Phillips Center for the Performing Arts 8:00 P.M. March 6, 2006 Elie Wiesel [ Applause ] >> Thank you all for coming and welcome. My name is Russell Semmel, chairman of Jewish awareness month, 2006 at the University of Florida. [ Applause ] >> Thank you. Beginning last Monday day, February 27th and ending Sunday, April 9th, jam provides six weeks of programming for both Jewish and non-Jewish students alike, free and open to the public and funded by student government. Tonight's event is our central event but there are a number that should appeal to the student body at large, include this Thursday, our carnival. Thursday, March 30th, our nice 2 Jewish boy nice Jewish girl pageant and evening with Pulitzer prize winning author, Monday Our program is on the back of your accent programs or check out our website at www.jam.uf.org. Having Elie Wiesel as our theme is the focus of our month, it's alluding to a central Jewish prayer and the three pillars, Jewish religion, Jewish culture and Jewish advocacy. His speech encompasses all three. I'd like to thank all of the staff board of members of the Jewish student union, accent speakers bureau and everyone in the audience for coming. I'd like to welcome Elie Wiesel and our own accent chairman, Evan Tyroler. >> Thank you, Russell. >> Good evening. My name is Evan Tyroler, I'm a chairman of Accent Speaker's Bureau. Henry Fred man the chairman of the education center in Washington once said, 3 we're all different. Because of that, each of us has something different and special to offer and each and every one of us can make a difference by not being indifferent. Our guest tonight, Nobel Prize laureate and author of several books including “Night and dawn," Mr. Elie Wiesel has made a significant difference in our a lives. He was born in 1929 in Translvania F. At the age of 15, he went to a Nazi death camp. Just before the camps were liberated his father died. It took him 10 years to write about these life altering experiences. It was published under the name “Night" describing his experiences and emotions including the deportation to Auschwitz as well as the physical and mental anguish caused by the Nazis. In 1986, Mr. Wiesel was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for speaking out against racism and violence and he has also been awarded with a Congressional gold medal of honor. 4 While serving on the presidential commission on the Holocaust in the early 1980s he helped ensure the building of the Holocaust museum in Washington D.C. >> He and his wife found the Elie Wiesel foundation, and it is to combat indifference, intolerance, injustice through international dialogue. Furthermore, they have focused programs that promote acceptance, understanding and he quality. With Mr. Wiesel's impressive biography, it is not a surprise this is not his first time speaking at the University of Florida. For nearly 40 years Accent Speaker's Bureau has hosted prominent and controversial speakers. It sparked debate among the student body by providing students with influential speakers and engage the members of our community. This Wednesday March 8th, accent is working alongside the University of Florida Law School and the public interest environmental conference to bring in Robert 5 F. Kennedy, Jr.. This speech is free and open to the public. Tickets will be available Wednesday at 12:00 p.m. After the completion of the speech, Mr. Wiesel will answer a few questions from our audience. Tonight, you will notice in your programs, there is a sheet of paper for you to write a question for your speaker. We ask you to please hold onto your forms until the completion of the speech when Accent staff members will come around to collect the question forms and our faculty advisor Dr. David Hedge will moderate the question and answer session please keep in mind due to time constraints not all questions will be answered. He will be in the lobby to sign his books, please make sure to get a copy on your way out. Accent is fueled by student interest and support. We would love to hear your thoughts on 6 tonight's presentation or accent in general. Please take the time to leave feedback on our website which is Www.sg.ufl.edu/accent. It's on your programs or on your way out, stop by our feedback table in the lobby and drop a note there. Any person who leaves feedback tonight will be entered into a raffle to receive a signed poster by tonight's speaker. In addition I would like to thank Mr. Semmel for his help help these past few months and I'd like to thank the Accent staff for your help and hard work. As per request for Elie Wiesel we ask no pictures be taken after the first five minutes of the event. Please take this time to turn off all cell phones and electronic devices. Thank you very much. Without further adieu, Accent Speakers Bureau at the University of Florida proudly presents to you a truly inspirational individual, professor Elie Wiesel. [ Applause ] 7 >> Thank you very much for inviting me back. I have been here twice. I think in 1972, and then you forgot me for many years. And brought me back in 2001. This time, it took you less to bring me back. Our problem is some of you have been here, then I am embarrassed because I don't like to repeat what I say and I may have to do that since I forget what I said. In 2001, I am sure I spoke about the end of a period, the 20th century ended. I must have told you how all of us, all over the world, were so glad that the 20th Century was behind us. Therefore, therefore, December 31st, 1999, there was celebration, jubilation all over the planet. More for the people, fireworks and say, thank God, it base hind us because it was the worst century of all. Two totalitarium regimes. 8 We have seen what it has done, the unspeakable horror to the Jewish people. So enough. And we're convinced the 21st Century would be a good century and we welcomed it with open arms, here we are, 5 or six years into the century. And we have a heavy heart because we don't know what the future will be. We do know the present is not good. Who would have thought we should be in America, we shall be involved in two wars, Iraq, Afghanistan, who would have thought that in the 21st Century, those of us who remember, will be faced with a new form of violence and evil? Suicide terrorists. Hanging. And who knows? Who knows. So before coming here, ask some of your students and otherwise present at this university, what should I speak about? What should I speak about. I heard all kinds of ideas. 9 And I will try to combine them. Naturally, whatever I have to say about the situation of the world, I hope you understand, I speak as a Jew. It is from within my Jewishness that I'm trying to say certain things about the world, which is a non-jewish world naturally. Do you understand, people? For somebody who's occupied a place in history, which was beyond numbers, I don't know why, it wasn't this century for the last 2,000 years, at least, where somewhere on the planet, things were happening to people and don't know why. So the question is why? Why did he attract so much hate? I, as a student, for instance, of the Bible, but the Bible has been taken by at least two major religions as well, but I believe the great monster works, it has been despised, denigrated, and even burned, a church in the middle ages. What do they want? And think about it. 10 I think maybe it has to do with the fact if not being for this work, which combines everything human endeavor, jurisprudence and astrology and Astronomy, even culinary aspects of human endeavors, mathematics, philosophy, history, poetry, literature, everything is there, and if it not been for this work, the Jewish people I think, could have vanished in many parts, at least in many parts of the world. It kept us alive. Maybe that's why so many enemies we've had tried to do away. Today, it's different. Today, it's being taught all over the world. And they realize the beauty in every legend and every tale. What actually happened, it has one word, it is the beauty of respect. I almost said tolerance, the beauty of tolerance. I don't like tolerance, I fight intolerance, but I am not fighting for tolerance, because tolerance has a measure 11 of condescendence in it. Who am I to tolerate you? Tolerating implies a superiority of the person who uses his talent to fight intolerance. No, I prefer the word, "respect." And the whole thing is a dialogue, a respect for the minority, respect for the other, you won't find a single nasty word in it, never. Maybe that's why, because we were there to teach what the world didn't have. Does it mean as a Jew, I am concerned with only Jewish matters? No. I am concerned first with my last family. I cannot stop that. And there's an expression the poor people of your community come first, too. They come first. But they are not exclusive. As a Jew, I must be concerned with other people, for those who need someone to listen to them. 12 Somebody who is persecuted, somebody who is hungry, sick, no one around to come and visit. Someone who is spending his or her life in fear. They must have a voice and say, look, we cannot liberate all the prisoners from jail, I mean prisoners there unfairly, unjustly, put in prison. We cannot cure all the-all the woes of society. But we can say, I'm not alone. The worst thing that can happen to a prisoner, I remember in the '50s and '60's, in Stalin's time, was to feel abandoned, completely alone. Again, that's what we can do We're not alone. People in Rwanda should know that they are not alone. Then, of course, we come to the other aspect I was asked all kinds of questions to speak about. One of them wanted to know what I think of Oprah. 13 Okay. I must tell you -- I knew, she already had a problem with something years ago, at that time I forget to tell my publisher, he was so angry, you cannot imagine. She is a great lady. I give you an example. Suppose President Putin, President Chirac and President Bush had a summit meeting. And they all had that meeting and they decide they cannot agree on anything so they come to a press conference. In the press conference, they said, ladies and gentlemen, of the press, we have a story to tell you, we couldn't agree on anything, nuclear issue, they cannot agree on one thing. Go and read the -- suppose. Impossible. Maybe, maybe my publisher would have sold 50,000, 70,000, 100,000, Oprah sold more than a million copies. Oprah sold more than a million copies. I couldn't believe it! 14 Now, books like people, have their own destiny. We don't believe in astrology, but books have their own destiny and some people do. In the very beginning, if I publish first the book in Yiddish, because I had to pay a tribute to the language, the culture, which I came. In Argentina. Then, it was published in France in 1958, sold maybe 3,000 copies in ten years. In America, it was published in 1960. We got 100 dollars, 50 went toe the publisher, all the rights went to the French publisher. He became very rich. It sold 5,000 copies in three years -- 3,000 copies in five years. Today, insane, what, a million? That's Oprah. She's a great lady. Really, I'm serious, a great lady. She announced that she was creating competition to high school students and the 50 winners would come to Chicago and meet 15 together. And she got 87,000 essays on my book. Now, I have other books. One of them is called a "Beggar from Jerusalem," about a six-day war. There was one, one of my mystical books, a song of Jerusalem. It got an important literary prize and it sold a lot of copies. I had two special books in my repertoire, my collection. “Night" was read by many people but didn't sell. And "Beggar of Jerusalem" was sold but not read. I had to find, what I do prefer, really. Now, I am telling you a story, those of us who felt the need to tell witness, we felt if we were capable of telling the tale, it would be an act of fate in humanity's future. That means we would tell the world, look, if you read our testimonies, you will know what not to do. There is a Hasidic storybook saying, once a man was lost in the 16 forest and he couldn't find his way out and he was desperate. But one morning, he noticed a man somewhere and he felt so good, he ran to him and said, my good friend, I was here for three days, I didn't find my way out, I lost everything, I had no water, no bread, nothing, show me the way out. The guy said, look, I, too, am lost. One thing I can tell you, don't go that way, I just came from there. This is what we wanted to tell the world, don't go that way because we just came from there. Remember, there are certain things you cannot do anymore. You cannot allow evil power to gain more power without intervening. You cannot. You cannot allow a nation with this government to say to one people, sand say it doesn't -- to affect one people and say it doesn't affect us. When a community of men and women and children are affected, it affects every 17 single community in the world, whether they know it or not. We thought, if the burden were absorbed, that things would be better. If anyone had told me in 1945, that I would have to fight anti-Semitism again, I wouldn't have believed it. I thought anti-Semitism perished with its victims in Auschwitz. And nobody realized the Jewish perished, the hatred for the Jews is well and alive in so many places. In America, we have 60 or 70 anti-Semitic groups, all racist groups, whoever is a raceist it has everybody. Whoever it has anybody, it has everybody. Hate is an infectious disease. If not stopped, it goes from limb to limb like cancer. Here, it doesn't have the power of government or authority of the land. What it still has in the other world, it goes wild. To see anti-Semitic propaganda in 18 newspapers, television, the ritual murders that plagued us in the middle ages are there, they still show pictures of rabbis killing Christian children for Passover. The president himself is a pathological case. In Iran. He had the arrogance to speak openly all the time that he wants to see Israel annhilated. He has not been banned from all the capitols in the world and Iran has not been expelled from the United Nations, I don't understand that. If anyone had told me, I wouldn't have believed it. Here we are. Does it mean things are so bad everywhere? No. I tell you why. Take the Jewish Christian relations. I think they've never been as good. I was a young -- I have here a lady who comes from my town. 19 We were neighbors, she would tell you, in my town, we were afraid of the priest. I was afraid of the priest. I went to my home in the synagogue, I would change sidewalks because of the church. I was afraid. It was in the genes. Not anymore. I'm not afraid. I think today, there have been alliances forged, noble alliance between Christians and Jews. Everywhere. I'm sure it's in Gainesville as well as in New York and Paris, working together. The main thing is with respect, of course. There are still Christians who believe they must convert us. They have tried. It didn't work. They should give up. Why waste their energy. It won't work. 20 You have problems with yourself, why do you need us there? But in general, in general, it's never been as good. We have to thank the great two Popes, the first, the 23rd, the one who opened the church by changing the liturgy, by eliminating all the scandalous accusation of us and John Paul, II, who went to the synagogue in Rome, the first Pope to go to a synagogue. Then to Jerusalem. The first to go to Jerusalem. And to them wall, have commemorating the Holocaust in the Vatican. Things are better. We have a great man. Of course great -- things are better. The only thing that rabbis and priests should have been representatives from Islam and start building bridges for those few, very few people there who are ready to do, again, to live with respect to other religions. So, I go up and down. 21 I go really -- I'm an extreme optimist. I say, wait a second. Think. Reality comes and slap mess in the face and I become a pessimist. I'll give you an example. The example again is this was a very close friend of mine, since '67, I met him during the six-day war. I remember I came to see him and I was very shy. I didn't know that. So was he. I came to see him in his office in the headquarter of the defense minister, chief of staff. Because he was shy, I was shy. For a half hour, we didn't talk. That's why we became friends. I remember at that time, people knew about the shyness because I heard that in a story that when he got Master's degree, both of them, I already met in the other world, he was so embarrassed because everybody was there. 22 The entire elite was there, that he decide his wife, said laya, this is the last time I'm mastering you. Now, Rabin, I met him many, many time. He said, I fought the Arabs all my life. I think the time has come to give peace a chance. I never met an Israeli and if it's good for you, good for me. I went to Washington, the ceremony in the White House, the Clinton Arafat, Rabin, it was moving to see. I mean, you know, he didn't want to shake hands. I used to see him often, and then I saw him two weeks before he was assassinated in New York, I came to see him. And at the end, I asked him, what now? And he said to me, in the beginning, I thought that Arafat was the solution. And now I know that he is the problem. I said, what do you mean? Why? He said, because he's corrupt. This man wants all the moneys to go 23 through his pocket and distributed to his own people, his own friends accolades. He even has money in his own bank because he doesn't trust his known. if you want, I can show you the deposit slips. Then, two weeks later, I was in my study, and the telephone from a friend of mine, he said, there's a huge demonstration, thousands of people rapping and gave me -- and then he moved. He said, I heard a shot. A few minutes later, a few minutes later, he is dead. I followed -- he hang up. He had to go to his office. I couldn't put the receiver down. For hours. The next morning, I got a telephone call from the White House that the president wanted me to be on his Air Force 1 going to the funeral. For the only time my life, I have been -- I go three or four times a year to his house, at least, and the only time I -- 24 going and coming with the highest officials of the land in America, I couldn't utter a word. Now, what do I do now that Rabin's assassination? Another sick and dying, where are we going now? Hamas won the elections. For once, the Palestinians are very open and honest. I don't recuse communities. I can speak to individuals but their leaders revolted not against everything else, against Arafat's corruption, now that they realize he is corrupt. Therefore, many come to believe that it's good for the first time, elections, and no violence, and I simply said, wait a second. Wait a second. We forget that the most important item in the platform is the destruction of Israel, which means the overwhelming majority of Palestinians voted for destruction of Israel. 25 What should we do then? They went to Moscow. And the Russians pleaded with them, at least to recognize Israel. That's all. They said, no, we are not going to recognize Israel. So what should we do now? I cling to hope. And the hope actually, the hope of the whole world, Arafat died, people all over the world felt better. I remember, I was on television, they asked me, what do you think of Arafat's death? I said, it's difficult for the because I belong to a tradition that you don't say anything bad about a person who just died, it's not nice. The interviewer said, can't you say anything good about him? I said, yes, he died. So therefore, I feel that no matter what, no matter what, things will be better, because they can't be worse, can they? 26 However, the questions that we had in 1945 remained open. I must be honest with you, I have written so much, studied so many books, and I've spent so many sleepless night trying to find solutions for answers, possible answers to certain questions. I realize the questions are eternal, the answers are not. I don't know. I don't know what else we should do today. Not just the Jewish people, the Jewish people, with experience, I think, will learn how to share its memories in good faith. And without any hatred. I'll give you an example. The last few weeks, all of us saw on television what was happening in Arab countries, Muslim countries because of the cartoons. Because of a few silly cartoons, in an obscure Danish newspaper. All those demonstrations. Why? 27 And what demonstrations, all calling for violence. All inspiring hatred. Why? Because I understand, I would be -- I respect religion. I'm not a religious person. I respect all religions. I respect religions. Why were the cartoons -- why were the Muslim's angry because they say Muhammad's picture should never be shown. Muhammad wasn't a God. God has no picture. Our prophet was Moses. We have so many pictures. All of them are wrong. Nobody was there to take a picture of Moses. So many, even in Hollywood. When I was younger, I saw an film called "The Ten Commandments" and I remember, Moses was there, Charleston Heston. I can swear to you in the presence, Moses didn't look like him. 28 So did we organize demonstrations? If you don't like it, don't go to the movies. If you really don't like it, put an article in the newspaper, but organize demonstration like that. What's happening? If we Jews, had to organize demonstrations and manifest our anger, can you imagine what we would have done in 1945, the anger. A person can be defined by three of his attitudes. How he or she behaves with money. How he or she behaves when drink doing much. And how he or she behaves when in anger. If you didn't have the anger, where was -- where did the anger go? And I say it really not as a tradeoff for this, I must have said it here because I say it everywhere, I don't believe superior to other people nor inferior. I don't believe that what we believe in is better than what others believe. 29 Nor is it worse. I believe in respect. I respect the Arabs provided they respect me. It is therefore the Jew in me can attain a certain universality from inside my Jewishness, if I were to be obliged to give up my Jew wishness in order to serve humanity as such, I would begin that word with a lie. Why should I begin with a lie if I try bring truth or at least to serve it? We have cases where it happened. Some of them, Carl Marx, others that feel they must give up their Jewishness and therefore they failed. Communism in the beginning was influenced by a very large degree by Jewish intellectuals, cardinals and others. I really felt positively. I remember once I discussed it and have a very great blessed memory, how is it possible, both of us, how is it possible? I bought the Jewish came from a Communist. 30 The book is called "The Testament," called "The Testament of a slain Jewish Boy." And he said sometimes someone has a problem. What is worse? To serve truth of falsehood, or to serve falsehood with truth >> Communism was false. We saw it later. It became a kind of idea, it became a deceived falsehood and murder, doctrine. But those who served it, served it as truth, with all the devotion. That was in 19th Century. Today, I believe therefore that we must not yield to certain temptations. I believe one is fanaticism. It will threaten this century. It already does. Those 19 suicide terrorists of 9/11 were fanatics. The other suicide killers, as I call them, who come from the territories to kill men, women and children, children in Israel, 31 they're fanatics. And they believe they are serving their God. They're doing it for honor from God, God is great. They don't realize that in evoking God's name to justify their murderous activities, they bring dishonor to their whole religion and they turn their God into an accomplice. That's what they are doing. That's why I believe that terrorism, which is a consequence of this attribute is dangerous. I have been around it for years. Because I have a friend, a colleague and they have done many, many things for human rights, which was my activity as an adult. One day he said to me, what pre-occupies you most, many years ago. I said nuclear terrorism. He said, that's nothing. I said, are you out of your mind? And he, why is Nobel Prize winner in physics and biology said whatever is nuclear is detectible. 32 And then he gave me a list of what we call today chemical and biological weapons that are not detectable. God forbid these terrorists coming from nations and states that are governed by terrorists like Iran, if they get hold of such weapons, what can we do? Obviously, the best answer, I approach it as a teacher, I believe in that. I believe in education, and therefore I say, that whatever the answer is to these questions, education must be its principle component. But education is in newspapers, television, the dining room, among friends, we must educate one another. We must become teachers to our friends and our friends should become teachers to us, in order to educate society and the world, simply to disregard certain options, such as fanatasm. I organized a conference call fighting terrorism for humanity. We had 20 heads of states. No one has an answer, what to do. 33 So I can tell you, what should we do then? To give up? There's a marvelous legend about king Solomon and I love king Solomon. I love all the ancient texts, the one who wrote the song of songs when he was young, proverbs when he was mature and Ecclesiastes when he was old and I loved that. Of the great, great books. At one point in Ecclesiastes, he said, there is a time to be born, a time to die, a time to plant, a time too reap, a time for this, a time for building. And then he says, there is a time for mourning and a time for rejoicing. Except those of you who know Hebrew, he said speaking foreign language, a time, except he said accept, speaking foreign language, a time not to, a time mourning, a time rejoicing. And nobody understood the grammatical change. I think it was the found over the 34 Hacidic movement said he gave the answer, that it happens, that time itself is mourning. It happens that time itself is rejoicing. And we have seen it, there were times when rejoicing was costly. I remember, I was in Paris, and I remember about Israel becoming a nation. For me, it was rejoicing. And I thought about the not so distant past, the dark past, the time it was morning and I submit to you that it is up to us to choose. There's a marvelous legend of king Solomon, that he had the ring made by a magician. .and this ring had powers. When he was very sad, it was not for him to wear the ring and he became happy. It was for him to wear the ring and he became happy. When he was very happy, it was enough for him to remove the ring and he was sad. At this point, I realized that something 35 is wrong with his -- is known in our literature as the wisest of all man. I always that problems with it. How could he be so wise, when according to certain texts, we think he has 1,000 wives. A thousand wives. Where is his wisdom? On the other hand, if he's so wise, I understand what he says. He wears the ring, but if he is happy, why should he take off? Inside the ring, he wrote, engraved three letters, and three words, death too shall pass. So shall we say death shall pass? No. It's not a lesson. The moral lesson is that while it is here, we are responsible. And here's a word, I would conclude for this before receiving your questions, the word is responsibility. Often some of us who went through the war have asked, how did you manage to 36 survive? My answer, I don't know. Believe me, I don't know. I didn't do anything for it. I was the wrong candidate for survival. I was always sick, shy, terribly frightened. Chance. But the other question is, how did you manage to retain your sanity? That is the question after the war. I know how. That, I know how. I came to France, the first thing I did, literally an orphanage, I asked for something and I had interrupted and I wanted to go to the next place and continue. I was asked then what is the response to that tragedy? I said, I don't know what the response is, all I know is there is a response in responsibility. And you, young students, I want you to know I'm here to tell you this century is not mine. 37 It's yours. Some of us are trying to do and teachers, those of us still witnesses, we are trying to give you the equipment, the tools how to save your century. One thing is absolutely in dispensable. Among the tools, the one which is called responsibility, you should never give away. You are, you will be responsible. Thank you. [ Applause ] >> Think there are some questions. We have some questions. They're also picking up some additional questions. I have a few that were given to me at the very outset. You covered, lots of good questions. We won't be able to read them all, there are so many good questions here and they cover everything from your fate to Iran and Iraq, the war in Israel. Let me begin with the questions you alluded to. The president, Iranian president's 38 comments recently, where he talked about destroying Israel, but he also talked about denying the Holocaust and two or three folks wanted your reaction, how can someone in this day and age deny the Holocaust. Unfortunately, they are still here. Really, they tried to provoke me wherever I go. I'm their favorite target. I'll give you an example. When I got the Nobel Prize, it's very impressive ceremony. You cannot be, you know, light about it. I didn't know that outside, a few hundred of them came from all over Europe to stage a demonstration against me. I never understood why do they do that? First of all, who gives them the money? Who pays for their trip? Who authorizes the logistics? Who gets them the tickets? Who gets them the rooms in the hotel? I realize they have tremendous amounts of money. Nobody knows where it comes from. 39 Mainly in America, especially in California, some of them are professors in engineering, at prestigious universities. And then they really devote their lives, their energy to say that, that Holocaust never existed. That's the only thing the Holocaust never existed. I would never dignify them. Ultimately, I don't think they'll last. Let them continue. I don't think we should be able to say, therefore, because they're denying, more courses, I wouldn't give them that many credit. They should study and write on that subject because we want to do it, not because of them. They don't deserve it. One question, you might want to send him your book and maybe he would read that. Maybe. My book has appeared in Iranian, too. But if they have it in Iran and if the president hasn't had it very long, in 40 general, I think it's so outrageous. It is more important. Iran, if and when -- I don't think it's possible to keep nation that wants it, from having it, unless unless Israel would have to do what it does with the reactor in 1981. If Israel has not destroyed the reactor, just imagine what the Iraqi world would look like today with Saddam Hussein and the atomic bomb. Just imagine. Is that answer? I don't know. I don't think it is violence. I am so against violence. I'm against racism. I'm against violence. So many things I'm against. So this is for the great powers to -- it affects them, not only us. >> You talk very pointedly about the importance of Jewishness. What are the threats of Jewishness today? I think in ancient times, middle-aged 41 threats were physical. And especially in 1939, 42, '40-45, it was physical. Today, I think the threat that I read about is assimilation. I don't believe in that threat. I don't think so. I feel that if only we could educate our young people that -- about the elegance and beauty of what our treasures are. Without denigrating the others, simply to say they are ours, we share them with you but we can accomplish and feed ourselves from within, if only they would know, I think many of them know, they come back from so far and they learn. It's learning. I am more optimistic about it, really. I cannot--I had a great teacher, one of my great teachers was man who was the greatest scholar in many, many generations. I write about him in my memoir. For 17 years, I started with him. He was my friend and my teach. In 1967, most of you don't know because 42 you weren't even born yet. In 1967, three weeks before the war, the Jewish people, believe me were desperate. I was desperate. I lived in constant fear. I was convinced that Israel would lose the war. And if Israel loses the war. In France, there was a great philosopher. And he wrote -- he came from a family and he wrote an editorial on the front page of a major daily paper in France. He said I do not want to survive Israel. And this is what we all felt. I went to Israel then, thinking, I'll not come back. That was a feeling many of us felt. He was smiling. I said, Dr. Liebermont. Everyone is afraid, but you are not. He thought he was a great economist. He may have been. I don't know. He said, I tell you something. 43 If ooh a bank lost too much known a certain enterprise, the bank can no longer withdraw from that, even if that enterprise loses that money, the bank can't withdraw from it. God invest invested so much in the Jewish people, he cannot withdraw from it. Why should I worry >> This question is from Betsy Hanson a Math linguistics senior. How should we as students respond to those apathetic or silent in the face of the world today. They should learn something about indifference. I have devoted almost my life to fight indifference. I think I must have said it here at least once in my two visits with you. I wrote that the opposite of love is not hate, but indifference. The opposite of education was not difference but indifference. The opposite of life is not death but indifference. 44 I said indifference is not the beginning of the process. Nothing can come out of indifference. No great work of art was created out of indifference, out of anything else, but not of indifference. I was trying to teach and said, look, indifference really is because it's so convenient, not be involved, become indifferent. Therefore, all the teachers here, they teach, what do they teach, really? You have great teachers, it's a great school. What do they teach you? They sensitize you. They teach you Shakespeare. They make you realize that Romeo and Juliet is not a love story but a story of hatred. And you study Plato and the death of Socrates, you become sensitive. Education, art, religion, literature, poetry, philosophy. What do we do? 45 We try to sensitize you you become more sensitive to the other person's fears or hopes. So, I -- I feel with all my heart it is possible to teach young people the seduction but also the danger is, the perils of indifference. Another poignant question by Jennifer. Says hi, this is the second time I've heard you speak and the second time I've heard you talk about the story. Sorry. >> Since Rabin was assassinated by Jews, the question is, I was hoping you could clarify, do you think, we as a people, she writes, are ready for peace? I think we are ready. Look, when you study Jewish history and Jewish literature and Jewish philosophy and Jewish religion no word is as great as peace. No word. We want peace so much but somehow we were never left in peace. I think there have been many sacrifices 46 for peace. It is our obsession with peace that makes me believe somehow peace will come, how long, I don't know but it will come. As for the assassin, I must tell you, when this happened, I was not only sad and heartbroken, I was also embarrassed, a religious young man should do that? A religious man. Do we have our own fanatics that go that far? We have our own fanatics. It's a small minority, really. The overwhelming number of Jewish people here and abroad was against it, was outraged at that. It's unbelievable. He is in jail. And he got many love letters from young girls. How sick can you be? One of them, the mother of children, divorced, somehow she managed to marry him. Only in Israel. Let me follow-up to that. 47 Two folks, Alexander and Margaret, who is a student, asked about the Israel Palestinian conflict and whether you're optimistic that can ever be resolved. One additional question was, was the wall, your reaction to the wall at Israel. The wall is created against the terrorists. But it can be-it can be destroyed in 24 hours or 48 hours. As long as Israel feels threatened by terrorists, I think Israel is trying to do the only thing possible, by creating that wall. You must remember terrorism in that area of the world has gone beyond anything else that was tried in the past. In the past, terrorists, 19th Century, 20th Century against political figures, against armed enemies. The modern terrorists do not attack soldiers. They attack innocent civilians, young people. Once they killed three generations, 48 their father, parents and children Children. They are looking for that. So Israel had to do something. I'm convinced if peace comes that the wall is there and they can do away with it. They don't need it. Why should they keep it. I am hopeful. A very great French writer, one of the best in France, and he said where there is no hope one must invent hope. So I am trying to invent hope. Two or three people asked about things that inspire you. Melissa asked which authors inspire you? What writers inspire you? The Bible, Jeremiah. I'll tell you, it would be unfair to the others that I don't mention. It's not my style to criticize anybody, not even by omission? >> Okay. I go back to ancients, the ancients inspire me. 49 >> Is it fair that as a Rabbi to ask to give you your best opinion of the Holocaust would be to read, other than yours? >> All of them. You made the publishers very happy. I hope so. As long as we're giving advice, what advice would you give to President Bush on Iraq? >> I think it must involve really the whole world in it. He must involve. He cannot do it alone there. And my feeling is that the United Nations are so helpless itself. Bring the Europeans. It cannot -- somehow, something is wrong, something went wrong there. People speak about a civil war. I haven't been there. I like to be a witness to things I speak about, but as it is, it doesn't look well, so therefore, I feel that we must bring in others, all the other people. It's a threat to the world, as it 50 exists, it's a threat to the world, not only to America. I'm told I can ask you one more question. Earlier, you talked about you write these things to prove that you have faith in humanity's future. You said that when you wrote your book the first book in 1950s, now 2006. Should we be having faith in humanity, the future of humanity? What is the alternative? I say, look, everything in the world has been used to deprive me of that faith. And I do have faith. If I were to lose faith in humanity, I would have to lose faith in education. Many of the killers have college degrees. Officers of the Auschwitz commanders, worst of all, they killed a million and a half, 2 million people with machine guns directly, many of them had doctorates. To get a college degree in a Germany university, a Ph.D., was not an easy thing. 51 I believe, I still believe that education is a moral shield, an educated person cannot do certain things, cannot kill children. They did. If I were to give up hope and faith, I would say, how can I believe in Democracies? Jerusalem, a father figure to us. In our little town in Sighet, I didn't know the name of certain ones, but I knew the name of Jerusalem, I found out when I came to America and America did not honor their ways. Going to Buchenwald. Have faith in that system. I may not have the right not have faith but yet I do have faith. In words, just in words, in language. I have faith. Or else what am I doing here? Or when I write my books? So I have faith in language. I have faith in the future, I have faith because we come from a tradition that we are supposed everyday, when we finish our 52 prayers to repeat the 13 articles of faith. Each one begins with, I have faith, total faith. Not really, how can my faith be total? My faith is a wounded faith. But it's faith. The great Hasidic master said no heart is as whole as a wounded heart. Maybe to those men and women, young men of my generation, we can say, perhaps no faith is as burning as a wounded faith. Thank you. >> Thank you so much. [ Applause ]