Remembering Elie Wiesel
Elie Wiesel, the Nobel peace prize winner and philosopher who survived the Holocaust to be recognized as a moral conscience for the world, died on Saturday at his home in Manhattan.
As a writer of books like Night and Dawn, Wiesel reached millions with his memories and reflections on his childhood in the concentration camps. He also drew attention to the civil wars in Bosnia, Rwanda and Darfur, and pushed Barack Obama to take a hard line on the nuclear disarmament of Iran. But in the New York area, where he lived for the past 60 years, teaching at the City College of New York and giving talks at places like the 92nd Street Y, some people knew him more intimately, as a teacher and friend.
Riki Lippitz, the cantor of Oheb Shalom Congregation in South Orange, N.J., joined WNYC Host David Furst to share memories — and to play a personal recording of Wiesel signing songs from his childhood.
Wiesel also appeared in a public radio special narrated by Morgan Freeman, "Confronting Hatred: 70 Years After the Holocaust."
