RIP Elie Wiesel 1928-2016

Elie Wiesel, a giant of the Jewish nation passed away on Saturday aged 87. There is surely hardly anyone who hasn’t heard of the Holocaust survivor who became “the conscience of the world”, standing up for Holocaust survivors, the Jewish nation, and victims of racism and genocide worldwide.  The Jerusalem Post provides a condensed bio:

Called “the world’s leading spokesman on the Holocaust” by the Nobel committee, Wiesel dedicated his life to perpetuating the memory of the Holocaust and promoting Holocaust education, as well as “to combat[ ting] indifference, intolerance and injustice through international dialogue and youth-focused programs that promote acceptance, understanding and equality,” according to his foundation.

Wiesel said the fight against indifference and the concomitant attitude that “it’s no concern of mine” was a struggle for peace. “The opposite of love is not hate, but indifference,” he said. “To remain silent and indifferent is the greatest sin of all.”

[...]

Wiesel was the author of some four dozen works dealing with Judaism, the Holocaust and the moral responsibility of all people to fight hatred, racism and genocide.

But it was his first, the memoir Night (1956), which gained Wiesel fame. It tells of his experience with his father in Auschwitz and Buchenwald in 1944–1945, to where he was taken at age 15 from his Romanian hometown of Sighet.

[...]

Wiesel was not without a sense of humor. Upon receiving the World Jewish Congress’s Theodore Herzl Award in 2013, Wiesel said: “There were two great men in Europe at that time: Herzl and Freud. Luckily they never met. Just imagine Herzl knocking on the door of Dr. Freud: ‘I had a dream.’ Freud would have said, ‘Sit down. Tell me about your mother.’”

Dozens of obituaries and articles about Elie Wiesel have been published in the last 24 hours, too many to link to or post here. I will just link to a couple which stood out in my mind.

Yom Hashoah 2013 - Israel's Holocaust Memorial Day

Yom Hashoah 5773 - 2013

Yom Hashoah, Israel's Holocaust Memorial Day, began this evening with the annual ceremony at Yad Vashem. Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu spoke of Israel's need not forfeit its security to other nations:

Netanyahu stated that anti-Semitic hatred "has not disappeared, it has been switched with murderous hatred against the state of the Jews. What has changed is our ability to defend ourselves."

The prime minister stated that while Israel appreciated the efforts of the world to thwart Iran's nuclear ambitions, Israel "cannot forfeit our security to other nations...not even to our closest allies."

PM Binyamin Netanyahu speaks at the Yom Hashoah ceremony at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem

President Shimon Peres reminded us and the world that anti-Semitism still exists and is still a threat to the Jewish people and all humanity:

The map of Europe still contains local stains of anti-Semitism. Racism erupted on that land in the last century and dragged it down to its lowest point. Ultimately the murder which came from her, damaged her.

To our shame, there remain some who learned nothing. Young skinheads. False scientists dressed in false suits. Yes! There remain those who forget the Holocaust, those who deny it.

Not all the flames have been extinguished. Crises are once again exploited to form Nazi parties, ridiculous but dangerous. Sickening anti-Semitic cartoons are published allegedly in the name of press freedom.

[...]

The civilized world must ask itself how in such a short space of time after the crematoria were extinguished, after the terrible death toll that the allied powers endured to put an end to the Nazi devil, it is still possible for the leadership, like that of Iran, to openly deny the Holocaust and threaten another Holocaust.

Peres' words are reinforced by the news that there has been a 30% increase in anti-Semitic incidents worldwide in 2012. Most shockingly, and counter-intuitively, anti-Semitic incidents lead to more anti-Semitism, not less: