DEAR PRESIDENT OBAMA, PRESIDENT SARKOZY, PRESIDENT MEDVEDEV, PRIME MINISTER BROWN AND C HANCELLOR MERKEL,

HOW LONG CAN WE STAND IDLY BY AND WATCH THE

SCANDAL IN IRAN UNFOLD?

We the undersigned urgently appeal to you and the other leaders of the world, to use your prestige and power to put an end to this outrage. The situation in Iran is not improving; in fact, it is worsening every day. The cruel and oppressive regime of “Supreme Leader” Ali Khamenei and President Ahmadinejad, whose irresponsible and senseless nuclear ambitions threaten the entire world, continues to wage a shameless war against its own people. Human rights violations have now attained new levels of horror. Thousands of the regime’s political adversaries are being arrested, imprisoned, tortured, raped, and killed, many by hanging. Seyed Ali Mousavi, nephew of the opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi, has been assassinated. Former Foreign Minister Ibrahim Yazdi is among the detained. Human rights activist Emad Baghi and so many other dissidents are behind bars. The Basij militia and police continue to fire indiscriminately on unarmed, peaceful demonstrators. According to the press, riot tanks have appeared in the capital.

            And yet, overcoming fear and ignoring threats, tens of thousands of freedom-loving men and women, many of them young students, are marching in the streets shouting their faith in democracy and liberty. They must know that we are on their side.

IN THE NAME OF CONSCIENCE AND HONOR, WE APPEAL TO THE LEADERS OF THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY TO DO WHAT IS NEEDED TO HELP THESE COURAGEOUS FIGHTERS WHO RISK THEIR LIVES STANDING UP TO THEIR GOVERNMENT’S IMMORAL, INHUMAN AND ILLEGAL OFFICIAL POLICY.

            More forceful and unequivocal condemnations of Tehran’s repulsive practices must be heard from Washington and Paris, Moscow, London and Berlin, the Security Council and important NGO’s. Harsher sanctions must be imposed. And yes, concrete measures must be taken to protect this new nation of dissidents, so that their sacrifice is not – and will not – be in vain.

            All of us who care must offer our full support and solidarity to the brave people of Iran.

            They deserve nothing less.

Robert J. Aumann, Nobel Prize, Economics (2005)

Richard Axel, Nobel Prize, Medicine (2004)

Baruj Benacerraf, Nobel Prize, Medicine (1980)

Paul Berg, Nobel Prize, Chemistry (1980)

Günter Blobel, Nobel Prize, Medicine (1999)

Thomas R. Cech, Nobel Prize, Chemistry (1989)

Aaron Ciechanover, Nobel Prize, Chemistry (2004)

Georges Charpak, Nobel Prize, Physics (1992)

ClaudeCohen-Tannoudji, Nobel Prize, Physics (1997)

Edmond H. Fischer, Nobel Prize, Medicine (1992)

Val Fitch, Nobel Prize, Physics (1980)

Jerome I. Friedman, Nobel Prize, Physics (1990)

Donald A. Glaser, Nobel Prize, Physics (1960)

Sheldon Glashow, Nobel Prize, Physics (1979)

David J. Gross, Nobel Prize, Physics (2004)

Roger Guillemin, Nobel Prize, Medicine (1977)

James Heckman, Nobel Prize, Economics (2000)

Alan Heeger, Nobel Prize, Chemistry (2000)

Dudley R. Herschbach, Nobel Prize, Chemistry (1986)

Avram Hershko, Nobel Prize, Chemistry (2004)

Roald Hoffmann, Nobel Prize, Chemistry (1981)

David H. Hubel, Nobel Prize, Medicine (1981)

Eric R. Kandel, Nobel Prize, Medicine (2000)

Walter Kohn, Nobel Prize, Chemistry (1998)

Harold W. Kroto, Nobel Prize, Chemistry (1996)

Finn E. Kydland, Nobel Prize, Economics (2004)

Leon M. Lederman, Nobel Prize, Physics (1988)

Eric S. Maskin, Nobel Prize, Economics (2007)

Craig C. Mello, Nobel Prize, Medicine (2006)

George A. Olah, Nobel Prize, Chemistry (1994)

Douglas D. Osheroff, Nobel Prize, Physics (1996)

John C. Polanyi, Nobel Prize, Chemistry (1986)

Stanley Prusiner, Nobel Prize, Medicine (1997)

Robert C. Richardson, Nobel Prize, Physics (1996)

Richard J. Roberts, Nobel Prize, Medicine (1993)

Thomas C. Schelling, Nobel Prize, Economics (2005)

Jens C.Skou, Nobel Prize, Chemistry (1997)

Wole Soyinka, Nobel Prize, Literature (1986)

Klaus von Klitzing, Nobel Prize, Physics (1985)

John Walker, Nobel Prize, Chemistry (1997)

Steven Weinberg, Nobel Prize, Physics (1979)

Elie Wiesel, Nobel Prize, Peace (1986)

Betty Williams, Nobel Prize, Peace (1976)

Jody Williams, Nobel Prize, Peace (1997)

UNESCO VOTE:

On Irina Bokova's election as Director General of UNESCO:

"UNESCO has escaped a scandal, a moral disaster.  Mr. Hosni did not deserve the job, he does not deserve this honor.  This is not someone, in my opinion, who should have even been a candidate for this position." 

                                                                          -Elie Wiesel, September 22nd, 2009

SENATOR EDWARD KENNEDY'S PASSING:

"Together, with our nation, and the whole world, The Elie Wiesel Foundation mourns the passing of Ted Kennedy.  Extraordinary legislator and statesman, he was the most articulate and passionate humanist in the U.S. Senate.  I vividly recall my conversations with him on vital issues and events and their moral implications.  He was a true leader.  We miss him and we shall never forget him."

                                                                           -Elie Wiesel, August 26th, 2009

 

 

IRAN OPEN LETTER:

As published in The New York Times on August 3rd, 2009 and The International Herald Tribune on August 12th, 2009:

 

TAMIL PEOPLE STATEMENT:

Wherever minorities are being persecuted we must raise our voices to protest.  According to reliable sources, the Tamil people are being disenfranchised and victimized by the Sri Lanka authorities.  This injustice must stop.  The Tamil people must be allowed to live in peace and flourish in their homeland.

- Elie Wiesel, June 30th 2009                

 

BUCHENWALD VISIT:

On June 5^th, Elie Wiesel joined President Barack Obama and German Chancellor Angela Merkel at Buchenwald Concentration Camp in Weimar, Germany.

  It is estimated that 56,000 people died at Buchenwald before its liberation in 1945. Professor Wiesel was imprisoned there, and his father was among those who perished.

“I’ve never traveled to one of the concentration camps, but this one has a personal connection to me,” President Obama said in a news conference. “It’s not only that I know Elie Wiesel and have read about his writings, it’s also that – and I’ve stated this before – that my grandfather’s – my grandmother’s brother was one – was part of the units that first liberated the camp.”

After touring the camp grounds and laying flowers on a memorial, each took a few moments to address the crowd.  Professor Wiesel addressed an earlier speech by President Obama, where he urged a peaceful resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

“In those times, it was human to be inhuman,” he said. “And now the world has learned, I hope. And of course this hope includes so many of what now would be your vision for the future, Mr. President. A sense of security for Israel, a sense of security for its neighbors, to bring peace in that place.

“The time must come. It’s enough – enough to go to cemeteries, enough to weep for oceans. It’s enough. There must come a moment – a moment of bringing people together.”

For a complete transcript of Professor Wiesel’s speech, see below:

"Mr. President, Chancellor Merkel, Bertrand, ladies and gentlemen. As I came here today it was actually a way of coming and visit my father's grave -- but he had no grave. His grave is somewhere in the sky. This has become in those years the largest cemetery of the Jewish people.

The day he died was one of the darkest in my life. He became sick, weak, and I was there. I was there when he suffered. I was there when he asked for help, for water. I was there to receive his last words. But I was not there when he called for me, although we were in the same block; he on the upper bed and I on the lower bed. He called my name, and I was too afraid to move. All of us were. And then he died. I was there, but I was not there.

And I thought one day I will come back and speak to him, and tell him of the world that has become mine. I speak to him of times in which memory has become a sacred duty of all people of good will -- in America, where I live, or in Europe or in Germany, where you, Chancellor Merkel, are a leader with great courage and moral aspirations.

What can I tell him that the world has learned? I am not so sure. Mr. President, we have such high hopes for you because you, with your moral vision of history, will be able and compelled to change this world into a better place, where people will stop waging war -- every war is absurd and meaningless; where people will stop hating one another; where people will hate the otherness of the other rather than respect it.

But the world hasn't learned. When I was liberated in 1945, April 11, by the American army, somehow many of us were convinced that at least one lesson will have been learned -- that never again will there be war; that hatred is not an option, that racism is stupid; and the will to conquer other people's minds or territories or aspirations, that will is meaningless.

I was so hopeful. Paradoxically, I was so hopeful then. Many of us were, although we had the right to give up on humanity, to give up on culture, to give up on education, to give up on the possibility of living one's life with dignity in a world that has no place for dignity.

We rejected that possibility and we said, no, we must continue believing in a future, because the world has learned. But again, the world hasn't. Had the world learned, there would have been no Cambodia and no Rwanda and no Darfur and no Bosnia.

Will the world ever learn? I think that is why Buchenwald is so important -- as important, of course, but differently as Auschwitz. It's important because here the large -- the big camp was a kind of international community. People came there from all horizons -- political, economic, culture. The first globalization essay, experiment, were made in Buchenwald. And all that was meant to diminish the humanity of human beings.

You spoke of humanity, Mr. President. Woe unto us, in those times, it was human to be inhuman. And now the world has learned, I hope. And of course this hope includes so many of what now would be your vision for the future, Mr. President. A sense of security for Israel, a sense of security for its neighbors, to bring peace in that place. The time must come. It's enough -- enough to go to cemeteries, enough to weep for oceans. It's enough. There must come a moment -- a moment of bringing people together.

And therefore we say anyone who comes here should go back with that resolution. Memory must bring people together rather than set them apart. Memories here not to sow anger in our hearts, but on the contrary, a sense of solidarity that all those who need us. What else can we do except invoke that memory so that people everywhere who say the 21st century is a century of new beginnings, filled with promise and infinite hope, and at times profound gratitude to all those who believe in our task, which is to improve the human condition.

A great man, Camus, wrote at the end of his marvelous novel, The Plague: "After all," he said, "after the tragedy, nevertheless...there is more in the human being to celebrate than to denigrate." Even that can be found as truth -- painful as it is -- in Buchenwald.

Thank you, Mr. President, for allowing me to come back to my father's grave, which is still in my heart."

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