Elie Wiesel: Humanist Messenger for Peace is part biography and part moral history of the intellectual and spiritual journey of Elie Wiesel, a Holocaust survivor, human rights activist, author, university professor, and Nobel Peace Prize winner.
In this concise text, Alan L. Berger portrays Wiesel’s transformation from a pre-Holocaust, deeply God-fearing youth to a survivor of the Shoah who was left with questions for both God and man. An advisor to American presidents of both political parties, his nearly 60 books voiced an activism on behalf of oppressed people everywhere. The book illuminates Wiesel’s contributions in the areas of religion, human rights, literature, and Jewish thought to show the impact that he has had on American life. Supported by primary documents about and from Wiesel, the volume gives students a gateway to explore Wiesel’s incredible life.
This book will make a great addition to courses on American religious or intellectual thought.
0. Introduction PART I: Elie Wiesel 1. Shattering the Sacred Canopy 2. Elie Wiesel and Jewish-Christian Relations: A Journey of Hope Against Despair 3. The Second Generation: Memory and Jewish Identity 4. Neo-Hasidism: A Contemporary Message 5. Human Rights 6. Wiesel’s Search for World Peace PART II: Documents
Biography
Alan L. Berger is the Raddock Family Eminent Scholar Chair for Holocaust Studies at Florida Atlantic University, USA. He has lectured on Jewish religious and cultural thought in America, Europe, Israel, and Japan.
This is an important, indeed vital, book for all who care about ecumenism and interfaith amity to read, use in dialogue groups, meditate upon, and strive to live up to.
Eugene J. FIsher, Saint Leo University, Stl. Leo, FL, US in Journal of Ecumenical Studies, volume 59 no. 1
