Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel is one of the most revered moral figures of our time. A survivor of the Holocaust, in which he lost most of his family, he is a seminal chronicler of that event and its meaning. In this show, Elie Wiesel shares some of his thoughts on modern-day Israel and Germany, his understanding of God, and his practice of prayer after the Holocaust.
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Hope Provoking (April 20, 2004)
Two aspects of this show caught my attention. The first was the statement that God was in exile with the Jewish people. Even though not a new thought, in this context of one of the most horrific acts in human history it does answer a question for me. It also makes me angry. What was God doing while this horror was going on? It makes me wonder why he does not intervene more in our world and in my life. I am a believer that a crisis in faith brings us both closer and further from understanding.
The second point I found interesting was the statement that even the children of the Nazis have to deal with the sins of their parents. Having a foreign exchange student from Germany this year and she wanting to visit the Holocaust Museum in Washington, I now better understand. She was very disturbed by the whole experience. With tears in here eyes she could not believe that her people could have done such a thing. Even though she had visited some of the concentration camps, it wasn't until she saw the floor covered with all the shoes of the victims that she realized the horror. She came away a sadder person, but I believe a better person.
Bill Turner
Rockville, MD (Listens via Web Audio) |
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Hope Provoking (April 18, 2004)
Thank you. This program was hope provoking for me. It helps me know there are many more than most news media lead you to believe, who do not feel the need to retaliate against those who would want to bring them harm. It reminds me that what I have felt vicitimized by, is really quite small compared to Mr. Wiesel and others. Amongst other things, I hope this program sticks with me, reminding me about living vs. "revicitimizing" myself, when I am tempted to revisit old hurts. Thank you again.
Colleen McHale
St. Louis, MO (KWMU 90.7 FM) |
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Existential Monotheism (April 18, 2004)
First I want to thank everyone concerned for the program itself, I want to pay honor to the love of ideas, ideas that help people, and the love of conversation. Myself, I guess that when Monotheism came along, the idea of God became much bigger, leaving behind the concept of a being or beings not much different from humanity, just more powerful in one area or another. And that put the details, and the responsibilities, in our hands. The best we've done, in the West, has been to develop art and science into working entities, and use the results for the betterment of all. The worst we've done has been to use what we've built for destruction, as in the Holocaust. So every decision is up to us, we have to try to get some ethics and do the right thing. Not easy, but we'd better do it.
Paul Simons
Levittown, PA (WHYY 91.0 FM) |
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The Morality of Prejudice (April 18, 2004)
I was very disappointed to note regarding Elie Wiesel (who is presented by your program as a "towering moral figure", winner of the Nobel Prize and the Congressional Medal of Honor) that people like him who have suffered so much themselves become, in the drift of time, blind to the suffereing of others. I refer to his letter which was read on air in your program, in which he mentions the mutual suffering of the Jews during the Holocaust and the Palestinians at the current time.
What was conveniently forgotten by him in that letter from the 1970s was that the suffering of the Jews during the Holocaust was not caused by Palestinians or "fanatics" whereas the suffering of the Palestinians and their dispossession (see the work of Benny Morris, Israeli historian) from their ancestral land was directly caused by Israel and the Jewish elite. His letter while a beautiful string of words is factually quite meaningless. While condemning the terrorism of the suicide bombers, he similarly forgets that such reactions do not occur in a social vacuum. They occur within a social structure of hopelessness and extreme oppression that Israel has constructed and maintains. Similarly, his idea about martyrdom morality in Judaism and Christianity compared to what those he calls "fanatics" (his term for Muslims) is completley detached from the view presented in the Old Testament. The morality of Moses during conflict (see Numbers 31:17-19) "in the name of the Lord", makes the suicide bombers look like Sunday school kids. Wiesel further mentions that no government would deal with "terrorists," conveniently forgetting that terrorism was used by the "founding fathers" of Israel to get their "homeland"(the blowing up of the King David Hotel, the Semirimis Hotel, murdering the UN envoy, Count Bernadott, etc).
Before Mr. Wiesel makes moral proclamations to humanity, may I suggest he try to break free of the immoral prejudice of always seeing the Palestinians as the criminal culprits and Israel as the righteous victim.
M. Asadi
Detroit, MI (WUOM 91.7 FM) |
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Heart and Soul of a Jew (April 18, 2004)
I am a 69 yr. old native of Pontiac, Michigan living in an American skin with the heart and soul of a Jew. My husband of 42 years is a 90 year old gentle man, native of Warsaw, Poland and Holocust survivor. I listen every Sunday morning to Krista Tippett's program looking for clues to rationalize my soulmate relationship. Speaking with Elie Wiesel on "The Tragedy of the Believer" was a big window of light. Thank you to Krista Tippett for her fine, fine programs!!
Esther Liwazer
Bloomfield, MI (WUOM 91.7 FM) |
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Palestinian Suffering (April 18, 2004)
I understand your guest's desire for a free and peaceful Israel. That said, it will not happen until and unless Israel addresses the Palestinian issue with compassion, understanding and plain old common sense. The reason Palestinians blow themselves up is because they have nothing left to lose. Israel has taken away their rights, their land, their basic human dignity. They treat the Palestinians as less than human. This I find to be intolerable.
Israel is oppressing Palestine, make no mistake about that. And the sad part is, that with the Holocaust as part of Israel's legacy, Israel should know better. Until the Palestinian people are treated with dignity, compassion and with full recognition of their rights as human beings, there will be no peace.
Daryl Lamkey
Franklin Park, IL (WBEZ 91.5 FM) |
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