Elisha Wiesel keeps father's humanitarian legacy alive
The early lives of the late Elie Wiesel and his son Elisha couldn't have been more different.
That should be evident to those in attendance Thursday when Elisha Wiesel will expound on his life and views for the first time in Montreal, as the featured guest at the Congregation Beth Israel Beth Aaron in a fundraiser for the Foundation for Genocide Education. The event, titled The Legacy of Paying It Forward, will be moderated by Rabbi Reuben Poupko and will include a video message from prominent human-rights activist Irwin Cotler.
Romanian-born Elie Wiesel was a Holocaust survivor. After taking up residence in the U.S., he went on to become a professor, a human-rights advocate, a Nobel Peace Prize recipient and author of 57 books, including Night, which was based on his horrific ordeals as a teen labourer in the Auschwitz and Buchenwald concentration camps. Elie, who died in 2016, was also instrumental in setting up the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C.
Elisha grew up relatively unscarred in New York, with a fondness for computers and heavy metal, and not so much a fondness for being primarily known as the only child of Elie — which led to a rebellious streak. After graduating from Yale, he had a successful 25-year Wall Street career at Goldman Sachs. In 2020, he brought his tech expertise to the presidential campaign of Michael Bloomberg. He now labels himself “a recovering Wall Street executive.”
But for all their contrasting life experiences, Elisha has come to share his father's humanitarian views and is following his legacy in speaking up for the rights of the persecuted — be it concerning Black Lives Matter, the LGBTQ community, anti-semitism, the U.S. DACA policy (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) or the plight of Syrian refugees being denied western asylum.
As a board member of New York's Good Shepherd Services, he helped raise millions for the city's neediest in the Midnight Madness event, wherein finance pros stayed up all night solving complex puzzles.
“I don't know yet exactly what I'll be saying Thursday, but I will likely talk about what I think is a real struggle in terms of the Jewish community maintaining its identity,” says Elisha in a phone interview from his New York base.
“There are forces in the community keeping Jewish identity alive. But we have to recognize that we are living in a time when fewer and fewer Jews are doing that.
“There were two major aspects to my father's message. One was the universality of the Holocaust, the fact that we have to take universal lessons from it in terms of how we treat each other — Jewish or non-jewish, Black or white. But also there is a particular component that he demonstrated simply by living ... that one of the most important ways to fight our enemies is to keep being Jewish.”
Elisha acknowledges that because of his father, he has been given a platform to speak up on an array of subjects.
“Very often I'm getting platforms from people who want to hear words about my father and how his message would resonate (today). And I often tie it back to current events. That's what my father did with the platform he had.”
Elisha has used that platform to bring attention to Syrian refugees, “because we used to have a president who was very disparaging of immigration and was putting obstacles up against immigration.”
Among the issues he sought out was the thorny one surrounding DACA.
“I saw that the argument had been turning against these students who had done nothing wrong and who were children when they came (to the U.S.). It's not their fault. They were just trying to make good on the American dream.”
The situation in Ukraine causes him much consternation, as it no doubt would have for his father.
“There are people putting words out that don't necessarily make sense. I'm not convinced this is genocide that is racially driven, but is it a terrible, ill-conceived war, a big old territory grab that should be stopped immediately by the warlord aggressor, Russia? Absolutely. Do I believe the Ukrainian people are fighting for their right to exist and self-determine? Absolutely, and I applaud that.”
Despite the dark times, Elisha Wiesel remains hopeful and committed to working for the greater good.
“My father kept the faith against all the darkness that he went through. So what excuse do I have for not trying?”