Elie Wiesel a”h was a unique and inspiring individual, whose experience during the Holocaust influenced him to not only fight to perpetuate the memory of the 6 million Jews who died but also to speak out against all genocide.

I was fortunate to videotape an interview with him a number of years ago, and recounted to him how my father a”h had last seen him at the late Benjamin Meed’s birthday party in Florida. Ben was the head of the Warsaw Ghetto Resistance Organization, which my father worked with for over 40 years, and the group most responsible for creating large, public Holocaust commemorations in New York. Elie’s passing signifies yet another end of an era of survivors who overcame unthinkable odds and spent their lifetimes making sure that the world would not forget.

My father was my biggest role model for keeping the lessons of the Holocaust alive and he, along with Elie Wiesel and Professor Yaffa Eliach whom I studied with at Brooklyn College, were my heroes. It was their eloquence and determination to never let the world forget what happens when racism and tyranny are allowed to go unchecked that kept a moral conscience on an otherwise immoral world. We will miss Elie Wiesel terribly—may his memory be a blessing.

By Steve Fox

Steve Fox is co-chair of the Teaneck Holocaust Commemoration Committee and the Northern New Jersey Holocaust Memorial and Education Center to be built in Teaneck.