Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC)
May Elie Wiesel’s Memory Be a Blessing and May His Lessons Live On
I, along with the Center for Holocaust and Humanity Education and the Jewish Federation of Cincinnati, mourn the death of author, Nobel laureate, and treasured mentor Elie Wiesel, z”l.
It is hard to imagine living in a world without Elie Wiesel. His accomplishments are unparalleled and well-known—a young boy from Romania survives the horrors of the Holocaust and goes on to become a writer, activist, and moral compass for humanity. Over the last half a century, Professor Wiesel has helped shape our morality and conscience in the aftermath of the Holocaust. I hope that the many messages he offered continue to provide a compass for those of us left to continue his work.
Just four years ago, we had the opportunity to host Professor Wiesel in Cincinnati, one of several visits he made here. Nearly 7,000 individuals came together to hear him speak at Xavier University. It was one of his last talks on such a large scale. That evening, Professor Wiesel gave an impassioned speech on the importance of Holocaust memory, and our collective obligation to speak out about human rights atrocities. His remarks also touched on the danger of Holocaust denial, and the threats faced by Israel. Here are a few of his comments from that memorable evening:
On the importance of community: “When any street is threatened, the whole city is doomed. When one community is singled out, it means all communities are targeted. We must proclaim as loudly as possible and as delicately as possible that we are all together. We are human beings.”
On memory: “Memory is what you want to make it to be. You can find enough things in it to move you to despair. But if you go deeper, still deeper, you will find as many elements and reasons to reject despair. You will say that, I am not alone in this world. Here, I am not alone and therefore, I am responsible for my fate. You live in a world that belongs to all of you with equal merit and with equal hope.”
On hope: “Hope is a gift. Not a gift that God does not give every one of you. It is a gift that only you can give to another. Let us be worthy of that gift.”
On writing his memoir Night: “I don’t believe in silence. Silence is good in literature, but not in life. We are survivors, therefore witnesses. A silent witness cannot be a witness. Therefore, I had to find not only the courage, but the strength to find the words.”
I am among those lucky individuals who had the opportunity to spend a short time in his presence. I found his poignant words and eloquent speeches moving, but in those personal moments, he was quiet, reflective, intense, and deeply inquisitive. This is what will stay with me—the quiet, thoughtful, introspective Professor Wiesel. Sometimes we need more of this in our world today. In addition to Professor Wiesel’s passing, I continue to mourn the many local survivors who, like Professor Wiesel, sought to use their experiences to educate the world. I think of survivors like Werner Coppel, whose experiences overlapped with Wiesel, among others. Just this week, in Cincinnati, we lost two survivors, Joe Schneider and Dr. Paula Biren. Those who survived did so because they hoped for a better world than the one they experienced. In their memory, let’s strive to give them the world they imagined. May their memories and lessons be for a blessing.
