Elie Wiesel remembered at private memorial

Holocaust survivor and novelist Elie Wiesel was remembered by loved ones at a private memorial in New York on Sunday (03Jul16).
The Romanian-born Nobel Peace Prize winner passed away on Saturday (02Jul16) and family and friends gathered at a service at Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue Synagogue to celebrate the 87-year-old’s life.
Among those in attendance was Rabbi Perry Berkowitz, president of the American Jewish Heritage Organisation and a former assistant to Wiesel. Prior to the memorial, he told The Hollywood Reporter that Wiesel’s passing is even more troubling as he fears the Holocaust won’t be reverently remembered without survivors to keep history alive.
“This is really the double tragedy of it, not only the loss of someone who was so rare and unusual but the fact that those ranks are thinning out,” he said. “At the same time anti-Semitism, Holocaust revisionism keeps rising. The fear is that when there are no more survivors left, will the world learn the lesson because those voices will be silenced.”
The Holocaust happened more than seven decades ago, and few authors from that era remain. Another Nobel laureate and Holocaust survivor, Hungary’s Imre Kertesz, died earlier this year (16) – also aged 87.
After news of Wiesel’s passing spread, many shared their condolences, including U.S. President Barack Obama and actor George Clooney, who praised the writer for his unparalleled humanitarian work.
“Unless you’re 88-years-old most of us have not lived in a world without Elie Wiesel,” the actor wrote. “We had a champion who carried our pain, our guilt and our responsibility on his shoulders for generations.
“Now he’s gone. It’s hard to fathom. So I guess it’s up to us now. To fight for the disenfranchised. To speak truth to power and to never forget how cruel man can be to man. In memory of Elie it’s the least we can do. Rest in peace my friend. You brought us this far. We’ll take it from here.”