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at The 92nd Street Y, New York. Supported by The Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity
Nov 21, 2013
Professor Wiesel sits down with his very good friend Ted Koppel for an unrehearsed conversation about God. “One of the reasons we remain friends is I never give up, and you never answer me, right?” TK asks how Professor Wiesel can still believe that God ever responds to prayer when He did not respond to prayers in the camps. Professor Wiesel explains that sometimes you do not pray for results but for the prayers themselves, which are very beautiful. Prayer also has as much to do with Professor Wiesel's relationship with tradition as it does with God. It is a personal choice always and Professor Wiesel does not want to break with the long line in his family. He insists that arguments with God should always come within the tradition, not from outside. Professor Wiesel does not judge other Jews; he is a witness. When TK suggests that the world does not seem to be evolving ethically, Professor Wiesel reaffirms his faith in democracy: “we make progress because we gave democracy a meaning which transcends its own frontiers.” Talking of his most lasting theme in Night, Professor Wiesel points to his commitment to memory and that, like the French writer Malraux, it his goal to leave a scar on the surface of history.
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