Let the World Listen to Elie Wiesel

Newsweek

02-07-2025

On July 2, the world will mark nine years since the passing of Professor Elie Wiesel. But this date should not be one of quiet remembrance—it should be a day of action and moral clarity.
Because if Elie Wiesel were alive today, he would be anything but quiet.
You may know him as the author of Night, but Professor Wiesel gave us much more than books. As a Holocaust survivor, a Nobel laureate, a relentless defender of the Jewish people, and a fierce, lifelong supporter of Israel, he gave us a blueprint for what it means to speak truth when the world prefers silence.
By word and deed, he would confront rising antisemitism. He would call attention to the violent bigotry directed at Jews around the world—and the ideology that undergirds it. He did not, and would not tolerate the way anti-Israel hostility is increasingly used to dehumanize, distort, and deny Jewish identity and history.
How can I be sure of what he would do today? Because he wrote and spoke about all of it in his lifetime. We still have his voice; now, it is time we use it.
The late Holocaust author Elie Wiesel speaking during a meeting of Israel-bond volunteers.
The late Holocaust author Elie Wiesel speaking during a meeting of Israel-bond volunteers.As chair of the newly established Elie Wiesel Archive and Legacy Council at The Florida Holocaust Museum, I have the profound honor of helping to steward one of the most significant collections of Wiesel's personal writings and artifacts anywhere in the world. However, our mission is not simply to preserve these materials. We must activate them to ensure Professor Wiesel's moral and intellectual legacy is not just remembered, but lived.
That is why we are launching a new global tradition. Every year on July 2, we will celebrate Listening to Elie Wiesel; A Global Day of Reflection & Action.
In addition to its advocacy and education work, The Florida Holocaust Museum will share resources and host programs to make this observance widely accessible in the coming years: communities, classrooms, allies, and institutions of every kind.
We call on people to observe the day by engaging with Elie Wiesel's words, just as his loved ones do on his yahrzeit, the anniversary of his death in the Jewish calendar, which fell on June 21st and 22nd this year. At a time when Holocaust distortion and antisemitism surge side by side, we must anchor ourselves in Professor Wiesel's voice: unflinching, urgent, and clear.
He reminded us that "not all victims were Jews, but all Jews were victims." He warned us not to equate the Holocaust with other tragedies, not out of indifference to others' suffering, but out of respect for historical truth.
While he spoke out on other human rights issues, Wiesel was first and foremost a fierce advocate for his fellow Jews. He never allowed the Holocaust to be universalized or turned against Jews and would be appalled to see that happening now. He was also a steadfast supporter of Israel—not always uncritical, but unwavering in his belief that the Jewish state had the right to exist, to defend itself, and to thrive. He spoke always out of love for it, and in defense of Jewish dignity there and everywhere.
Today, we see institutions from universities to Holocaust memorials defaced with slogans that erase or justify Jewish suffering. We see Holocaust distortion and inversion spreading online, weaponizing Jewish trauma against Jews themselves. And we see the silence that Professor Wiesel warned about—the silence of the bystander, the polite equivocation, the intellectualized apathy.
In this moment, we need more than education. We need moral courage. And Wiesel gave us the language for both.
So, on July 2, read Night, Open Heart, or any of his books or essays. Watch one of his lectures at the Elie Wiesel Archive at the 92nd Street Y, or the Elie Wiesel Memorial Lecture series at Boston University. Explore his life and works at The Florida Holocaust Museum's upcoming Wiesel Collection, the Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity, or the Elie Wiesel Digital Archive at Gratz College. Listen to his Nobel Prize address. Let his voice break through the noise of apathy and propaganda, reminding us all of our capacity for good.
As he said in Open Heart: "I speak from experience that even in darkness, it is possible to create light and encourage compassion. There it is: I still believe in man in spite of man."
On July 2, we invite the world to sit with Professor Wiesel not in mourning but in mobilization. Join us in allowing his conviction to strengthen our resolve. To understand that if we are truly listening, we cannot remain the same.
Elie Wiesel may not have lived to see the latest devastating wave of antisemitism, but he did prepare us to confront it. Let July 2 be the day the world listens—and acts. When we let his words serve as our guide, he lives on through all of us.
Michael A. Igel is the chair of The Florida Holocaust Museum's Elie Wiesel Archive and Legacy Council.
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.