July 4, 2016

The International Rabbinic Fellowship together with the whole house of Israel and the world community mourns the passing of Elie Wiesel zt"l. Mr. Wiesel, a teenage Holocaust survivor, later went on to become one of the most eloquent witnesses to its horrors and a spokesman for preserving the memory of the victims, their lives and the consequences of hate and bigotry.

He gave voice to so many who no longer could speak and helped bring the study of the Holocaust, its causes and its lessons to the forefront of American academic and cultural centers. 

Mr. Wiesel was a passionate fighter for Soviet Jewry and the cause of human rights around the world. He was a gifted writer, story-teller and moral authority who was willing to speak truth to power to protect human dignity. He was a loyal son of the Jewish people who defended and supported the State of Israel till his dying day. He loved Torah study, scholarship and Judaism even as he argued and challenged God with pathos and yearning in the complex relationship that confronts any modern Jew in the shadow of the Shoah. 

May his family be comforted among the mourners of Zion and Jerusalem.