D THE JEWISH LEADER, JULY 29, 2016

EXPERIENCE CONT. FROM PAGE C rah read in that way, and have never since. It’s Up To Us Now Afterwards I had to give my sermon and I can’t describe to you how ner- By George Clooney, Huffington Post Blog vous and inadequate I felt with him there. I was speaking to hundreds of con- Unless you’re 88 years old, most of us have gregants, but inside, I was addressing only one. I suppose it must sound some- not lived in a world without Elie Wiesel. We had what childish, but my awe and admiration for this man was immense. At the a champion who carried our pain, our guilt and end of the service, he came up to me and said that he enjoyed the service and our responsibility on his shoulders for genera- my talk. It was for me an incredible moment. tions. Now he’s gone. It’s hard to fathom. So I He attended our services on Rosh Hashana several more times and each guess it’s up to us now. To fight for the disenfranchised. To speak truth time I was able to spend a few moments speaking with him. Then I didn’t see to power and to never forget how cruel man can be to man. In memory of him for many years. I only heard about him, his confrontation with Reagan at Elie it’s the least we can do. Rest in peace my friend. You brought us this the Bitburg Cemetery in Germany in 1985, the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986, and his latest books. The next time I actually saw him was, I believe, at the funeral far. We’ll take it from here. of Sigmund Strochlitz. We met in the Chapel at Beth El and spoke about Sig- mund. He gave a beautiful eulogy, saying goodbye to his dear friend. I can’t say that I really knew Elie Wiesel, but I can say that he was an impor- International March of the Living State- tant part of my life and in me his legacy lives on. Tehi nishmato tzrura bitzrur ha-chayim - “May his soul be bound up in the bond of life.” ment on the Death of Elie Wiesel The International March of the Living Board of Directors, Staff, Global HOLOCAUST CONT. FROM PAGE A Leadership and Alumni around the world deeply mourn the passing of into politics. He met frequently with President Barack Obama but also loudly our mentor, our conscience and our Inspiration, Professor Elie Wiesel. chastised the president for calling for an end to settlement construction and We had the privilege of working with him for many years and we will for brokering the Iran nuclear rollback-for-sanctions-relief deal, positions that miss his passion, commitment and dedication to our mission of educat- led to criticism, even from long-time admirers. His very public support for Netanyahu was also questioned. Peter Beinart, writing in Ha’aretz, said: “Wi- ing hundreds of thousands of young people and their families around the esel takes refuge in the Israel of his imagination, using it to block out the pain- world on the atrocities of the Holocaust. ful reckoning that might come from scrutinizing Israel as it actually is.” We extend our heartfelt condolences to the Wiesel family on their per- The final years of his life also saw financial turmoil. His personal finances sonal loss and pray they be comforted among the mourners of Zion in the and $15.2 million in assets of the Elie Weisel Foundation For Humanity were knowledge that his legacy will endure and live on. invested with Bernie Madoff, who was convicted in 2009 of fraud. Wiesel’s fortune and the reserves of his organization were wiped out. Dr. Shmuel Rosenman And yet he did not cease his work. Just months after the scandal broke, in Chairman, International March of the Living June 2009, he led Obama and German Chancellor Angela Merkel on a trip to Auschwitz where he noted he was at his father’s grave. He then gave a searing Mrs. Phyllis Greenberg Heideman indictment of the world’s continued inability to learn. “As a public figure who was also the very symbol of the Holocaust survivor President, International March of the Living in America, Wiesel acted as a moral compass, his personal history lending un- equalled gravity to his public remarks on genocide, anti-Semitism and other issues of injustice worldwide.” said Ruth Franklin, author of “A Thousand APPRECIATION CONT. FROM PG. A Darknesses: Lies and Truth in Holocaust Fiction.” “Wiesel never pretended found that he was a good writer. Writing was his therapy. And he wrote much that he understood the Holocaust. He spoke of it as a horror beyond explana- more than Holocaust novels and essays. Perhaps in an effort to preserve not tion, a black hole in history. As the virtual embodiment of the catch phrase only the memory of the Holocaust, but also the world of European Jewish ‘never forget,’ he did more than anyone else to raise awareness of the Holo- learning, he published books about Biblical figures (Messengers of God: Bibli- caust in American life.” cal Portraits & Legends; Five Biblical Portraits;), Talmudic and Hasidic tradition Wiesel is survived by his wife, Marion, and a son, Shlomo. (Sages and Dreamers : Biblical, Talmudic and Hasidic Portraits and Legends; Four Hasidic Masters), and a biography of Rashi. When asked by someone, after he had won the Nobel Peace Prize, what he was now doing, as if he had attained the highest goal and could now relax, Elie replied, “I study, and I write.” That was his life. He did love music, and we of Eastern Connecticut, who felt a unique con- nection to Elie Wiesel, will mark his life in many ways in the coming year, beginning with a concert following our community Harvest Supper on Thurs- day, October 20, at Temple Emanu-El. It was hard for me to choose one quote from Elie’s writing to close this ap- preciation, so I will borrow the excerpt from Night that Zubin Mehta read at a dinner in Elie’s honor: “It was pitch dark. I could hear only the violin, and it was as though Juliek’s soul were the bow. He was playing his life. The whole of his life was gliding on the strings--his last hopes, his charred past, his extinguished future. He played as he would never play again...When I awoke, in the daylight, I could see Juliek, opposite me, slumped over, dead. Near him lay his violin, smashed, trampled, a strange overwhelming little corpse.” Night, along with The Diary of Anne Frank, are the books that serve as the portal to the hell of the Nazi genocide of European Jewry. They are also books of hope. I, and my family, will always remember Elie, in Sigmund and Rose’s home, singing earnestly with all of us “All the world is a narrow bridge and the main thing is not to be afraid at all.” We are perhaps still a bit afraid, but we are braver because of Eli’s faith in mankind. Z’l.