By Philip Jay

More than 1,000 Jews fleeing persecution from Nazi Germany found refuge in the faraway Philippines, thanks to the government's “open door” policy and that is what Israel plans to honour with a monument this month.

The modern structure of three steel doors, frames and marble floor tiles commemorates the “courage, hospitality and the determination” of the Philippines to give humanitarian support for European Jews seeking refuge from the Holocaust, the Israeli Embassy stated.

“The warm hospitality of the Filipino people undoubtedly shed light in the moment of one of the darkest and most diffi cult periods in Jewish history,” an embassy official said.

The “Open Doors” monument, designed by Filipino artist Jun Yee, is scheduled to be unveiled 21 June at the Rishon Lezion Holocaust Park in central Israel.

“It is my hope, and indeed my expectation, that the people of the Philippines will have in the future every reason to be glad that when the time of need came, their country was willing to extend a hand of welcome,” President Manuel L. Quezon - 23 April 1940, Marikina City.

President Manuel L. Quezon fully understood the crisis that the Jews were facing at that time. To reinforce this open door policy, President Quezon built a housing community for Jewish refugees in Marikina, in 1939, and allotted a farm and large settlement area in Mindanao for Jewish refugees before the outbreak of World War II.

The Filipinos expressed their indignation at the persecution of the Jews. On 17 November 1938, hundreds of Filipinos held a rally in Manila to express their moral outrage and to denounce the Kristallnacht. These episodes in the journey of Jews to the Philippines to escape the Holocaust were documented and thoroughly discussed in the book entitled Escape to Manila by Mr. Frank Ephraim, published in 2003.

Mr. Ephraim's book gave the inspiration and vision to Ambassador Antonio Modena to launch in 2005 a campaign for the remembrance of the Philippine's humanitarian support for the Jews. Ambassador Modena passed away unexpectedly in February 2007 but he had already started the process of building this Philippine monument in Israel. The Organizing Committee for the 50th Anniversary Celebration of the Establishment of Diplomatic Relations Between the Philippines and Israel undertook to complete this vision of Ambassador Modena. A panel of judges chose “Open Doors” by Mr. Jun Yee for the top prize from a field of eight entries coming from top sculptors and architects including a Philippine national artist.

“Open Doors” expresses the feeling, sentiment and emotion of the Filipinos in a show of courage to welcome into the country and provide humanitarian assistance for the Jews. The site of “Open Doors”, the first Philippine monument in Israel, gives greater meaning to this joint effort of the Organising Committee and especially the City of Rishon LeZion, is also known as the “City of Firsts.”

This city has allocated a site in the Holocaust Memorial Park, which is dedicated to the six million Jews who died during the Holocaust.

Frank Ephraim’s book details the author’s and 35 other Jewish refugees’ journey to the Philippines - then a US commonwealth - just before it fell to the Japanese during the mayhem of World War II that left the capital, Manila, in ruins.

The Berlin-born Ephraim and his parents fl ed to the Philippines in 1939, when he was 8, taking advantage of President Manuel Quezon’s decision to welcome Jewish refugees.

Preparations were made to accept 10,000 Jews a year, but only 1,200 made it to Manila.

Sixty-seven Jewish refugees were among the 100,000 Manila residents who died during the 1945 US liberation of Manila and heavy bombing that preceded it, which also destroyed Manila’s only synagogue, Temple Emil.

Jewish Times Asia covered a background story in June 2006. It was made clear at that time that diplomats from the Philippines and Israel agreed that a local Filipino artist would design and construct a unique structure refl ecting local taste.

The monument is the only one in the park dedicated to an entire country and people. The rest of the memorials honouring other countries are in a row of red granite blocks.

_{(Issue June 2009)}