He will be remembered.
…
“That place, Mr. President, is not your place,” Mr. Wiesel said during a White House ceremony in which Reagan awarded him the Congressional Gold Medal, Congress’s highest civilian honor. “Your place is with the victims of the S.S.”
…
When talk show host Oprah Winfrey asked him in an interview whether he had any regrets, he responded: “I wish I had done more for the Palestinian refugees. I regret that.”
…
Baruch dayan ha’emet.
“Night” is not for the faint of heart, it changed me so deeply I can’t properly narrate its effect on me.
Since the Holocaust is part of California’s sophomore curriculum in World History, many students read it. In the last school I worked for, the 10th graders read it in their English class, and then they write a paper for both their history and English classes.
I received my copy from my Father. He was a French, fought in Spain against the Fascists, and then in WWII against the Nazis. I have very few items from him and that one “Night” speaks volumes to me of the type of man he was. He died of TB when I was less than a year old.
As well, thank you for that information, I hadn’t known that California schools did that.
×–×™×›×¨×•× ×• לברכה
(may his memory be a blessing)
Were it in my power, I’d make it required reading for everyone. One of the most powerful books ever written.
I read it in a class about The Holocaust. We watched and read many things in that class that affected me but nothing quite as much as Night.
The fact that Wiesel could not only survive but still have hope for a better world should be an example to us all.
We Remember Them
At the rising of the sun and at its going down We remember them.
At the blowing of the wind and the chill of winter We remember them.
At the opening of the buds and in the rebirth of spring We remember them.
At the blueness of the skies and in the warmth of summer We remember them.
At the rustling of the leaves and in the beauty of autumn We remember them.
At the beginning of the year and when it ends We remember them.
As long as we live, they too will live; for they are now a part of us, as we remember them.
When we are weary and in need of strength We remember them.
When we are lost and sick at heart We remember them.
When we have joy we crave to share We remember them.
When we have decisions that are difficult to make We remember them.
When we have achievements that are based on theirs We remember them.
As long as we live, they too will live; for they are now a part of us, as we remember them.
Thank you. Great humanitarians like Elie Wiesel deserve to be remembered and honored.
Richard Silverstein’s take on Eli Weisel:
Elie Wiesel is dead. He leaves a decidedly mixed legacy.
He was initially a sainted Holocaust survivor, international moral
witness to depravity, captivating storyteller; later he morphed into a
Palestine denier, settler advocate, Iranophobe and right-wing apologist
for Israel.
Same here. I read it in middle school. That book opened up a wound in me that I am forever grateful to Mr. Wiesel for. It was probably the most powerful experience I have ever had reading a piece of literature, and is probably responsible for a significant share of any of the humanity in me.
I don’t know anything about this side of him. I have to wonder though, if it is like someone who grows up perpetually starving and then has a lifelong irrational fear of running out of food, no matter how much food they have stored and is available to them. Please note I am not trying to rationalize anything Mr. Wiesel said or did, only wondering aloud whether the trauma he suffered colored his politics.
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