Elie Wiesel, prominent Jewish author who survived the horrors of Auschwitz to write of the Nazi holocaust and its effect on his people, was presented the B’nai B’rith Jewish Heritage Award here today. Mr. Wiesel is the first recipient of the award, a $1, 000 literary prize given annually to the writer who “makes a positive contribution to contemporary literature by his authentic interpretation of Jewish life and values. “
The presentation was made by Dr. Louis Kaplan, president of Baltimore Hebrew College, at the annual meeting of B’nai B’rith Commission on Adult Jewish Education. In accepting the award, Mr. Wiesel said that Jewish literature today cannot be written unless justified against two criteria — the holocaust and the creation of Israel.
“What is lacking in modern Jewish literature or literature by or about Jews is any intensity or even awareness of these criteria, ” Mr. Wiesel said. “Today’s self-hating Jewish writers are alienated from Judaism because of their lack of understanding of either in their existence as Jews, ” he said, and as a result “their books are not Jewish. ” Mr. Wiesel is the author of “Night, ” “Dawn, ” “The Accident, ” and “The Town Beyond the Wall. ” His fifth novel, “Gates of the Forest, ” will be published by Holt, Rinehart and Winston in May.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
