Elie Wiesel, An Extraordinary Life and Legacy: Writings, Photographs and Reflections

by Nadine Epstein (Editor), Ted Koppel (Afterword), Jonathan Sacks (Foreword by)

Overview

Elie Wiesel (1928-2016) is best known as the author of Night, survivor of Auschwitz and a powerful, enduring voice of the Holocaust. A recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize and the Presidential Medal of Freedom, he was a hero of human rights, professor and author of more than 50 books. Among his accomplishments, Wiesel co-founded Moment Magazine with Leonard Fein in 1975 to be a place of conversation for America’s Jews. For editor-in-chief Nadine Epstein, he became a mentor and friend after she took over the magazine in 2004. In this striking volume, Epstein shares her memories of Wiesel and brings together 36 interviews with friends, colleagues and others who knew him – including, his son Elisha, Michael Berenbaum, Wolf Blitzer, Father Patrick Debois, Ronald S. Lauder, Bernard Henri-Levi, Kati Marton, Natan Sharansky, Ben Kingsley, and Oprah Winfrey. The foreword is by British Rabbi Jonathan Sacks and the afterword is by broadcaster Ted Koppel. To celebrate this humanitarian and keep his inspiration alive, Epstein presents readers with a visual history of Wiesel’s life and examines the influence of Night. This chilling story of the Holocaust has already gripped the souls of millions of readers. Epstein includes a selection of his speeches and writings, lively conversations with teenagers about Night and discussion questions. The book features more than 100 photos. Says Rabbi Jonathan Sacks: "This book of reflections is a fitting tribute to the legacy of Elie Wiesel. In its pages and through the words of its contributors, you will feel a promise, not just to the souls who perished, but also to Elie and all those who survived Europe’s darkest night."

From the Inside Flap

"It is absolutely imperative for this legacy of Elie Wiesel's to continue. It has to, and if it doesn't, it is our loss, and it will be an unfathomable loss." ―Ben Kingsley

"Wiesel taught us that we must not forget; that there is no greater sin than that of silence and indifference. In doing so he has not just illumined the past, he has illumined the future" ―Oprah Winfrey

"There was something burning inside of Elie, a flame ignited by injustice and pain. He was willing to share that part of himself. Pain can make people retreat from life, but opened Elie to the world." ―Kathleen Kennedy Townsend

"He performed the alchemy of converting pain, injustice and horror into love, compassion and tolerance. We remember him not so much because he so often succeeded but because he never stopped trying." ―Ted Koppel

"I believe there is a risk of Elie Wiesel, the Holocaust, and other genocides being forgotten. Without a real effort to retain their memory, they may simply disappear from history. Elie Wiesel was a light in the night for the whole world, not just the Jewish one." ―Father Patrick Desbois

About the Author

Editor: Nadine Epstein, Editor-in-Chief of Moment Magazine, is the founder and executive director of the Center for Creative Change and founder of the Daniel Pearl Investigative Journalism Initiative. An award-winning journalist and author, she reported for the City News Bureau of Chicago and the Chicago Bureau of the New York Times and covered the U.S.-Mexico border. She was a Knight-Wallace Fellow at the University of Michigan, where she also taught journalism. She is also an artist and the creator of the iShadow Project.

Foreword: Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks is the former Chief Rabbi of the United Kingdom. He is the author of more than 25 books, most recently Not in God’s Name: Confronting Religious Violence.

Ted Koppel was the anchor and managing editor of ABC News Nightline for 25 years. He is currently a contributor to CBS News Sunday Morning and author of Lights Out.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781942134572
Publisher:	Mandel Vilar Press
Publication date:	04/02/2019
Series:	Moment Books
Pages:	176
Product dimensions:	8.40(w) x 11.00(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Nadine Epstein, Editor-in-Chief and CEO of Moment Magazine, is founder and executive director of the Center for Creative Change and founder of the Daniel Pearl Investigative Journalism Initiative. An award-winning journalist, she reported for the City News Bureau of Chicago and the Chicago Bureau of the New York Times and has written numerous publications. She was a Knight-Wallace Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania. Epstein has co-written three books as well as a documentary film shortlisted for an Academy Award. Her artwork and photography are featured in several exhibitions.

Ted Koppel is the managing editor for the Discovery Channel. In this role, he anchors and produces long form programming examining major global topics and events for the largest cable network in the United States. He joined the network in January 2006. Ted Koppel is a 42-year veteran of ABC News. Since 1980, he was the anchor and managing editor of ABC News Nightline, one of the most honored broadcasts in television history. As the nation's longest running network daily news anchor, his reporting touched every major news story over the past 25 years. A member of the Broadcasting Hall of Fame, Mr. Koppel has won every major broadcasting award including 40 Emmy Awards, eight George Foster Peabody Awards, 10 duPont-Columbia Awards, and two George Polk Awards. His 10 Overseas Press Club Awards make him the most honored journalist in the Club's history.

Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks is an international religious leader, philosopher, award-winning author and respected moral voice. Rabbi Sacks was awarded the Templeton Prize in recognition of his exceptional contributions to affirming life's spiritual dimensions. Described by H.R.H. The Prince of Wales as "a light unto this nation" and by former British Prime Minister, Tony Blair as an "intellectual giant" Rabbi Sacks is a frequent contributor to radio, television and the press both in Britain and around the world. Formerly Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth between 1991 and 2013, Rabbi Sacks has held numerous professorships at several academic institutions and is currently serving as the Ingeborg and Ira Rennert Global Distinguished Professor of New York University. He holds 17 honorary doctorates and is the author of over 30 books.

Read an Excerpt

Excerpts. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Introduction by Nadine Epstein

Despite our longings, there is no such thing as a superhero. There are only complex human heroes who draw upon their own strengths to create and live worthwhile lives. They find moral clarity through a confluence of fate and nature, manage to hold fast to it (most of the time) and become beacons for the rest of us. Elie Wiesel was one of these people.

When you come into the presence of one of these heroes and pay attention, your universe within expands. This is what happened to me when I unexpectedly walked into the world of Elie Wiesel, a man who I only knew as a character in his first book, Night, the searing account of the horrors he had witnessed and endured in Auschwitz and Buchenwald as a teenager. Although Night was written before I was born, I didn’t read it in middle school or high school like many young people today. In my youth, the Holocaust was still relatively unexamined, certainly in my house, where my father forbade us from buying German-made products, and we were haunted by an unspoken anxiety accumulated over centuries of persecution. Books were my link to understanding the past, and my first inkling of what had taken place in the Holocaust came from The Diary of Anne Frank, the only volume about the subject assigned to school-children of my era. Through it, we peered into the life of one extraordinary and resilient girl and her terrifying existence. But The Diary of Anne Frank did not take us directly into the concentration camps where millions perished. Night did, and when I devoured it years later, I was swept away by the power of Elie’s voice…

Foreword by Rabbi Jonathan Sacks

At the end of the book of Genesis, Joseph makes one deeply poignant request. Although he would die in exile, he knew that one day God would bring His people back to their land. When this time would come, he made the people promise that they would: vehaalitem et atzmotai mizen, “Carry my bones with you.” When Moses ascended Mount Sinai, and there was the catastrophe of the Golden Calf, he smashed the tablets and together with God made new ones. Ever afterward, luchot veshivrei luchot munachim be-aron, the Israelites carried with them in the Ark the new tablets and the fragments of the old. It has been this way throughout Jewish history. We carry with us all the fragments of our people’s past, the broken lives, the anguished deaths. For we refuse to let their deaths be in vain. They, our past, lie on in us as we continue the Jewish journey to the future, to hope and life. This has been the case with the victims of the Holocaust, the lost lives, the broken communities, synagogues desecrated and set on fire, the sacred scrolls burned and turned to ash, a million-and-a-half children murdered. Was our enemies killed keep alive in the only way we can, in our minds, our memories and our memorial prayers. It was this mission, this calling, that defined Elie Wiesel’ remarkable life. He was the man who gave voice to the voiceless victims of the Holocaust and bore witness in the name of humanity to one of the greatest crimes against it. Whatever he did and wherever he went, Elie carried with him sox million fragments of our people….

Afterword by Ted Koppel: First two paragraphs

As Will Rodgers, the Oklahoma cowboy, once noted: “We’re all ignorant; just about different things.” Before my old friend Elie slips, irretrievably, into secular sainthood, let me offer a couple of affectionate remembrances that underscore the point. When it came to popular American culture, for example, Elie was clueless. Over a succession of many winters, Elie taught at Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, Florida. Just across the bay from Tampa, the two cities are frequently conjoined, Tampa-St. Pete, as though they were a single entity. One could not, in mid-winter of 2009, live in the bay area and avoid the news that Tampa was about to host the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Arizona Cardinals for what has been, in recent years, the most watched television event of every year—the Super Bowl. Somewhere in the neighborhood of one hundred million Americans annually watch the game. Need I add that Elie Wiesel was never among them? When I visited with Elie late that January, the region was a flutter with banners, plastered with posters announcing the game. It should not have been possible for anyone to be alive and sentient in the Tampa Bay area without experiencing the mounting fever. Elie remained unaware, not simply of that particular game, but of the existence of the Super Bowl itself…

Table of Contents

Table of Contents Foreword By RABBI Jonathan Sacks............................................................................xx Introduction By NadIne Epstein.....................................................................................xx An Extraordinary Life: A Visual HIstory.......................................................................xx Many Legacies: Reflections..............................................................................................xx Yosef Abramowitz .....................................................................................................................xx Gerard Araud............................................................................................................................xx Nahum Barnea .........................................................................................................................xx Joseph Berger ...........................................................................................................................xx Michael Berenbaum...................................................................................................................xx Wolf Blitzer...............................................................................................................................xx Sam E. Bloch.............................................................................................................................xx Sara Bloomfeld.........................................................................................................................xx Wolf Blitzer...............................................................................................................................xx Sam E. Bloch.............................................................................................................................xx Sara Bloomfeld.........................................................................................................................xx Tomas Buergenthal..................................................................................................................xx Joseph Ciechanover...................................................................................................................xx Dani Dayan...............................................................................................................................xx Patrick Desbois.........................................................................................................................xx Stuart E. Eizenstat......................................................................................................................xx Sonari Glinton............................................................................................................................xx Martha Hauptman.....................................................................................................................xx Annette Insdorf..........................................................................................................................xx Ben Kingsley...............................................................................................................................xx Ronald S. Lauder.......................................................................................................................xx Matthew Lazar..........................................................................................................................xx Bernard-Henri Lévy..................................................................................................................xx Joseph Malovany.......................................................................................................................xx Kati Marton..............................................................................................................................xx Chaim Peri................................................................................................................................xx Itzhak Perlman..........................................................................................................................xx Mark Podwal.............................................................................................................................xx Dina Porat................................................................................................................................xx Jean Bloch Rosensaf..................................................................................................................xx Menachem Z. Rosensaf.............................................................................................................xx Kali Rubaii................................................................................................................................xx Daniel B. Shapiro......................................................................................................................xx Natan Sharansky........................................................................................................................xx Kathleen Kennedy Townsend......................................................................................................xx Oprah Winfrey..........................................................................................................................xx Ruth Wisse.................................................................................................................................xx Peter Wittig...............................................................................................................................xx Interview: Elisha Wiesel ............................................................................................................xx In His Own Words: Essays, Speeches, Interviews..................................................xx Essay: Remembering | Moment Magazine, 1975..............................................................................xx Speech: Congressional Gold Medal of Achievement | White House, 1985..........................................xx Speech: Nobel Peace Prize Acceptance | Oslo, Norway, 1986............................................................xx Essay: A Jewish Plea for Bosnian Children | Moment Magazine, 1993...............................................xx Speech: 50th Anniversary of the Liberation of Auschwitz | Poland, 1995............................................xx Speech: The Perils of Indifference | The White House, 1999..............................................................xx Speech: 60th Anniversary of the Liberation of Nazi Death Camps | The United Nations, 2005...............xx Speech: Inauguration of the New Holocaust History Museum | Yad Vashem Jerusalem, 2005................xx Interview: Heart to Heart | Moment Magazine, 2013.......................................................................xx About Night , ...........................................................................................................................xx Refections on Night................................................................................................................xx Discussion Questions.................................................................................................................xx Afterword By Ted Koppel..................................................................................................xx

Reading Group Guide

Reflections on Night

After Elie Wiesel’s death in 2016, Moment asked young readers (ten students from across the country) to tell us how his book Night influenced their lives. Photos and bios of these young students from around the country are followed by their commentaries about Night and what it meant to them.

Discussion Questions

These questions are designed for classrooms and study groups.

1) What scenes from Night do you remember most vividly? Did reading the book change the way you look at the world, political leaders or your friends and family?

2) In his 1986 Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech, Elie Wiesel said: “One person of integrity can make a difference, a difference of life and death. As long as one dissident is in prison, our freedom will not be true. As long as one child is hungry, our life will be filled with anguish and shame. What all these victims need above all is to know that they are not alone; that we are not forgetting them, that when their voices are stifled we shall lend them ours, that while their freedom depends on ours, the quality of our freedom depends on theirs.” In what ways did the actions of Elie Wiesel’s life reflect the meaning of these words? How does this quote relate to your own role in the world around you?

3) In Night Eliezer describes his life before and during the Holocaust. How is his life similar to yours?