Conversations with Elie Wiesel - Hardcover

Elie Wiesel; Richard D. Heffner

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0805241922 ISBN 13: 9780805241921

Publisher: Schocken Books, 2001

Synopsis

Conversations with Elie Wiesel is a far-ranging dialogue with the Nobel Peace Prize-winner on the major issues of our time and on life’s timeless questions.

In open and lively responses to the probing questions and provocative comments of Richard D. Heffner—American historian, noted public television moderator/producer, and Rutgers University professor—Elie Wiesel covers fascinating and often perilous political and spiritual ground, expounding on issues global and local, individual and universal, often drawing anecdotally on his own life experience.

We hear from Wiesel on subjects that include the moral responsibility of both individuals and governments; the role of the state in our lives; the anatomy of hate; the threat of technology; religion, politics, and tolerance; nationalism; capital punishment, compassion, and mercy; and the essential role of historical memory.

These conversations present a valuable and thought-provoking distillation of the thinking of one of the world’s most important and respected figures—a man who has become a moral beacon for our time.

About this title

Review:

Elie Wiesel, the 1986 Nobel Prize Winner, Holocaust survivor, and author of more than 40 books, has something to say about almost everything. Conversations with Elie Wiesel, containing highlights from more than 20 television interviews with journalist Richard D. Heffner, gathers some of Wiesel's best thoughts on subjects such as "The Intellectual in Public Life," "On Being Politically Correct" "Religion, Politics... and Tolerance." The book has a few broad, unifying themes--most notably the dynamics of individual and community responsibility, and the proper role of the state in our lives. But Conversations contains no sustained arguments. It is, instead, the record of a mind in action--the passionate thoughts of a person whose confidence in the significance of his own life is the ground of his generosity towards others:

I have the feeling, honestly, that my life is an offering. I could have died every minute between '44 and '45. So once I have received this gift, I must justify it. And the only way to justify life is by affirming the right to life of anyone who needs such affirmation.

--Michael Joseph Gross

From the Back Cover:

"Wiesel speaks with prophetic authority, philosophical wisdom and a storyteller’s verve and vivacity...These lively, engaging talks offer candid glimpses into the life and work of a leading moral thinker."
--PUBLISHERS WEEKLY, Nov. 1, 2001

"Wiesel speaks with prophetic authority, philosophical wisdom and a storyteller's verve and vivacity...These lively, engaging talks offer candid glimpses into the life and work of a leading moral thinker."
– Publisher's Weekly

“Elie Wiesel has become a witness for truth and justice. From the abyss of the death camps he has come as a messenger to mankind—not with a message of hate and revenge but with one of brotherhood and atonement. Wiesel is not only the man who survived, he is also the spirit which has triumphed. . . . His aim is not to gain the world’s sympathy for the victims or the survivors. His aim is to awaken our conscience because our indifference to evil makes us partners in the crime. . . . I doubt whether any other individual, through the use of such quiet speech, has achieved more or been more widely heard. The words he uses are simple, and the voice that speaks them is gentle. It is a voice of peace. But its power is intense.” —From the Nobel Peace Prize presentation speech by Egil Aarvik, Chairman, Norwegian Nobel Committee

About this edition

• Publisher: Schocken Books
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0805241922
• ISBN 13: 9780805241921
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 192
• Editor: Thomas J. Vinciguerra