Elie Wiesel spent his teenage years in Nazi concentration camps and the rest of his life promoting tolerance and fighting prejudice.
Wiesel, who died last year at age 87, is the subject of a tribute Wednesday evening being put on by Jewish University, part of the the Jewish Community Center of Southern Nevada.
Billed as “a night of tolerance,” the evening will feature Clark County Poet Laureate Bruce Isaacson moderating readings and remarks about Wiesel, a prolific author, humanitarian, and Nobel Peace Prize winner.
“Elie Wiesel is a voice of a lost time of Eastern European Jewry, of a period in history in which man’s view of the universe really change substantially,” Isaacson told KNPR's State of Nevada.
Isaacson said that while Wiesel is best known for his "Night -Dawn - Day" trilogy about the Holocaust there was much more to him. Isaacson said Wiesel worked for oppressed people around the world.
Jeff Metz with the Jewish Community Center of Southern Nevada agreed.
“Even though we know him best as a Holocaust survivor and a champion for fighting that injustice, he was also out in the world fighting injustices everywhere,” Metz said.
Josh Abbey with the Las Vegas Jewish Film Festival will read a part of Wiesel's Peace Prize speech during Wednesday's event.
While the speech was given decades ago, Abbey believes it is still relevant today.
“I think his words are eternally relevant as long as inhumanity exists,” he said.
Participants at Wednesday's event include: Ayelet Blit, Rachel Burshtin, Lauren Eisenberg, Esther Finder, Briana Iannazzo, Kiki Iannazzo, Rabbi Benny Katz, Rodney Lee, Heather Klein, Wendy Kraft, Oliver Lovat, Jay Poster, Josh Reisman, Charlene Sher, Leslie Smith Rosen, Irv Weinberger, and Marcus Weiss.
Jeff Metz, Jewish Community Center of Southern Nevada; Josh Abbey, Las Vegas Jewish Film Festival; Bruce Isaacson, Clark County poet laureate