J’lem Holocaust museum unveils memorial plaque for Elie Wiesel

A memorial plaque dedicated to Holocaust survivor and Nobel Prize Laureate Elie Wiesel was unveiled Monday at Jerusalem's Chamber of the Holocaust museum on Mount Zion, marking two years since the venerated novelist's death.

The plaque in memory of Wiesel, who died aged 87 in New York on July 2, 2016, was unveiled next to a 70-year-old "Tree of Life" dedicated to the Nobel Peace Prize winner at Israel's first Holocaust museum, established in 1948.

The event was attended by dignitaries including Jerusalem Affairs Minister Ze'ev Elkin; Deputy President of the Claims Conference in Israel Shlomo Gur; Chaim Chesler, founder of Limmud FSU (Former Soviet Union); and chairman of the Chamber of Holocaust Rabbi Yitzhak Goldstein.

"His words touched the very soul of the Jewish people," said Elkin at the memorial ceremony.

"There is, therefore, nothing more symbolic than a plaque here A PLAQUE in memory of Elie Wiesel is unveiled on Monday at Jerusalem’s Chamber of the Holocaust museum by Rabbi Yitzhak Goldstein (left), Shlomo Gur, Chaim Chesler and Jerusalem Affairs Minister Ze’ev Elkin. in the first museum in Israel dedicated to the memory of the Holocaust, in a place that was for the Jews during many decades, the nearest place to the Western Wall."

Born in Romania, Wiesel authored 57 books discussing his experiences during the Holocaust. His memoir Night has been translated into 30 languages and sold approximately 10 million copies in the US alone.

The memorial plaque in memory of Wiesel was a joint initiative by Limmud FSU, the Conference for Material Claims against Germany and the March of the Living organization.