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June 13, 2008
A messenger of peace
Wiesel speaks about education, suffering, God.
DAVE GORDON
Elie Wiesel, a Nobel Peace Prize winner who has for decades worked tirelessly to educate others on the lessons of the Holocaust, announced at a recent speech that another icon of peace, Mahatma Ghandi, wished Europe's Jews to surrender to the Nazis.
"Ghandi wrote a letter to Hitler in the 1930s and started the letter by addressing him as 'friend.' He wrote to the chief rabbis of Germany before the war and told the Jews not to resist the Nazis, to lay down their lives in mass suicide. And so, he said, it would give meaning to your death," said Wiesel. "When I found out about this, I stopped respecting Ghandi. No more."
Referring to the evening's events, occurring on Yom Yerushalayim, Wiesel said, "I don't believe in coincidences," hinting at a juxtaposition with Israel and her right to defend herself.
Wiesel's talk was part of a fundraiser for Toronto's Heschel School, a Jewish day school, and raised about $600,000. It took place at the Direct Energy Centre, Exhibition Place, in downtown Toronto. The school's namesake, Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, who lived from 1907-1972, was an American rabbi, author and civil rights activist, and marched alongside Martin Luther King Jr.
Wiesel is the bestselling author of Night, a memoir about his experiences during the Shoah, among some dozens of other books. Wiesel's efforts to spread the lessons of tolerance have earned him the United States Congressional Gold Medal, the Presidential Medal of Freedom and an honorary knighthood of the British Empire. Wiesel, who will be 80 in September, was honored on June 2 by the Heschel School with the Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel Award.
Susannah Heschel, who teaches Jewish studies in the department of religion at Dartmouth College, N.H., spoke via recorded video message about how her father had become acquainted with Wiesel, recalling their home study sessions together.
Venerating education is a Jewish value, Wiesel said. "What has kept us alive for the past 3,000 years has been our passion for learning.... The relationship between teacher and student is very sacred."
More specifically, Wiesel added, throughout the generations, it was "that little book we carried with us" – the Torah – that has been the blueprint for Jewish continuity.
That book's stories are filled with flawed characters for a reason, he said. "Abraham, Isaac and Jacob – they all had shortcomings. It is important to learn from their failure and to turn that failure into a lesson."
But it was one particular character in the Torah that he suggested examining in a different way.
"Who was the most tragic figure of the Bible?" Wiesel asked rhetorically. "Some of the forefathers? Abraham, Isaac or Jacob?" Wiesel said it could be God. "His creations and His world seem imperfect. It's up to you and me and all of us to remedy it."
The method of how that should be done, Wiesel contended, might take its cues from two talmudic sages, who got along despite their different opinions on how to make the world a better place.
"Hillel and Shammai and their disciples respected one another," said Wiesel. "They never said that the children of one shouldn't marry the children of another. They ate at the same table. There was no fanaticism. Fanaticism is not an option in any culture."
Dave Gordon is a freelance writer based in Toronto. His website is DaveGordonWrites.com.
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