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2017 SESSION


HOUSE JOINT RESOLUTION NO. 851
Celebrating the life of Elie Wiesel.

 

Agreed to by the House of Delegates, February 8, 2017
Agreed to by the Senate, February 16, 2017

 

WHEREAS, Elie Wiesel, a Nobel laureate, prolific author, passionate educator, and devoted advocate for oppressed and vulnerable people throughout the world, died on July 2, 2016; and

WHEREAS, born in Sighet, Transylvania, Elie Wiesel was deported by the Nazis because he was a Jew to the Auschwitz concentration camp during the Holocaust; he was later transported to Buchenwald concentration camp, where he was liberated by American troops in April 1945; and

WHEREAS, Elie Wiesel graduated from the University of Paris and pursued a career as a journalist; his memoir about his experiences during the Holocaust, Night, gained international recognition and has been translated into more than 30 languages; and

WHEREAS, Elie Wiesel went on to author more than 60 acclaimed books of fiction and non-fiction, including A Beggar in Jerusalem, The Testament, The Fifth Son, All Rivers Run to the Sea, And the Sea is Never Full, and the Sonderberg Case; and

WHEREAS, in 1978, Elie Wiesel was appointed chair of the President’s Commission on the Holocaust by President Jimmy Carter; he also served as founding chair of the United States Holocaust Memorial Council and president of the Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity, an organization he created to fight indifference, injustice, and intolerance around the globe; and

WHEREAS, Elie Wiesel was a devoted supporter of Israel and defended vulnerable groups in the Soviet Union, Nicaragua, Argentina, Cambodia, the former Yugoslavia, and Africa, as well as Kurdish groups; he was a champion for Ethiopian-born Israelis through the Beit Tzipora Centers for Study and Enrichment; and

WHEREAS, Elie Wiesel held more than 100 honorary degrees from higher education institutions, and education had always been central to his pursuit of justice; he served as the Henry Luce Visiting Scholar in Humanities and Social Thought at Yale University, Distinguished Professor of Judaic Studies at the City University of New York, and the Andrew W. Mellon Professor in the Humanities at Boston University; and

WHEREAS, among his many awards and accolades for his benevolent work, Elie Wiesel received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the Congressional Gold Medal, the National Humanities Medal, the Medal of Liberty, and France’s Legion of Honor; and

WHEREAS, Elie Wiesel will be fondly remembered and greatly missed by numerous family members, friends, and colleagues; now, therefore, be it

RESOLVED by the House of Delegates, the Senate concurring, That the General Assembly hereby note with great sadness the loss of Elie Wiesel, a Nobel prize-winning author and educator who was a stalwart champion for people in need throughout the world; and, be it

RESOLVED FURTHER, That the Clerk of the House of Delegates prepare a copy of this resolution for presentation to the family of Elie Wiesel as an expression of the General Assembly’s respect for his memory.