An Evening with Elie Wiesel: Civility and Justice for Whom?
Monday, April 12, 7 PM
Langford Auditorium
Project Dialogue and the Office of Religious Life present Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient, Holocaust survivor and author of numerous books, Elie Wiesel spoke on Civility and Justice for Whom? This lecture was the concluding event in Project Dialogue’s year-long examination of the themes of, and relationship between, civility and justice.
Elie Wiesel has worked tirelessly to combat what he calls “the perils of indifference.” As he says, “In order to feel empathy and compassion for and with a person who is alone, suffering, in desperation, it’s only because we remember others who were alone, suffering, and in despair. It happens that not only one person, but the group may forget. Forgetting means the end of civilization, the end of culture, the end of generosity, the end of compassion, the end of humanity. And therefore I celebrate memory, and I try to strengthen it. And I believe—I still do, in spite of everything—that memory is a shield. If we remember what people can do to each other, then we can help those who tomorrow may be threatened by the same enemy.”