From the JTA archives: 50 years of covering Elie Wiesel

Gabrielle Birkner

Anne Bayefsky and Elie Wiesel answering reporters' questions during a break at The Perils of Global Intolerance: The United Nations and Durban III Conference in New York, Sept. 22, 2011. (Danielle Fleischman)

Anne Bayefsky and Elie Wiesel answering reporters’ questions during a break at The Perils of Global Intolerance: The United Nations and Durban III Conference in New York, Sept. 22, 2011. (Danielle Fleischman)

Elie Wiesel’s name has appeared in nearly 900 JTA articles over the years. The Holocaust survivor, human rights activist, bestselling author and Nobel laureate died Saturday at age 87. (His JTA obituary can be found here.) What follows are links to stories about Wiesel that have appeared in JTA over the past five decades.

Novelist receives coveted literary award in France (1963)

Wiesel criticize Anne Frank’s father for banning play (1967)

Wiesel charges Allied governments, Jewish leaders failed to come to aid of Jews who perished in the Holocaust (1972)

Wiesel says idea that Jew can be a Jew only in Israel is harmful (1972)

Elie Wiesel: My journey to Cambodia (1980)

Wiesel: a nuclear catastrophe can be avoided if the lesson of the Holocaust is heard and understood (1983)

In Nobel acceptance speech, Wiesel urges help for the Palestinian people but says that terrorism is not the way (1986)

A human rights march for Soviet Jewry: Wiesel says he will try to bring a half million people to Washington (1986)

Wiesel invited to visit the USSR (1986)

Wiesel reflects on the state of world Jewry (

Elie Wiesel returns to Auschwitz (1988)

Wiesel asks Gorbachev to clear names of murdered Yiddish poets (1988)

Wiesel visits Pollard in prison, becoming latest to take up cause (1992)

‘This Time the World Acted’: Wiesel hails action in Kosovo (1999)

After Madoff, donations come in to help Wiesel (2009)

Wiesel: Madoff is ‘thief, scoundrel, criminal’ (2009)

Despite being plundered by Madoff, Wiesel will continue foundation’s work (2009)

White House charm offensive pays off: Wiesel says tension is ‘gone’ (2010)

J Street ad responds to Wiesel (2010)

Jewish theater cancels play after Wiesel objects (2010)

Netanyahu, Iran, the Holocaust and Wiesel’s rejoinder (2012)

Wiesel pleads with Obama, Congress, settle differences, let Netanyahu speak (2015)

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