In praise of Elie Wiesel

Holocaust survivor and Nobel Peace Prize winner Elie Wiesel died in 2016 at the age of 87. He is most widely known for his haunting memoir Night, which was featured by Oprah Winfrey when she was at the height of her visibility and which is still assigned in many high schools. Quite apart from Oprah and high school reading lists, Wiesel’s significance is hard to overstate. At least two generations of Jewish and Christian scholars have been deeply affected by his moral vision. I count myself among that number.

Much has been written by and about Wiesel. These two books are among the first offerings to emerge since his death. They are, in fact, offerings—tributes, encomiums, sacred gifts of gratitude and praise from people who knew and worked with Wiesel. Each book offers behind-the-scenes glimpses of Wiesel as a teacher, mentor, and friend. Yet each book in­evitably works its way around to Wiesel’s extraordinarily rich thinking. Much of this thinking is presented through records of priceless classroom moments and quiet one-on-one conversations that would otherwise be known only to those who were physically present.

Alan Berger, one of Wiesel’s closest colleagues in Jewish and Holocaust studies, has compiled and edited a brief collection of essays. Most of the authors are well-known older figures who have undertaken Holocaust studies in an explicitly interfaith way. The papers were first presented at a conference at Florida Atlanta University involving the scholars who gather each year to judge the Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity’s college student essay contest.