BICOM

Israeli leaders expressed their sorrow and admiration over the weekend following the death of an iconic Nobel Prize winner and Holocaust survivor who died in New York aged 87.

Israel’s President Reuven Rivlin called Elie Wiesel “a hero of the Jewish People, and a giant of all humanity,” and said that “his life was dedicated to the fight against all hatred”.

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said: “Elie Wiesel served as a ray of light and example of humanity who believed in the goodness in people.”

He added that he “gave expression to the victory of the human spirit over cruelty and evil”.

Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein called Wiesel “one of the central Jewish figures in the last century. There is no doubt that his intellectual and moral contribution will echo for many more years”. Opposition leader, Zionist Union head Isaac Herzog recalled that he had the honour of meeting Wiesel as a child and hoped that all schools in Israel and across the world would study his books. He said that Wiesel was “one of the great men of the Jewish people throughout the generations”.

Wiesel, originally from Romania, survived Auschwitz, where much of his family was murdered. He became one of the first to publish an account of the Holocaust when he wrote “Night” in 1956, which has been translated into over thirty languages. Wiesel’s writing and oratory is credited with introducing the horrors of the Holocaust to millions. He was a regular visitor to Israel, where he married in 1969. It is thought that at least two Israeli prime ministers considered asking Wiesel to become Israel’s president, although he was not an Israeli citizen.

In addition to the Nobel Prize, Wiesel was awarded more than one hundred honorary doctorates, the Presidential Medal of Honour by Israel, the US Presidential Medal of Freedom and was knighted as Commander of the Order of the British Empire.