14 March 2011, Jerusalem, Israel –Philippine Ambassador to Israel Petronila P. Garcia, Dean of Boys Town Jerusalem (BTJ) Rabbi Moshe Linchner and Honorary Chairman of the BTJ Foundation of America Mr. Josh Weston led the ceremony to unveil the Philippine marker in BTJ on 14 March 2011.

More than three hundred guests attended the solemn ceremony in Boys Town Jerusalem (Kiryat Noar Yerushalayim) to witness the unveiling of the marker that honors President Manuel Luis Quezon and the Filipino people for denouncing the persecution of Jews and "opening the doors" to them in the Philippines right before World War II. During the ceremony, BTJ Rabbi Linchner and Mr. Weston also presented the Jan Zwartendijk Award for Humanitarian Ethics and Values which Ambassador Garcia received in behalf of President Quezon.

Members of the Israeli academe, BTJ students, officials from the Israeli Foreign Ministry, YadVashem (Israel's Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority), government officials, survivors and descendants of refugeesin the Philippines during the Holocaust, the Filipino Community, Filipino soldiers from the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF), Philippine Honorary Consuls and the officers and staff of the Philippine Embassyin Tel Aviv attended the event.

Speaking before a cheerful crowd, Ambassador Garcia delivered her speech in English and partly in Hebrew. She thanked the officials of Boys Town Jerusalem and others who facilitated this project. She narrated the story of the 1,200 Jews who arrived in the Philippines; and the humanitarian gestures of President Quezon and the Filipino people who denounced the persecution of Jews in Germany, offered a brotherly welcome and later provided livelihood opportunities to the refugees. In her speech, Ambassador Garcia said that, "these gestures of humanity are unparalleled in the history of the Philippines and the friendship of Jews and Filipinos is very much alive and vibrant today". Proof to this, the Ambassador said that in the recent years, Israel opened its doors to 40,000 Overseas Filipino Workers who now take care of the survivors of the Holocaust and World War II.

Before concluding her speech to unveil the marker, Ambassador Garcia noted that the marker also represents mutual commitment to educate the young generations of Jews and Filipinos about this magnanimity and gestures of humanity as well the great friendship long after World War II.

In 1938, Filipinos rallied in Manila to denounce the persecution of Jews in Germany and shortly after, President Quezon offered 10,000 visas European Jews who came to the Philippines until before World War II reached the country. However, only 1,200 visas were however issued as War broke out.

In 1940, President Quezon supported the construction of a housing community in Marikina and donated a portion of his estate as farmland for the refugees. During the War, both Jewish refugees and Filipinos survived the street battles in Manila (a few Jews reportedly even joined the US forces in the country).

 In 1947, three years after the death of President Quezon, the Philippines also stood by the Jews as the country delivered the most crucial and deciding vote to the UN Resolution creating the State of Israel; and the first Asian country to officially recognize Israel.

Nearly seventy five (75) years after the rally in Manila and the arrival of Jewish refugees in the Philippines, President Quezon and the Filipino people are recognized by Boys Town Jerusalem in the Jan Zwartendijk Memorial Garden, named after the non-Jewish Dutch diplomat who also came to the rescue of Jews by offering them visas so they can leave Europe. This is the second recognition of this kind. The first was the Philippine Open Doors Monument inaugurated in June 2009 in the Holocaust Memorial Park in Rishon LeZion, outside Tel Aviv.

This great history of friendship during the Holocaust and world War II and story was left untold for many years until the publication of the book entitled "Escape to Manila" authored by the late Mr. Frank Ephraim together with the chronicles and testimonies of Mr. Max Weissler. Both Weissler and Ephraim arrived in the country as young refugees from Germany and survived the War in Manila).