Elie Wiesel Lecture Series

院长有时候在这里发布一些 Obituaries, 我一看就想，名人哦，我今天才第一次听说。偶尔又看到一些人的活动，我就又惊奇：哦，我以为他早死了。 觉得 Elie Wiesel 早死了似地。

有些人是值得追星的。尤其因为他们年事已高，再不去追，以后就只能瞻仰坟墓了。

去听Elie Wiesel不能完全算追星。起码他的书还是认真读过的。他是二十世纪为人道主义代言的最强大的声音之一。

不过他可能没有想到，Holocaust还不是他经历过的唯一邪恶。二十一世纪一样不客气。他的基金会，和他本人的财产，被梅多夫洗劫一空。

第一次讲座错过了，不过我对圣经中的女人兴趣一般般；对 Hasidism 了解也不多。争取参加十一月一日第二次，保证参加十一月八日第三次。

Nov. 1: The Rebbe of Ger: A Tragedy in Hasidism
Nov. 8: Ethos and Contemporary Issues

# Wiesel rejected the idea that Madoff preyed on Jews, and that the scheme was some sort of affinity fraud. "It's not the Jewishness in him, it's the inhumanity in this man.... The man is, was not only a liar, a swindler, but he was—not a crook—he was somehow always more than that. More. Once you enter evil, it's not static, it's dynamic."

# Wiesel sees parallels between Madoff and his Holocaust experience. Although he emphasized that "Madoff is not the greatest story of our lifetime," he added that in recent years, "Madoff is one of the greatest scoundrels, thieves, liars, criminals. How did it happen? I have seen in my lifetime the problem is when the imagination of the criminal precedes that of the innocent. And Madoff had imagination...We have no idea that a person is capable of that, but then I should have learned, of course, that a human being is capable of anything."


Read more: http://www.portfolio.com/executives/2009/02/26/Elie-Wiesel-and-Bernard-Madoff/#ixzz13kyUh8VP

http://www.bu.edu/today/node/11742

In the second lecture in the series, on November 1, Wiesel will discuss The Rebbe of Ger: A Tragedy in Hasidism. Prior to the Holocaust, Ger was the largest Hasidic group in Poland; today it is one of the world’s largest Hasidic dynasties. The subject of Wiesel’s talk, Rabbi Yitzhak Meir, was a founder and leader of the movement. Wiesel will be introduced at that lecture by BU trustee Elaine Kirshenbaum (CAS’71, SED’72, SPH’78). His final lecture, on November 8, examines Ethos and Contemporary Issues, and will be introduced by Polak, who notes that stories—ma’aseh in Hebrew—are accepted as precedent in the Jewish laws of evidence.

“In my life I have found that in the end, the only way to teach that is transformative for my students is with stories,” Polak says.

Wiesel would agree. What does he hope people will take away from the three lectures? “A heightened sensitivity,” he says.

All lectures in the series Three Encounters with Elie Wiesel: The Fascination with Jewish Tales take place in the George Sherman Union’s Metcalf Hall, 775 Commonwealth Ave., and are free and open to the public. Doors open at 6 p.m. for the 7 p.m. lectures. Overflow seating is available in the Conference Auditorium. For more information, call 617-353-2238.

Susan Seligson can be reached at sueselig@bu.edu.