Reported by: Amolak Singh (New Orleans) NEW ORLEANS(LA);Nobel Peace Prize winner Eli Wiesel spoke about fanaticism and other is sties facing the Jewish community before an audience of 1,200 people Oct. 22, 1995, at Temple Sinai in New Orleans, part of the temple’s yearlong 125th anniversary celebration. Wiesel said, “We must always take sides. Neutrality helps to oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.”
Testimony and education, he said, are the only ways to combat the rise of fanaticism and hatred. Psychologists say that a child learns hate at the age of three. “A child then,” he said, “can learn not to hate.” Wiesel said he is confident that the lessons learned will not be lost. He has ‘profound and absolute faith” in Jewish youths, he said. “Now they ‘want to know more and more, what happened to their parents?” “Afraid of embarrassing or cheapening, not forgetting,” he said. “We are a people of memory.”
Article extracted from this publication >> November 3, 1995
