Elie Wiesel, a Holocaust survivor whose book Night became an important part of school curricula and was read by countless young people, died Saturday at 87, according to Haaretz.com. “My goal is to sensitize the desensitized, world leaders first among them,” Wiesel told Newsweek in 2008. Wiesel was absent from an event on May 5 hosted…
6 thoughts on “Elie Wiesel, Nobel Peace Prize Winner, Dies at 87”
Comments are closed.
The Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations issued this statement:
Stephen M. Greenberg, Chairman, and Malcolm Hoenlein, Executive Vice Chairman/CEO of the Conference of Presidents, issued the following statement:
“Elie Wiesel exemplified the highest ideals of humankind and our tradition. He experienced and survived the unspeakable horror and tragedy of the Holocaust and devoted his entire life to eloquently teaching the world about its devastating consequences for the Jewish people and all of humanity. He was a cherished friend, an inspiring teacher, a leader and comrade in every battle and skirmish to ensure the safety and well-being of Jews everywhere and of the Jewish homeland in Israel.”
“His unique ability to convey the consequences of indifference to evil and his willingness to challenge the powerful to speak out and act against injustice wherever it threatened the vulnerable is Elie Wiesel’s enduring legacy to the world.”
“Those among us who were privileged to know and work closely with Elie for decades were strengthened and enriched by his warmth and intellect, and moved by his unshakeable commitment to prevent evil from ever again gaining even a toehold anywhere against any people.”
“The Jewish people and the entire world were enriched by his courage, wisdom and spirit, and most of all his devotion to the simple, yet elusive, ideal that we all must take responsibility for one another.”
“A great voice of conscience has left us. It is our obligation to carry on for generations to come the sacred pledge of “Never Again” and that the life’s work of Elie Wiesel to improve our world will continue.”
American Jewish World Service issued this statement:
Nobel Laureate, Holocaust survivor and author, Elie Wiesel, died today at age 87. Wiesel was a tireless advocate for the memory of the six million Jews murdered during the Holocaust, as well as for the human rights of persecuted people worldwide. Doggedly committed to applying the central moral lesson of the Holocaust to the present, Wiesel spoke out frequently against injustice and played a key role founding American Jewish World Service by joining its board as a founding member thirty-one years ago.
Statement of Robert Bank, President and CEO of AJWS
“With profound sadness, we mourn the loss of Elie Wiesel, who, after surviving Auschwitz as a teenager, transformed himself into a prophetic thinker, writer and activist. Wiesel articulated forcefully the connection between the murder of the Jews of Europe during the Holocaust and the moral obligation to stand up for persecuted people worldwide. Among his myriad tireless efforts to achieve justice in the name of those murdered during the Holocaust, Wiesel played a key role in establishing American Jewish World Service (AJWS). Wiesel generously lent his moral authority to AJWS from its founding and joined its board as one of its founding members thirty-one years ago. The AJWS family is deeply indebted to Wiesel for his foundational role in establishing AJWS and most importantly in raising his prophetic voice and insisting that Jews and others must take responsibility to fight injustice everywhere,” said Robert Bank, President and CEO of AJWS.
“Elie Wiesel was fearless in speaking out against injustice. More than any other person in recent memory, he publicly pressed American presidents for failing to stand up for justice. In 1985, he implored President Reagan to abandon his misguided planned visit to the graves of SS officers in Germany, and in the 1990s beseeched President Clinton to act against the threat of genocides in Bosnia and Rwanda. Wiesel would go wherever he was needed to protest injustice, including to the border of Cambodia in 1980, to protest the horrific treatment of Cambodian refugees whom he likened to Jewish refugees after World War II,” added Bank.
“We will continue to draw upon the wisdom of Elie Wiesel and honor him for decades to come by standing up as Jews, together with others, to fight injustice everywhere. As Wiesel famously wrote in Night, his memoir of the Holocaust, ‘Human suffering anywhere concerns men and women everywhere,’ said Bank.
“May Elie Wiesel’s memory serve as a continual call to remembering the past, standing up against injustice today, and shaping a just world, in which the human dignity of every person is honored and their rights respected,” added Bank.
The America Israel Public Affairs Committee issued this statement:
AIPAC joins the world in mourning the passing of Elie Wiesel. He was a moral witness to evil and an eloquent spokesman for humanity who instructed us all about the profound meaning of the pledge “never again.” He was a powerful defender of Israel and a proponent of the humanitarian and democratic values that bind together the Jewish state and America. His wise voice will be deeply missed, and all that he taught us must never be forgotten. May his memory forever be a blessing.
The Anti-Defamation League released this statement:
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) mourns the passing of author, Nobel Laureate and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel, a courageous crusader against forces of hatred and intolerance and a voice of conscience who repeatedly reminded the world of the moral imperative to prevent mass genocide from happening again.
Marvin D. Nathan, ADL National Chair, and Jonathan A. Greenblatt, ADL CEO, issued the following statement:
Elie Wiesel was a voice of conscience for the voiceless victims of the Holocaust and for all victims of genocide. In his writings, he eloquently bore witness to the dehumanizing acts of anti-Semitism and hatred that came about during Hitler’s reign in Germany and that led to the death of six million Jews and millions of others in the Holocaust.
His written works about the Nazi genocide were unforgettable, but his passion in speaking out repeatedly against anti-Semitism and in defense of the Jewish state as a home for dispossessed Jews around the world made him one of the great Jewish voices of conscience for his generation.
We will never forget his warmth, his generosity of spirit, his humanity, and most of all his astute wisdom, which informed and inspired the work of the Anti-Defamation League for many years.
Elie’s courageous voice against anti-Semitism and intolerance is now silent. But his writings, his speeches and his memory will live on to be a blessing for many generations to come.
Wiesel was honored on numerous occasions by ADL. Most recently, in 2013, Elie and his wife, Marion, were honored with the ADL Jabotinsky Award in recognition of their courageous leadership and love for the Jewish people and the Jewish State of Israel, for which they were tireless advocates for many years.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry issued this statement:
Teresa and I were saddened to learn of the passing of Elie Wiesel — one of our most poignant and passionate voices for justice, for remembrance, and for applying the lessons of a dark past to shape and inform a brighter future.
Anyone who ever met Elie could only stand in awe of what he endured and overcame — and of his ability to respond to the ultimate act of hate with a commitment to love and a universal message of compassion. Indeed, when he spoke, the world was compelled to listen, because his words carried the weight of experience that could not and must not be forgotten — an experience we each are called upon to prevent in our own time.
Elie’s message resonated across faiths and families. He warned us of the perils of indifference and of intolerance. He emerged from one of the darkest chapters of human history consumed not by vengeance, but rather a desire to quell the fires of prejudice and bigotry by serving the cause of hope and leading the pursuit of justice and peace.
It was Elie Wiesel who said that “One person of integrity can make a difference.” He was more than qualified to know, for he embodied integrity; he made a difference; and he offered the most powerful response possible to the perpetrators of evil who tore apart the world of his youth — he led a long, full, and rich life of meaning and purpose.
May his memory be a blessing for all of us.
The American Jewish Committee (AJC) issued this statement:
AJC is deeply saddened by the death of Elie Wiesel. He was 87 years old. A Holocaust survivor, best-selling author, and professor, Wiesel was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986.
“The world has lost a unique voice and moral conscience from the darkest chapter of human history, but Elie Wiesel’s legacy, through the power of his many books, speeches and actions, shall live forever,” said AJC CEO David Harris. “Wiesel’s life was an inspiring, indeed towering, example of an individual’s willpower to overcome the worst of human evil, keep alive the memory of six million murdered Jews, and stand guard throughout against the dangers of extremism, indifference and historical amnesia.”
“And who can ever forget how he spoke truth to power, when he appealed directly to President Ronald Reagan to reconsider his planned visit to the military cemetery in Bitburg, Germany, where Nazi officers were buried?” Harris added.
AJC interacted regularly with Wiesel, a child survivor of Auschwitz and Buchenwald, after he moved to the United States in 1956. He addressed a number of AJC audiences over the decades.
In his seminal roles fighting to free Soviet Jews from the Kremlin’s oppression, speaking out against genocides in Bosnia and Darfur, helping found the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, defending the miracle of Israel’s rebirth and well-being, and confronting escalating anti-Semitism, AJC was an admirer and supporter.
His earliest AJC encounter was with the late Abraham Karlikow, who served as an AJC staff member for 35 years, first in Europe after the war and, later, in the U.S. Karlikow helped thousands of refugees and Holocaust survivors, including Elie Wiesel, to rebuild their lives in Europe.
In 2013, Karlikow’s widow, Joanne, recalled when Wiesel approached her husband at a conference in France in the early 1990s. “Wiesel hugged Abe and told him how happy he was to see him again. Then Wiesel told me that when he was a refugee in 1949 and went to the AJC for help, Abe found him a job, a place to live, and they became friends. Wiesel also told me how he appreciated Abe’s work to help so many Jews from around the world,” she told the Forward.
AJC honored Wiesel with the global Jewish advocacy organization’s highest honor, the American Liberties Medallion, in 1972.
“Elie Wiesel believed that being Jewish means not necessarily seeking to make the world more Jewish, but rather more human,” said Harris, who knew Wiesel for years. “That is the goal animating our people, through good times and bad, from the very beginning of this extraordinary historical journey to the present day. Elie Wiesel powerfully helped advance that aim during his extraordinary life of courage, purpose and meaning. May his memory always be for a blessing and an inspiration!”