Sunday, October 26

10 a.m. – 1 p.m.

Morning—Introduction
President Robert Brown, Boston University
 

I–Biblical and Talmudic Themes
 

Chair—Paula Fredriksen, William Goodwin Aurelio Professor of the Appreciation of Scripture, Boston University
 

Everett Fox, Allen M. Glick Professor of Judaic and Biblical Studies, and Chair of Jewish Studies, Clark University
Elie Wiesel as Interpreter of Biblical Narrative
 

Rabbi Joseph Polak, Director, The Florence and Chafetz Hillel House, Boston University, and University Chaplain
Elie Wiesel and the Rabbis
 

Reuven Kimelman, Professor of Classical Judaica, Brandeis University
Wiesel and the Tales of the Rabbis
 

Joel Rosenberg, Lee S. McCollester Associate Professor of Judaic Studies and Co-Director of the Program in Judaic Studies, Tufts University
Alone with God: Elie Wiesel’s Writings on the Bible
 

David Weiss Halivni, Professor Emeritus of Classical Jewish Civilization, Columbia University, and Visiting Professor of Talmud, Bar Ilan University
Aggadot d’ Rabbi Elazar: The Contribution of Elie Wiesel to Aggada

1 p.m. – 2:30 p.m.

Lunch

2:30 p.m. – 5 p.m.

II–Hasidism
 

Chair—Deeana Klepper, Chair, Department of Religion, and Associate Professor of Religion, Boston University
 

Steven T. Katz, Director, Elie Wiesel Center for Judaic Studies, and Alvin J. and Shirley Slater Professor in Jewish and Holocaust Studies, Boston University
Elie Wiesel as a Contemporary Interpreter of Hasidism
 

Arthur Green, Irving R. Brudnick Professor of Jewish Philosophy and Religion and Rector of the Rabbinical School, Hebrew College
Placing Wiesel in the Neo-Hasidic Context
 

Nehemia Polen, Professor of Jewish Thought, Hebrew College, Newton Center, MA
The Hasidic Tale and the Recovery of Sacred Space in the Life and Work of Elie Wiesel
 

Gershon Greenberg, Professor of Philosophy and Religion, American University, Washington, D.C.
Elie Wiesel and Hasidut Through the Holocaust: Of Kotzk and Lubavitch
 

Pinchas Giller, Professor of Jewish Thought, Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies, American Jewish University, Los Angeles
Elie Wiesel’s Hasidism in Context

8 p.m. – 10 p.m.

Musical Evening in Honor of Elie Wiesel

The Tsai Performance Center
at Boston University
685 Commonwealth Avenue
Boston, Massachusetts

Tickets are free, but required.

Monday, October 27

9:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.

III–Holocaust Literature
 

Chair—Michael Grodin, Professor of Health Law, Bioethics, Human Rights, Sociomedical Science, Community Medicine, and Psychiatry, Boston University
 

Alvin Rosenfeld, Professor of English and Jewish Studies and Director of the Institute for Jewish Culture and the Arts, Indiana University
Amery, Levi, and Wiesel: The Futility of Holocaust Testimony
 

Nancy Harrowitz, Associate Professor of Italian, and Head of the Italian Section, Boston University
Lot’s Wife and ‘A Plea for the Dead’: Commemoration, Memory, and Shame
 

Sara Horowitz, Professor, and Director of the Centre for Jewish Studies, York University, Toronto, Canada
The Storyteller in History: Shoah Memory and the Idea of the Novel
 

Alan Berger, Raddock Family Eminent Scholar Chair of Holocaust Studies, Florida Atlantic University
Make My Prayers into Tales: Elie Wiesel’s Post-Auschwitz Sh’ma Yisrael
 

Ellen Fine, Professor Emerita of French, Kingsborough Community College of the City University of New York
Dialogues and Dreams: Holocaust Memories of Elie Wiesel

12:30 p.m. – 2 p.m.

Lunch

2:30 p.m. – 5 p.m.

IV–Testimony
 

Chair—Abigail Gillman, Assistant Professor of German and Hebrew, and Convener of Hebrew, Boston University
 

Rabbi Irving Greenberg, Former Chairman, United States Holocaust Memorial Council
Dialectical Living and Thinking: The Shoah as Paradigm in the Work of Elie Wiesel
 

David Patterson, Bornblum Chair in Judaic Studies, University of Memphis
Aggadah as Outcry: Elie Wiesel’s Tales in the Context of Tradition
 

Lawrence L. Langer, Professor Emeritus of English, Simmons College
Whose Testimony? The Confusion of Fiction with Fact
 

Berel Lang, Visiting Professor of Philosophy and Letters, Wesleyan University
Philosophical Witnessing: Thinking as a Form of Seeing
 

Oren Baruch Stier, Associate Professor and Graduate Program Director in the Department of Religious Studies and Director of the Judaic Studies Program, Florida International University
Elie Wiesel’s Testament

8 p.m. – 9:30 p.m.

Monday Evening Plenary Lecture
Kristallnacht

Professor Elie Wiesel, Andrew W. Mellon Professor in the Humanities
George Sherman Union, Metcalf Hall
775 Commonwealth Avenue

Welcome by Professor Steven T. Katz, Director of the Elie Wiesel Center for Judaic Studies, Boston University

Introduction by President Emeritus John Silber, Professor of International Relations, Law, and Philosophy; University Professor

Tuesday, October 28

9 a.m. – Noon

V–Fiction
 

Chair—Alicia Borinsky, University Professor, and Professor of Spanish, Boston University
 

Stefan Kanfer, Cultural critic for New Leader magazine, New York City
The Story Lover
 

Jeffrey Mehlman, University Professor and Professor of French, Boston University
French Connections
 

Victoria Aarons, Professor and Chair, Department of English, Trinity University
Bearing the Weight of History: Trauma and Narrative Fragmentation in Elie Wiesel’s Fiction
 

Curt Leviant, Professor of Hebrew Literature Emeritus, Rutgers University
Elie Wiesel: The Thinker as Creative Artist
 

Jonathan Druker, Associate Professor of Italian, Illinois State University
On Witnessing the Other’s Suffering: From Levinas to Wiesel

Noon – 1:30 p.m.

Lunch

1:30 p.m. – 3 p.m.

VI–Teaching
 

Chair—Jonathan Klawans, Director, Division of Religious & Theological Studies, and Associate Professor of Religion, Boston University
 

Alan Rosen, Research Fellow, Fondation pour la Mémoire de la Shoah; and Lecturer, International School for Holocaust Studies, Yad Vashem
“Classrooms Filled With Shadows and With Song”: Dimensions of Learning, Listening, and Teaching
 

Reinhold Boschki, Director of the Department for Religious Education, University of Bonn, Germany
Elie Wiesel: Teacher Through Words—Teacher Through Silence
 

Ariel Burger, Director of the Commission on Jewish Learning and Education, Combined Jewish Philanthropies, Boston
Toward a Methodology of Wonder: Lessons for Educators from Professor Wiesel’s Classroom

3:15 p.m. – 6 p.m.

VII—Round Table: The Lasting Contribution of Elie Wiesel
 

Virginia Sapiro, Dean of College of Arts & Sciences, Boston University
Greetings and Reflections
 

Chair—Pnina Lahav, Law Alumni Scholar, Professor of Law, Boston University
 

John K. Roth, Edward J. Sexton Professor Emeritus of Philosophy, and Founding Director, Center for the Study of the Holocaust, Genocide, and Human Rights, Claremont McKenna College
Where Are We Going? Elie Wiesel’s Contribution to a Christian Understanding of Judaism
 

John Silber, President Emeritus; Professor of International Relations, Law, and Philosophy; University Professor, Boston University
Wiesel’s Legacy: Insight, Action, and Perseverance
 

Roger–Pol Droit, Researcher at CNRS, Paris (National Center for Scientific Research), Columnist at Le Monde
The Place of Jerusalem: Elie Wiesel in French Literature
 

Irwin Cotler, Professor of Law, McGill University. Member of Parliament and former Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada
Professor Elie Wiesel: The Conscience of Humanity
 

Response by Elie Wiesel, University Professor and Andrew W. Mellon Professor in the Humanities, Boston University