In his fourth visit to UF, Holocaust survivor and acclaimed writer Elie Wiesel spread his love for learning at the Phillips Center for the Performing Arts on Tuesday night. The event was sponsored by Accent Speaker’s Bureau for Jewish Awareness Month.
“I’m coming here maybe subconsciously because I feel an eagerness to know and an eagerness to learn,” he said.
Wiesel, a philosophy professor at Boston University, focused his speech on the importance of learning and the sin of not learning. He said it was easy to teach philosophy, but to talk about his experiences is difficult.
“I am not convinced that the book I wrote, the story I tried to tell, the witness I wanted to share was ‘Night,’” Wiesel said about his memoir, “Night,” which chronicled his time during the Holocaust.
He shared his experiences of speaking at the United Nations and giving advice to the Dalai Lama about living in exile.
Accent’s Associate Director Jack Causseaux said roughly 1,620 attendants were in-house and 500 watched Wiesel speak on a screen outside the Phillips Center.
Wiesel answered audience members’ questions afterward about the second amendment, Israeli-Palestinian relations and his favorite Jewish holiday.
Biology junior Gabriel Hernandez, 21, came to see Wiesel speak for the second time since middle school. He said he enjoyed hearing Wiesel speak about the importance of learning.
“He’s passing on learning,” Hernandez said. “He’s making us all witnesses.”
Contact Colleen Wright at cwright@alligator.org.
Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel speaks to a crowd of about 1,700 at the Phillips Center for the Performing Arts on Tuesday evening, filling the room to capacity. The Nobel Peace Prize winner was brought by Accent Speaker’s Bureau and Jewish Awareness Month.
