[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 158 (2012), Part 4]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages 5164-5165]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                        RECOGNIZING ELIE WIESEL

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. E. SCOTT RIGELL

                              of virginia

                    in the house of representatives

                       Wednesday, April 18, 2012

  Mr. RIGELL. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to enter a statement into the 
Record on behalf of my constituent, Dr. Israel Zoberman. Dr. Zoberman 
is the Founding Rabbi of Congregation Beth Chaverim in Virginia Beach, 
Virginia. He is also the president of the Hampton Roads Board of Rabbis 
and Cantors. Dr. Zoberman asked me to enter the following remarks into 
the Record recognizing Elie Wiesel. Dr. Zoberman's statement follows:
  ``With over 50 books to his illustrious credit, Elie Wiesel continues 
to bless us at age 84 with his multiple pursuits, including recently as 
a musician of his childhood songs and melodies. If anyone deserves the 
honorary appellation of ``Our Teacher and Rabbi'' these unsettling 
times of post-Holocaust perplexities for Jew and Gentile, it is this 
distinguished yet humble survivor of the Holocaust's unique tragedy, 
calling upon us to bear sacred witness with Zachor's undying 
remembrance. He emerged from the ``Kingdom Of The Night'' resolved to 
help save humanity, struggling with his shaken faith in his early 
classic ``Night,'' while contending with his brethren's fate in Soviet 
captivity in ``Jews Of Silence,'' ever faithful to his rich Jewish 
moorings as well as universal culture.
  Wiesel, a 1986 Nobel Peace Laureate--he should receive one for 
literature too--is on the very short list of those serving as 
humanity's conscience. He courageously speaks out for human rights in 
addition to his ``Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity,'' and academic 
work as the Andrew W. Mellon Professor in the Humanities at Boston 
University. Among many awards and honors, this great American and 
humanitarian is a recipient of the United States Congressional Gold 
Medal along with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and is the 1980 
Founding Chairman of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council, receiving on 
May 16th, 2011, the first U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum Award, the 
museum's highest honor, now bearing Wiesel's name. He turned down, 
reportedly, in 2007 the sure opportunity to become Israel's President.
  Wiesel's latest literary gem, ``The Sonderberg Case,'' is a 
suspenseful Holocaust related novel reflecting his being at home both 
in the vineyard of Jewish knowledge as well as general philosophy and 
literature. Wiesel is the Founding President of the Universal Academy 
of Cultures. In the book, Werner Sonderberg's grandpa, and unrepentant 
ex-Nazi officer of the notorious Einsatzgruppen, boasts to his grandson 
of his murderous record and only regretting that Hitler lost the war 
with hope of yet a future victory. My own maternal aunt, Bas-Malka 
Bobrov Gurvitz, husband Shachne and children Aharon, 14, Yisrael, 12, 
and Rochel-Leah, 2, were murdered in Sarny, the Ukraine, on August 27-
28, 1942, among 14,000 Jews by the Einsatzgruppen and their 
collaborators.
  My grandma Esther Bobrov was killed by German air bombs when on the 
run with my mother, Chasia, from their hometown Sarny. My great-
grandparents, Rabbi Yaacov and Dena Manzies Zoberman from Zamosc, 
Poland, perished in the Belzec death camp and great-grandparents 
Yitzchak and Zipora Anker were also among the many victims from both 
family sides, of the 6 million martyrs with its million and a half 
children. Five million Gentiles were murdered by the Nazis with World 
War II claiming the lives of 50 million. My uncle, Emanuel Zoberman, 
who was a member of a Russian attached Polish commando unit, helped 
liberate Poland and was killed while crossing the Oder River.
  My father, Yechiel Zoberman, served in the Russian Army for five 
years, fighting on the outskirts of Moscow and St. Petersburg 
(Leningrad), among other battles. We cherish the enormous sacrifices of 
the heroic American military and all the Allied Forces, along with 
Righteous Gentiles who stepped forward to protect human dignity and 
honor.
  Wiesel applies the Holocaust's awesome lessons of guilt and 
responsibility, resonating in the anguished sharing of his German 
students at Boston University, as well as those of healing and hope, to 
the lingering conflict between Palestinians and Israelis while trying 
to acknowledge all concerned and seeking to protect the ``The Other'' 
that both sides have suffered from. He probingly reflects on the 
opposite polls and messages of Auschwitz and Jerusalem, altering and 
sensitizing us toward mutually respectful and professional relations, 
and that what we do bears moral consequence. Wiesel eases the burden of 
memory without diluting its sacred essence.
  The outstanding Holocaust Commission of the United Jewish Federation 
of Tidewater of which I have been a proud member for many years, 
sponsors this season the 15th annual Elie Wiesel Writing Competition 
and the 10th annual Elie Wiesel Visual Arts Competition. Teachers' 
Awards for Excellence in Holocaust Education are also given out at an 
inspiring annual gathering of commemoration. A new documentary, ``What 
We Carry,'' featuring four local survivors, Dana Cohen, Kitty Saks and 
of blessed memory David Katz and Hanns Loewenbach, has already received 
high acclaim.
  So close to recalling the destruction of 2/3 of European Jewry--a 1/3 
of world Jewry--which has reduced the potential of the Jewish people 
and humanity, we celebrate this year the 64th anniversary of the only 
Jewish state, The State of Israel, that is America's very special 
democratic ally in an uncertain world. With its deep historical roots 
in the Middle East from whence its prophets challenged humanity with 
the message of universal shalom, the reestablished Third Jewish 
Commonwealth absorbed the remnant of Holocaust survivors and dispersed 
Jews from over 100 countries and diverse cultures, bound together by 
shared faith and fate. It has set a high bar with its astonishing 
accomplishments in all fields of human endeavor in spite of mighty 
existential threats, as it rose from the ashes of a consuming Holocaust 
following a most trying history of exile and denial, with its survival 
vow, ``Never Again!''
  In the midst of a still raging ``Arab Spring'' with the Syrian 
slaughter continuing and the international community doing so little, a 
reminder of the Holocaust's years of deafening silence, Israel's 
flourishing democracy and loadable stability stand out in a region 
lacking both, as a beacon of hope and noble example. Iran, whose 
theocratic leaders are Holocaust deniers calling for Israel's 
destruction, is a threat to the entire world. It is the world's largest 
exporter of terrorism seeking a nuclear capability to further its goals 
of de-stabilization and dominion, and being able to conclude what 
Hitler began.''

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