Dr. Elie Wiesel was motivated by his experience as a survivor of the Holocaust to become one of the world\u2019s foremost advocates for social justice and human rights. He was also a friend to members of the Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre community and we mourn his passing. In his writing and his activism, he gave voice to the experiences of survivors but, as he acknowledged, also saw it as his responsibility to represent those who did not survive.<\/p>\n
Wiesel and Robbie Waisman, a past president of the VHEC, were among the 426 \u201cBoys of Buchenwald\u201d liberated on April 11, 1945, and began their post-Shoah lives together at a facility in France.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had a common bond,\u201d Waisman said. \u201cOn the 11th of April, I usually go into my office and call some of the boys. Elie was part of it. There\u2019s so much that I shared with him.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe world lost an irreplaceable human being.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dr. Robert Krell \u2013 recipient of the Elie Wiesel Holocaust Remembrance Medal for his work in Holocaust education, psychiatric contributions to the care of Holocaust survivors, and his role as founding president of the VHEC, which Wiesel visited \u2013 became friends with Wiesel over several decades.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was the kindest, gentlest, wisest person in my life,\u201d said Krell. \u201cAnd he always made time for me, although he was also the busiest and most prevailed upon person imaginable.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wiesel once said: \u201cThere is much to be done, there is much that can be done.\u201d And the Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre commits to continuing the work that defined his life\u2019s mission.<\/p>\n
The VHEC will honor the life and work of Elie Wiesel during our annual High Holidays Cemetery Service. The commemoration will take place at 11 a.m. on Sunday, Oct. 9, at Schara Tzedeck Cemetery, 2345 Marine Dr., New Westminster. Everyone is welcome.<\/p>\n
The service, held annually on the Sunday between the High Holidays, affords participants the opportunity to mourn those who perished during the Holocaust at this symbolic gravesite.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Dr. Elie Wiesel was motivated by his experience as a survivor of the Holocaust to become one of the world\u2019s foremost advocates for social justice and human rights. He was also a friend to members of the Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre community and we mourn his passing. In his writing and his activism, he gave […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[3097,1802,53,6100,2893,6099],"class_list":["post-20028","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local","tag-elie-wiesel","tag-high-holidays","tag-holocaust","tag-krell","tag-survivors","tag-waisman"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20028","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20028"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20028\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20028"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20028"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20028"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}