I have nothing personal to add about Elie Wiesel, who passed away on Shabbat. People who knew him and worked with him and hired him to write moving speeches will have lots more to say than I could ever.
Especially in more recent decades, when Wiesel had to replenish the funds lost/stolen by Madoff and his notorious scams, Elie Wiesel wrote many speeches for politicians who needed to impress Jews and Israelis with the alleged care, friendship and allegiance.
Wiesel was an amazingly talented writer, and don't forget that English was not his first language. Wiesel survived the unimaginable, the Holocaust. He built a life, a totally new one, but one which was connected to his past. He didn't hide the past. Wiesel made people look at it so the newer generations couldn't claim ignorance of the cruelty of the Nazi Holocaust. Unfortunately, the world still hasn't fully learned what Wiesel had tried to teach.
Wiesel was 'the conscience of the world,' Obama saysSorry, that a bit of cynicism has crept into what should be a very nice eulogy of a man who became a legend, an icon of Jewish survival.
Holocaust survivor, Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel dies at 87
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| President George W. Bush, joined by the Dalai Lama and Wiesel, October 17, 2007, to the ceremony at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., for the presentation of the Congressional Gold Medal to the Dalai Lama (Wikipedia) |
| US President Barack Obama hugs Nobel Laureate and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel as Wiesel introduced him to speak at the United States Holocaust Museum in Washington, April 23, 2012. . (photo credit:REUTERS/JASON REED) |
Especially in more recent decades, when Wiesel had to replenish the funds lost/stolen by Madoff and his notorious scams, Elie Wiesel wrote many speeches for politicians who needed to impress Jews and Israelis with the alleged care, friendship and allegiance.
Wiesel was an amazingly talented writer, and don't forget that English was not his first language. Wiesel survived the unimaginable, the Holocaust. He built a life, a totally new one, but one which was connected to his past. He didn't hide the past. Wiesel made people look at it so the newer generations couldn't claim ignorance of the cruelty of the Nazi Holocaust. Unfortunately, the world still hasn't fully learned what Wiesel had tried to teach.