Paying Respect To Elie Wiesel's "Night"

Apr. 23, 2017

During the week when Holocaust victims are remembered I attended a Celebrity reading of Elie Wiesel's "Night" at the Glazer Campus of the Wilshire Boulevard Temple. It was a joint venture of the Temple and Writers' Bloc.

This is his story of his struggle to survive as a 15-year old boy with his father in the concentration camps the Nazis forced Jews into during their reign over Germany.

The "celebrities" who read the passages were not just from the entertainment industry, but well-known people from all walks of life.

It lifted my heart to see both the Israeli and the American Flag flying side by side in the courtyard between the Temple and their parking structure. I would have liked to have both open and waving proudly, but it was a windy day so it was hard to get the shot I wanted.

It also gave me pause when I walked between the parking structure and the Temple. There is a lot of unrest in our nation these days and synagogues have been targets of vandalism and crimes. I had a momentary pause in which I wondered if I was putting myself in danger coming here to attend this so important event.

I remembered a shooting at the Simon Wiesenthal Center where we occasionally went to Industry screenings, which ushered in the use of the metal detector booths you see at airports. Nowadays they are quite common at big public events, but I remember how sad i was to see them there.

And I must admit that I was happy to see them here at the Temple for this reading event, even though I was also sad to see the need of them at a house of worship. But it did make me feel safer knowing that everyone had to walk through them. And how sad it is that our country has come to this. That to remember the victims of mass murder through hatred, we have to take precautions that another demonstration of hatred can't occur here.

That having been said, the reading was touching, sobering and heart wrenching. And I'm so glad that I went because none of us should ever forget.