A PROMISE KEPT
“When I first read Night I never dreamed I would meet Elie, much less that we would become friends… Elie implanted in my soul an unwavering insistence that we must educate every successive generation to exactly what happened, so that we can never forget the horrors of the Shoah. It was Elie’s life-long work to make sure each of us carried in our hearts that promise never again” – President Joe Biden, July 2nd, 2016
Thank you, President Biden, for keeping your promise — to your friend, and to the Jewish people.
It costs nothing to say “never again” when we think back to the Holocaust and the defenseless Jews who perished at the hands of the Nazis.
Many say the words without a real sense of the moral clarity needed to act on them when the victim is being cast as the villain.
We have just seen the worst attack on the Jewish people since the Holocaust. And in today’s environment of rampant antisemitism, it is in vogue in too many ignorant circles to blame the victim and spread modern-day blood libels.
Israel’s haters defame and hold the Jewish State to impossible standards, demanding that it abandon its obligation to secure its borders
Has any ally ever more forcefully repudiated the lie that Israel intentionally harms civilians than President Biden?
Could one ask more of an ally than to fly into an active war zone and show solidarity with our people at our darkest possible moment?
So many enemies of freedom are abusing their power on the world stage. Russia continues its unjustified aggression towards Ukraine. China threatens Taiwan and oppresses their Uyghur Muslims. Iran suppresses their people through morality police while they build nuclear weapons and construct a terrorist arsenal for Hamas.
President Biden, we pray for your ongoing strength as you lead the free world. Elie Wiesel believed that gratitude was one of the highest human qualities one could aspire to; and friendship one of the deepest joys available in life.
Thank you for your friendship with him, and with us. Thank you for standing strong against hate. Thank you for standing with Israel. Thank you for affirming the United States’ unwavering solidarity with Israel.
“So, in this moment, we must be crystal clear: We stand with Israel. We stand with Israel. And we will make sure Israel has what it needs to take care of its citizens, defend itself, and respond to this attack. There is no justification for terrorism. There is no excuse.” – President Joe Biden, October 10th, 2023
My father, Elie Wiesel, survived Auschwitz. He'd ask these questions about Israel-Hamas war.
The conflict between Israelis and Palestinians carries heavy pain on both sides, but the history of who offered and who rejected peace must be acknowledged if we are to move forward.
In his autobiographical book, “Night,” my father, Elie Wiesel, described the daily horror he and more than a million other Jews suffered in Auschwitz, the most infamous Nazi death camp. My father’s testimony is especially relevant now in the aftermath of Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack, the worst inflicted on Jewish people since the Holocaust.
I encourage teachers to assign “Night” and to invite their students to engage in hard conversations and ask impossible questions about evil and humanity. I invite adults to read the book and to ask hard questions of themselves and others as well.
If my father’s story grips you, understand that the Holocaust did not happen in a vacuum. Learn and confront the tragic history of antisemitism and the blood libel, the centuries-old accusation that Jews murder the innocent. And learn who my father was.
My father was a writer who became an activist and a Nobel Peace Prize winner. He was a proud Jew who felt compelled to fight suffering everywhere. He spoke up for the victims of genocide in Sudan and Rwanda, and challenged President Bill Clinton to address the suffering of Bosnian Muslims.
My father was a passionate Zionist who believed Israel was the only guarantee our people had against a second Holocaust. He not only acknowledged Palestinian suffering in his Nobel Prize acceptance speech, but he also dreamed of peace openly, hosting dialogue between Israeli and Palestinian leaders to accelerate its arrival.
My father testified to the world that Holocaust deniers should be known as enemies of truth and decency.
And now I ask you to bear witness.
Last month, the world got a preview of the massacres Hamas is capable of. Infants were killed and their bodies desecrated; women were raped and broken. Terrorists once again tried to kill the dream of peace many Israelis and Palestinians share.
Please learn about the victims of Hamas terror, many of whom were dancing for peace. Watch the videos showing young Gazan children being taught to worship terror. Listen to the words of Hamas leaders declaring that Gazans seek martyrdom, while Israel issues warnings to avoid civilian casualties.
Witness the moral courage of President Joe Biden as he rejects a modern blood libel, where Israel stands accused of having bombed a hospital.
False accusation:Media helped spread blood libel against Israel, Jews in Gaza hospital news coverage
Hamas and Israel are not morally equivalent
Remember all this for when someone tries to convince you that there is moral equivalence between Hamas and Israel.
For those on America’s college campuses, you may encounter professors such as the ones at Columbia, Cornell and Yale who recently described the appalling attacks by Hamas as “awesome,” “exhilarating” and “an extraordinary day.”
You also may encounter students such as the ones at University of Pennsylvania and Harvard who claim Hamas’ murderous assault was justified.
And you may even be subjected to threats of antisemitic violence as happened at Cornell University this past weekend.
Ask questions of those who justify violence by Hamas
Here are some questions to ask those who try to justify Hamas’ violence:
- When you chant that Palestine should be free “from the river to the sea,” what does that mean?
- What happened after Israel unilaterally withdrew from Gaza in 2005?
- What is the stated goal of Hamas?
- How should Israel defend its population when Hamas hides behind civilians?
- What would happen to Israel if it pulled completely out of the West Bank tomorrow, as it did with Gaza?
Ask these hard questions and others. And be smart enough to know when someone is telling a half-truth. Do your research.
Wake up, America.How Hamas trumped Netanyahu holds lesson for divided United States
The conflict between Israelis and Palestinians carries heavy pain on both sides. But the history of who offered and who rejected peace must be acknowledged if we are to move forward.
And the clarity of seeing who each of us is in the United States in this moment has never been more vital if America is to move forward. Who are the antisemites engaged in modern blood libel by falsely accusing Israel of genocide? Who stands up to oppose them? And who stands by silently, as so many did in the Holocaust?
I often hear from people: “If only your father were still here!”
My father loved questions more than answers. He is no longer here to ask them.
But you are.
Elisha Wiesel is the son of Marion Wiesel and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Elie Wiesel.
The hatred that begins with antisemitism threatens the whole world
My father loved the Jewish story of the just man who wandered the town of Sodom, shouting the dangers of its inhabitants’ evil deeds.
It was a story he lived. After bearing witness to the horrors of Auschwitz, he demanded that the world fight evil. He warned that hatred which begins with antisemitism inevitably threatens the whole world.
But as with the just man, my father’s protests were ignored.
The United Nations did nothing in 1948 when the Arab Middle East violently rejected Israel’s existence. Seventeen years later, it equated Zionism with racism.
“This is not the first time the enemy has accused us of his own crimes,” my father wrote of Israel’s trial in the court of world opinion. “Our possessions were taken from us, and we were called misers; our children were massacred, and we were accused of ritual murder.”
Antisemitism at the United Nations has become a fact of life. Last week, the UN adopted eight resolutions, all of which condemned Israel. One of the resolutions was drafted and co-sponsored by Syria, whose dictator, Bashar al-Assad has murdered 300,000 of his own citizens.
The Simchat Torah bombing of a Parisian synagogue in 1980 shattered any sense of French Jewish post-war safety. My father lashed out at those who denied the Jewish people’s right to exist. “Perhaps the killers think we have forgotten our history”, he wrote. “We have forgotten nothing.”
Antisemitism in France has exploded over the last decade. Last week, French President Emmanuel Macron called for a ceasefire that would give Hamas time to regroup. He declined to participate in Sunday’s rally of 180,000 Jews and allies marching against antisemitism, saying “I have to make choices… otherwise, I’d be at demonstrations every week”.
It was only 80 years ago that more than one-third of the global Jewish population was wiped out in Europe. My father saw Israel as the only guarantee against a second Holocaust.
In 2014, Israel was widely attacked in the media for responding militarily to Hamas rocket attacks against civilians. My father published an ad exposing Hamas as a death cult, guilty of engaging in child sacrifice through its use of human shields. The London Times refused to run the ad; fellow Jews he thought of as friends attacked him for it after his death.
So many of us have woken up since Oct. 7 to a nightmare where we are told that we must accept terror attacks as the price for living in our ancient homeland. We are told that we may not destroy enemies that are trying to destroy us.
We are victims of constant psychological warfare. We are glued to our screens, watching images of suffering among Gaza’s civilian population that have now replaced the Israeli victims. You and I look at it and say: this must stop. Which of course is what Hamas wants. Our moral reaction is what they are counting on in order to be able to kill again and again.
We must reject the gaslighting. Israel could turn Gaza into dust from the air, but she is sacrificing her precious heroes in a ground war precisely to avoid civilian casualties. Meanwhile, Hamas seeks to maximize those casualties by hiding its military equipment and personnel in hospitals, stealing resources meant for civilians, opening fire during civilian evacuations through humanitarian corridors.
Former President Barack Obama, on a recent podcast, stated that “all of us are complicit to some degree” in the violence unleashed on Oct. 7. But that isn’t so. My father was not complicit, because he was not convinced of the wisdom of unlocking billions of dollars for Iran that could ultimately fund Hamas and this attack.
Israel is not complicit, either. Nothing could ever justify the rape and desecration of women in the southern Kibbutzim of Israel or the dragging of a corpse through the Gaza streets for Hamas supporters to spit upon.
We will likely not convince the skeptics that we deserve the same rights as every other people: to secure our borders and defend our citizens. And yet today we will march, regardless, several hundred thousand of us coming together resolutely on the National Mall. For the just man speaks up, not only to convince others.
Heed my father’s words: “In the beginning, I thought I could change man. Today, I know I cannot. If I still shout today, if I still scream, it is to prevent man from ultimately changing me.”
We deserve to exist in peace and security. Neither Israel nor Gazan civilians can afford this to be anything other than the last battle. This war can only end with the complete destruction or surrender of Hamas. The world may not want to listen to these truths, but we, like my father before us, must shout them nonetheless.
Elisha Wiesel, is the son of Marion Wiesel and the late Holocaust survivor and Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel.
WIESEL: Alumni support for Jewish students at Yale
Is some form of intervention needed? Most said yes, insisting that calls for genocide require unmitigated condemnation rather than silence. Some felt disciplinary action was needed. Others almost apologetically explained that being from Europe, where antisemitism has raged far more violently than here, their first instinct was to keep their heads down. There was considerable interest in the pending alumni letter pressuring the administration for action. Students expressed their appreciation that alumni were showing up.
But the question I heard students grappling with was how to engage with former friends suddenly repeating propaganda designed to isolate and harm the Jewish people.
Your sharp, curious minds and open, brave hearts are all you need.
Engage with facts. If it isn’t commonly known that Israel sought peace with the Palestinians in 1947, 2000 and 2008 and was rejected each time, it needs to become commonly known. The same goes for sharing the history of Israel’s unilateral withdrawal from Gaza in 2006.
Ask open-ended questions.
Engage with empathy. When my father taught at Yale in 1982, his class tackled head-on the failure of the Israeli Defence Forces to prevent atrocities against innocent Palestinians by the South Lebanese Army at Sabra and Shatila.
Voice anger that we are on trial for existing.
The Talmud says that when challenging someone, “לְעוֹלָם תְּהֵא שְׂמֹאל דּוֹחָה וְיָמִין מְקָרֶבֶת”: the left hand should push away and the right hand should draw near.
Hear the story of my friends Derek Black and Matthew Stevenson:
Derek was the heir apparent to Stormfront, the premier neo-Nazi Internet forum. As the child of the site maintainer, they were raised to promote hatred. They went to college in Florida, intending to remain anonymous while they studied. They hosted radio shows in secret which railed against immigrants and Jews.
On campus, they met Matthew Stevenson, an observant Jew and fellow student. Derek discovered the magic warmth of Shabbat dinners at Matthew’s apartment, and they built a friendship grounded in everything from country music to Tolkien. Not long after, Derek was discovered and outed for their racist double life. They were ostracized by almost all who encountered them.
Except for Matthew, who kept talking to them. And Allison Gornik, Matthew’s friend, who at first stormed away from the Shabbat table, but then returned to it week after week, insistent on hammering through point after logical point to probe the defects in Derek’s thinking.
Derek’s wheels turned.
After some time, Derek issued a manifesto rejecting the hate they’d helped spread and publicly declared their Stormfront account closed. They told me the push and pull together drove their profound change.
To fight antisemitism is to fight ignorance.
At Yale, students are fighting the ignorance of those calling to “globalize the intifada”. The ignorance of the educated class comes from the pain of seeing Gazan people suffer deeply from their tragic electoral choices. It’s a different ignorance than that shown by white supremacists who wave tiki torches and chant “Jews will not replace us,” but it is no less dangerous. It is as much of a lie that we prey on Palestinians as it is that we prey on the white man.
It hurt to hear students ask on Thursday night: Why doesn’t the university see us?
I don’t know that it doesn’t. But I know for a fact that many Jewish alumni see you, including me. You shine brighter than you realize.
We’re proud of you who talk to those with different perspectives, even if they are Hamas defenders or appeasers or fellow Jews who consciously stand in opposition to our people. Your right handed embrace is a strength.
We’re proud of you who assert a harder line, who are demanding action from Congress or exposing double standards in national papers, who are pushing with the left hand.
We’re proud of you who try different approaches in different situations.
And proud of you who fight ignorance simply by standing strong and going about your lives, refusing to let grief and fear overwhelm you.
We’re proud of you and know that each of you has the power to make heartfelt, impactful choices as you fight ignorance, demonstrate Jewish values and share your light in the darkness.
ELISHA WIESEL graduated from Davenport College in 1994. His father, Elie Wiesel, Nobel Peace Prize laureate and author of the Holocaust memoir “Night,” was the visiting Henry Luce scholar at Yale College in 1982. Contact him at [email protected].