Elie Wiesel

Elie Wiesel born Eliezer Wiesel Yiddish אליעזר װיזעל Eliezer Vizel September 30 1928 July 2 2016 was a Romanianborn American writer professor political activist Nobel laureate and Holocaust survivor He authored 57 books written mostly in French and English including Night a work based on his experiences as a Jewish prisoner in the Auschwitz and Buchenwald concentration camps He was a professor of the humanities at Boston University which created the Elie Wiesel Center for Jewish Studies in his honor He was involved with Jewish causes and human rights causes and helped establish the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington DC In his political activities he also campaigned for victims of oppression in places like South Africa Nicaragua Kosovo and Sudan He publicly condemned the 1915 Armenian genocide and remained a strong defender of human rights during his lifetime He was described as the most important Jew in America by the Los Angeles Times in 2003 Wiesel was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986 The Norwegian Nobel Committee called him a messenger to mankind stating that through his struggle to come to terms with his own personal experience of total humiliation and of the utter contempt for humanity shown in Hitlers death camps as well as his practical work in the cause of peace Wiesel delivered a message of peace atonement and human dignity to humanity The Nobel Committee also stressed that Wiesels commitment originated in the sufferings of the Jewish people but that he expanded it to embrace all repressed peoples and races He was a founding board member of the New York Human Rights Foundation and remained active in it throughout his life Elie Wiesel was born in Sighet now Sighetu Marmației Maramureș in the Carpathian Mountains of Romania His parents were Sarah Feig and Shlomo Wiesel At home Wiesels family spoke Yiddish most of the time but also German Hungarian and Romanian Wiesels mother Sarah was the daughter of Dodye Feig a Vizhnitz Hasid and farmer from the nearby village of Bocskó Dodye was active and trusted within the community Wiesels father Shlomo instilled a strong sense of humanism in his son encouraging him to learn Hebrew and to read literature whereas his mother encouraged him to study the Torah Wiesel has said his father represented reason while his mother Sarah promoted faith Wiesel was instructed that his genealogy traced back to Rabbi Schlomo Yitzhaki Rashi and was a descendant of Rabbi Yeshayahu ben Abraham Horovitz haLevi Wiesel had three siblingsolder sisters Beatrice and Hilda and younger sister Tzipora Beatrice and Hilda survived the war and were reunited with Wiesel at a French orphanage They eventually emigrated to North America with Beatrice moving to Montreal Quebec Canada Tzipora Shlomo and Sarah did not survive the Holocaust Source Article Elie Wiesel from Wikipedia in English licensed under CCBYSA 30