Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Elie Wiesel called upon universities to set a moral example by making humanities courses mandatory in professional schools.
“The enemy is indifference. Your own study is a weapon against indifference. The university must become a moral example,” Wiesel told a largely student audience at George Washington University (GWU). “I would plead and implore all professional students to have a compulsory program in humanities. You must know why you are doing what you’re doing. It is the ethical dimension that determines the humanity of humankind.”
Wiesel’s remarks about universities occurred during an address last Wednesday in which he listed the major elements of an immoral society. He used South Africa and the Soviet Union as modern examples.
About halfway through Wiesel’s address, a group of Black Hebrews burst into the GWU auditorium carrying placards with slogans attacking the Israeli government, whom they accuse of abusing members of their sect. They marched to the podium where one of the demonstrators demanded that they be heard.
Wiesel, unfazed, let the demonstrators speak, saying, “Anyone who wants to speak about his suffering should be heard.” The demonstrator spoke briefly, thanked Wiesel, and the group returned to picket outside.
The Black Hebrews have interrupted several Jewish and pro-Israel meetings here, and have demonstrated in front of synagogues, Jewish office facilities, and Soviet Jewry vigils. Wiesel warned that indifference is the main component of a immoral society. “Indifference is not the beginning of the process, it’s the end. We know how to handle despair. There’s a certain dynamic in despair. We can fight it and transform it into art and literature. Indifference is the end, the last stop. You can do nothing if you are indifferent,” he said. “Whatever we do it must be against indifference.” Wiesel called South Africa an immoral society because its system of apartheid puts rulers above the law. An immoral society is also characterized by a lack of equality among human beings and the superiority of the system over the people, he said. The Soviet Union is immoral, Wiesel said, for not accurately recording its history. “In an immoral society memory is the first victim of truth,” he said.
Wiesel said study enables a moral society to exist within an immoral society. He spoke about his meeting with young Jewish refuseniks in the Soviet Union who spoke Hebrew and knew Jewish history.
“How is it possible that these youngsters who have no way of learning about Judaism, about their past and their heritage, how was it possible that they wanted to remain Jewish? Somehow in their collective memory they could find enough reasons to hang on and remain Jewish.” Wiesel said. Wiesel’s speech was presented by the B’nai B’rith Hillel Jewish Students of GWU. Wiesel was introduced by Rep. Howard Wolpe (D. Mich.).
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.
