Elie Wiesel, the Holocaust survivor and Nobel laureate who became one of the most prominent Jewish figures in the 20th century, died Saturday. He was 87.
Menachem Rosensaft, Wiesel’s longtime friend and colleague, writes in his remembrance of the author and activist, “Not all survivors of the Shoah were able to transcend all they had experienced and witnessed in what Elie Wiesel famously referred to as the ‘Kingdom of Night.’ Suffering, he once observed, ‘gives man no privileges; it all depends on what he does with it. If he uses his suffering against man, he betrays it; if he uses it to fight evil and humanize destiny, then he elevates it and elevates himself.’”
Stephanie Butnick is chief strategy officer of Tablet Magazine, co-founder of Tablet Studios, and a host of the Unorthodox podcast.
