New York, NY – High on the list of people taken by Bernard Madoff’s Ponzi scheme was Elie Wiesel, the Nobel Peace Prize winner and holocaust survivor. On Saturday, Wiesel talked about his loss, and about starting over, in an exclusive interview with CBS News correspondent Jeff Greenfield.
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It was late last year when Wiesel learned that he and his foundation had lost all their money at the hands of Bernard Madoff.
“For the first moment of course was almost paralyzing,” he said. “Then we shook ourselves up.”
And that is what Wiesel wanted to talk about in his only television interview – how someone finds the resilience to “shake themselves up” in the face of such a blow.
“When my life seems to be partly or wholly in ruins, I build on them. I may even use the ruins for the buildings. Second, I will never allow anyone to change my life or destroy what I have done with it,” he said. “Somehow what I must keep in mind is what I think of myself.”
There is nothing sentimental about Wiesel’s view of the world; he believes that evil is a palpable presence; he does not explain what happened as a mark of God’s mysterious will.
“Too easy,” he said. “Human beings should be held accountable. Leave god alone. He has enough problems.”
“I would imagine that one of the assets you could draw on was literally a worldwide community of friends and colleagues,” Greenfield said. “Were they there for you?”
“No, not really,” Wiesel said. “Very few, very very few. But this happens. It doesn’t affect me, I gain a lucidity. The masks have been dropped.”
Others – people he had never met – did come through.
“Five dollars, ten dollars, children. One of them sent us Chanukah money. And he said, “I prevailed upon my parents to match the fund.”
And in a sense, the horrors of what Wiesel lived through six decades ago – watching his parents and little sister die in the concentration camps – provides him a sense of perspective.
“When I was young I lost everything. And almost everyone else. And so all the other fortunes mean much less. Look, if I were alone in the world, I would have the right to choose despair, solitude and self-fulfillment. But I am not alone,” he said. “And if someone is, I have to be present to someone who is alone. And of course that is the sense of my life. Look at my age. I have to be self-conscious of what I’m trying to do with my life.”
now he has BETACHON ?
Please. I’m gonna puke. Weisel didn’t even use the funds from his organization intended for the right purpose either. He is full of it. He’s not starting over. Nebuch. So now he has only 50 million instead of 75 million. Nebuch. Let’s start a collection for him.
It doesnt sit right with me that his interveiw took place on “Saturday”
#5 what kind of “our people” sit down to intervwies on a shabbos morning,what happened to chillul shabbos?? That’s called chutzpa nobel peace prize Is worthless
Such unbelievable chutzpa!!!! How can you talk like that about a elerly man who went through so much suffering in his life???
Elie Wiesel is one huge scam. Everybody knows it, He did go thru holocaust etc and suffered terribly like millions others, but he profited mightily from it and his golden mouth. Can somebody name one productive thing for the Klal that he or his foundation has done??
To #7 and #8 . Who the hell are you???? He only profited from his organization. Nothing else. He is no better than Madoff. Taking donations and pocketing the money same bs.
The interview aired on a Saturday; you do NOT know that it wasn’t taped beforehand. So, until you have the facts, zol zein sha!
“But I am not alone”
Is that a reference to HKBH or to the other people that lost their pants?
so he doesnt follow ur streimel or hat, think of him as daniel pearl…another jew
I agree with #11 .elie weisel davens in the fifth ave synagogue,use to learn every week with the ungverer rov,etc.he is traditional