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Ronald S. Lauder | Times of Israel E lie Wiesel was more than a revered writer. He was also a teacher for many of us. He taught us about the horrors of Auschwitz. He taught us about Judaism, about Israel and about not being silent in the face of injustice. Elie once remarked: "This is what we must do: not to sleep well when people suffer anywhere in the world, not to sleep well when someone is persecuted, not to sleep well when people are hungry all over here or there, not to sleep well when there are people sick and nobody is there to help them, not to sleep well when anyone somewhere needs you." He never slept. And he woke others when he saw injustice. Himself a survivor of the Nazi genocide, he knew what he was talking about when he raised the plight of persecuted people in Rwanda, or the former Yugoslavia or in other parts of the world. Through his many books and articles, he brought the Holocaust into public con- sciousness like no other writer. Elie was at home everywhere, in the Old World and the New World, in Yiddish, Hungarian, French, English and Hebrew. He was at ease with world lead- ers, and many U.S. presidents and world statesmen sought his counsel. Although he was always a soft-spoken man, his message was clear and straight- forward. Elie was also a vocal advocate for Israel. And when he spoke, he had some- thing to say, and people listened to him. It has now been almost 30 years since Elie Wiesel was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace. What the Nobel Committee had to say about him then still holds true today: "Elie Wiesel has emerged as one of the most impor- tant spiritual leaders and guides in an age when violence, repression and racism continue to charac- terize the world. Wiesel is a messenger to mankind; his message is one of peace, atonement and human dignity. "His belief that the forces fighting evil in the world can be victorious is a hard-won belief. His message is based on his own per- sonal experience of total humiliation and of the utter contempt for humanity shown in Hitler's death camps. The message is in the form of a testimony, repeated and deepened through the works of a great author." Today, Jews and non-Jews around the world mourn a man who was undoubt- edly one of the great Jewish teachers and thinkers of the past 100 years. His passing leaves a void that will be impossible to fill. At the same time, his writings will live on. Our hearts go out to Elie's wife, Marion, herself a survivor of the Holocaust and a great campaigner for justice, and their son, Elisha. Together, they set up the Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity, which does such a fantastic job in fighting indif- ference and injustice. We have lost the most articulate witness to history's greatest crime. Without Elie Wiesel in the world, it is up to every one of us now to stand up to the deniers. With his passing, we will all have to work a little harder because we will no longer have Elie to remind us of what happens when the world is silent and indifferent to evil. It is now our job, and that of our chil- dren and grandchildren, to pick up the baton and to relay Elie's message of hope and peace to the world. * Ronald S. Lauder is president of the World Jewish Congress. David Sachs | Senior Copy Editor R ene Lichtman, 78, of West Bloomfield survived the Holocaust as a hidden child in France. He is a founder and vice president of the World Federation of Jewish Child Survivors of the Holocaust and Descendants. "Elie spoke at our conferences," said Lichtman. "He was a concen- tration camp sur- vivor as a young person. Our group were also child survivors — and we and Elie could empathize with each other. He was a lead- ing voice and role model for us. "I was extremely impressed that Elie was able to talk about oppression, intoler- ance, genocide and indifference — to uni- versalize it and apply it to the slaughter in Bosnia and Rwanda, which is very impor- tant. He applied the term 'never again' to others, not just Jews. "Elie said he liked to raise questions as a teacher, and he wondered if people real- ly learned the lessons of the Holocaust," said Lichtman. "I would agree with that. "He was a moral conscience in terms of the right thing to do — that we should not be bystanders to hatred. "Elie said, 'Indifference was the great- est evil.' I use this quote when I speak to groups at the Holocaust Memorial Center in Farmington Hills and at other places. "The warning about indifference is an easy thing for people to grasp. It's both universal and a Jewish concept," said Lichtman. LATER GENERATIONS Dr. Charles Silow of Huntington Woods, founder and president of CHAIM, the Children of Holocaust-Survivors Association In Michigan, said, "Elie was very inspirational to us second-generation survivors. "We felt very close to him. He spoke from the soul, from the heart, talking about the Holocaust in ways no one dared talk about it. His honesty, his courage, the pain of what he experienced, the pain that our parents experienced — he was able to talk about in such an eloquent way. He changed everything. He made us aware. "He's our hero," said Silow. "In fact, every time he came to Detroit, he made an effort to meet with CHAIM. We would sit down, for a half- hour or an hour; sometimes we would take him to the airport. It was such a pleasure to talk to someone who was so special. "He was an amazing man who was a conscience for mankind. He said the world has to be a better place — that we can't allow hatred, and we have to speak out and not be indifferent. He gave us a challenge to remember it and never to forget — and to make the world a better place. We take that challenge very seriously," said Silow. "He will be missed — but his words will always live on." * Elie Wiesel and Dr. Charles Silow July 7 • 2016 21 Elie Wiesel in Detroit with CHAIM members about 20 years ago Elie Wiesel: A Beacon Of Light Ronald S. Lauder, president of the World Jewish Congress, with Elie Wiesel in 2012 WORLD JEWISH CONGRESS 'Our Hero And Role Model' Generations of Detroiters mourn Elie Wiesel. Rene Lichtman