Message from President Brown about Elie Wiesel
July 3, 2016
Dear Colleagues,
As you will have heard, our colleague and friend, Elie Wiesel, passed away yesterday at the age of 87. People around the world are mourning the passing of one of the great humanitarians of the 20th century. In his life of teaching and service Elie bore necessary witness to the reality of evil, but also offered compelling testimony to the possibility of compassionate and generous understanding across the seeming boundaries of difference. His teaching and advocacy reflected, of course, his direct, terrible experience of the Holocaust, but also the eloquence and curiosity about profound mysteries that we know began to take form when he was still a child in Sighet.
Elie was a member of the Boston University faculty for 37 years, serving as the Andrew W. Mellow Professor in the Humanities from 1976 until his retirement in 2013. His courses, seminars, and the public lectures that he held each fall left indelible impressions on countless students and colleagues. Through his writing and speaking he influenced people everywhere. Boston University is proud to be the permanent home of the Elie Wiesel Archive at the Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center and to have the Elie Wiesel Center for Jewish Studies bear his name.
Testimonies to Elie’s life and impact are being published around the world. Please see the article in BUToday. Plans to acknowledge his life and work at Boston University are underway.
Sincerely,
Robert A. Brown
President