For the week of April 10 - 16 , 2002

Nobel Laureate to speak

Humanitarian Elie Wiesel 
visits Sun Valley

---

By DANA DUGAN
Express Staff Writer

"Without memory, our existence would be barren and opaque, like a prison cell into which no light penetrates; like a tomb which rejects the living. If anything can, it is memory that will save humanity. For me, hope without memory is like memory without hope," Elie Wiesel said in 1986 when he won the Nobel Peace Price.

Born in 1928, Wiesel, a Holocaust survivor, has spent nearly his entire adult life haranguing and prodding and encouraging the people of the world to remember what can happen when morality, tolerance and compassion are negated.

He is speaking at a special engagement hosted by the Wood River Jewish Community at the Limelight Room in Sun Valley, April 23, from 5 to 7 p.m. The lecture is free, but tickets should be obtained at area bookstores in order to attend. The lecture, entitled "Anatomy of Hate: Saving Our Children, Confronting Fanaticism and Building Moral Unity in a Diverse Society," is courtesy also of the Idaho Human Rights Education Center.

The lecture’s theme is that "strong, affirmative models can play critical roles in developing ethical standards in the individual and the community," Wiesel said.

A U. S. citizen since 1963, Wiesel was made chairman of the President’s Commission on the Holocaust in 1978, and two years later he became the Founding Chairman of the United States Holocaust Memorial Council. He is also the Founding President of the Paris-based Universal Academy of Cultures. Wiesel has received over 100 honorary degrees from institutions of higher learning. He is also the author of over 40 fiction and non-fiction books, including his first, "La Nuit," his memoir about the Holocaust. He and his wife, Marion Rose, founded the influential Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity in the late 1980s.

 

The Idaho Mountain Express is distributed free to residents and guests throughout the Sun Valley, Idaho resort area community. Subscribers to the Idaho Mountain Express will read these stories and others in this week's issue.