Wiesel, who survived the hell of Nazi death camps, died Saturday at 87.
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Praise for the life of holocaust survivor and Nobel Peace Prize victor Elie Wiesel is being heard from around the world. Elie Wiesel never lived in Israel, but the death of the esteemed author and Nobel peace laureate is being treated in Israel like the loss of a national icon.
In this September 12, 2012, photo Elie Wiesel is photographed in his office in NY.
Family and friends were gathering Sunday morning at Fifth Avenue Synagogue in the Upper East Side neighborhood of New York City. Abraham Foxman, former national director of the Anti-Defamation League, said before the service that Wiesel had written dozens of books. Through his speeches, achievements and example, we were honored to have Elie Wiesel as a loved and revered leader of the Jewish people, and a persistent, eloquent voice on behalf of the human rights of all.
“He carried a message universally, he carried the Jewish pain, the message of Jewish tragedy to the world but he took it way beyond”, Foxman said.
U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Samantha Power said, “With the passing of Elie Wiesel, the world has lost a great and wise man; those who fight injustice have lost a daily inspiration…” In 1958, he published his first book, Night, about his experience at Auschwitz, which became one of the most representative books of Holocaust literature.
“We talked about forgiveness, we talked about God”. “Well now he’s a little closer”.
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Wiesel wrote other Holocaust memoirs along with works of fiction and non-fiction.
