2023).
Together with partners at Aegis Trust, Rwanda, Nates developed the Change Makers Leadership Programme (CMP), utilizing the histories of the Holocaust and the Genocide in Rwanda, in an interactive educational programme aimed at student and thought leaders. This programme is launched in 13 countries in Africa, including South Africa, Nigeria, the Gambia, Zambia, Mozambique and Rwanda and had its Asian launch in November 2023 in Manila, Philippines.
For more information or interviews please contact JHGC’s Project Officer Vix Appelbaum: vix@jhbholocaust.co.za