International Holocaust Remembrance Day 2017 was our first without Elie Wiesel. Elie served as Honorary Chairman of the Museum of Jewish Heritage, and he remains an inspiration for our work. Even as the Museum community felt his absence, we were more grateful than ever for his gift to us—his words.
On Sunday, January 29, 2017, the Museum and its resident theater company, National Yiddish Theater Folksbiene, brought together a new global audience for Tribute to Elie Wiesel: A Community Reading of NIGHT. Luminaries, friends, students, survivors and community leaders read aloud the full text of one of Mr. Wiesel’s most important and memorable works for a public audience at the Museum.
The event featured Elisha Wiesel, Tovah Feldshuh, Joel Grey, Sheldon Harnick, Jessica Hecht, Fanya Gottesfeld Heller, David Hyde Pierce, Bill T. Jones, Daniel and Nina Libeskind, Sheila Nevins, Itzhak Perlman, Ron Rifkin, Geraldo Rivera, Daryl Roth, Dr. Ruth Westheimer, and many other readers.
People from around the world watched the livestream online—making it a truly international remembrance and the largest public program in the Museum’s 20–year history. Watch the recording via the link below.