April 11, 1996 Contact: Barbara McKenna (408) 459-2495; mckenna@ua.ucsc.edu
NOBEL PEACE PRIZE-WINNER ELIE WIESEL TO SPEAK MAY 7 IN SANTA CRUZ
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
In my dreams the impossible is not a Jewish concept.
--Elie Wiesel from All Rivers Run to the Sea
SANTA CRUZ, CA--Nobel Peace Prize-winning author and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel will present a talk titled "An Evening with Elie Wiesel" on Tuesday, May 7, at 7:30 p.m. in the Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium. The talk, one of only four West Coast appearances, is presented by the Neufeld-Levin Holocaust Lecture Series of Stevenson College at UC Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz Hillel Foundation, UCSC Arts & Lectures, and Metro Newspapers.
In his recent memoir, All Rivers Run to the Sea, Wiesel recalls the time his mother took him to seek the blessing of the visiting Rabbi Israel of Wizhnitz. The Rabbi spoke alone with the eight-year- old Wiesel for a long time before sending him out so that he might speak alone with Wiesel's mother. Wiesel remembers his mother came out sobbing from her visit with the Rabbi. The distraught boy was sure the Rabbi had discovered terrible evil in him and begged for weeks to learn from his mother what had been said. His mother never told him, but some 25 years later a cousin revealed the Rabbi's words. According to Wiesel's cousin, the Rabbi had said, "Sarah, know that your son will become a gadol b'Israel, a great man in Israel, but neither you nor I will live to see the day. That's why I am telling you now."
Wiesel's mother, father, and younger sister all died in the Holocaust. Wiesel, who survived along with his two older sisters, more than fulfilled the Rabbi's prophecy. The Andrew W. Mellon Professor in the Humanities and a University Professor at Boston University, Wiesel is the author of more than 35 books, holds honorary degrees from more than 75 colleges and universities in the U.S. and abroad, and is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the Congressional Gold Medal, the Medal of Liberty Award, the rank of Grand Officer in the French Legion of Honor, and in 1986, the Nobel Peace Prize.
Born in 1928 in Sighet, Romania, Wiesel was transported to Auschwitz with his family when he was fifteen years old. His mother and youngest sister died there. He and his father were later transported to Buchenwald where Wiesel remained until the war ended. After the war he studied at the Sorbonne in Paris and began his career in journalism.
Wiesel has dedicated his life to peace and human rights. In 1986 he and his wife, Marion, founded the Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity, and in 1993 Wiesel became the founding president of the Universal Academy of Cultures in Paris. He was appointed chairman of the President's Commission on the Holocaust in 1978 by President Jimmy Carter and is founding chairman of the United States Holocaust Memorial Council.
Wiesel is a devoted supporter of Israel and has worked to improve the conditions of Soviet Jews, Nicaragua's Miskito Indians, Argentina's "disappeared," Cambodian refugees, the Kurds, South African apartheid victims, famine victims in Africa, and war victims in the former Yugoslavia.
He has written a broad-ranging body of works, from his first book, Night, an account of his time in Nazi concentration camps, to novels, plays, biblical writings, and even a haggadah (the book used in the Passover seder). Among the awards his works have won are the Prix Médicis for A Beggar in Jerusalem, the Prix Livre Inter for The Testament, and the Grand Prize for Literature from the City of Paris for The Fifth Son. His most recent work, All Rivers Run to the Sea, was released in the U.S. in 1995.
Tickets for "An Evening with Elie Wiesel" are available through the UCSC Ticket Office, the Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium Box Office, and BASS Tickets. Premium tickets are $37.80 and $18.90 for students with ID; general tickets are $25.20, $18.90 for seniors, and $12.60 for students with ID. For ticket information, call (408) 459- 2159 (V/TDD).
This release is also available on the World Wide Web at UCSC's "Services for Journalists" site (http://www.ucsc.edu/news/journalist.html) or via modem from UC NewsWire (209/244-6971).
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