Montrealers paid tribute to Elie Wiesel Tuesday night with a tribute at the Beth Israel Beth Aaron synagogue in Cote St. Luc.
Dozens gathered to mourn the man, who Rabbi Reuben Poupko remembered as a deep thinker, a philosopher and intellectual – and that's not all.
“He was a man of very fiery convictions as well. As you know, he spoke out against injustices everywhere. But on a human level, he was so gentle and so kind and so generous,” he said.
At age 15, the Nazis sent Wiesel and his family to Auschwitz. His book ‘Night’ chronicles the horrors of the camps.
“He brought that human voice forward. Hehelped people understand that six million deaths, murders meant individual lives that were destroyed, because he could speak so powerfully about his own story,” said Alice Herscovitch, executive director of the Montreal Holocaust Memorial Centre who helped organize the event.
Rabbi Poupko spoke emotionally about Wiesel, reading the author's words to the group.
Former Federal Justice Minister Irwin Cotler was on hand: he knew Wiesel for 40 years.
“When he spoke here at the synagogue after his speech, he was surrounded by survivors and children of survivors and the gentleness and patience was really breathtaking,” he said.
Those who knew him say he would not have wanted a shiva.
“He would tell us to go home,” said Poupko. “His funeral was understated. He had a funeral on Sunday. The burial was private. He never wanted the attention, he never wanted that for himself, but rather for the causes he believed in.”
Many Montrealers feel differently.
“His main message was about memory and the importance of memory. I think we owe him that honour to remember him appropriately,” said Herscovitch, adding that Wiesel taught an important lesson.
“We can’t be bystanders and remain indifferent,” she said. “We have to be engaged citizens. We have a responsibility that we must assume.”
A responsibility perhaps captured best in Wiesel's own words: "because I remember, I despair. Because I remember I have the duty to reject despair."
