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CANDLELIGHTING AT 6:30 P.M.
VOL. XC, NO. 8
Nobel Laureate Wiesel
Elie Wiesel has always brought honor not only to himself but to his
people for his living embodiment of what is most noble in the human
spirit. A survivor and chronicler of the Holocaust, he has been the
conscience of his generation, a spokesman for his people. Now, with his
being awarded the 1986 Nobel Peace Prize, he has simply amplified his
audience. From now on, his words will make news worldwide. As they
deserve.
For Wiesel is, in the words of the prize committee in Oslo, "a
messenger to mankind." How fitting that on the day after Yom Kippur,
he was cited for his message "of peace, atonement and human dignity."
Added fame will not change that - message. He will continue to be an
author and teacher whose primary objective is to force the world to
remember and confront the Holocaust so that its suffering will never be
repeated.
"This means," said Wiesel, upon learning of the award, that the
principles I am trying to stand for — the preservation of memory against
anti-Semitism, fanaticism and hatred — may be communicated in a more
effective way."
It also means that his greatest fear — silence — can be overcome if
the world truly listens and preserves that memory.
As we join in saluting Wiesel for his career of communicating
humanitarianism through his writings, and the Nobel Peace Prize
committee for recognizing his accomplishments, we take special pride in
our relationship with Wiesel, whose column appears exclusively
in our publication. We have been, and continue to be, honored by this
association with a man who, in the words of the prize committee, has
emerged as one of the most important spiritual leaders and guides in an
age when violence, repression and racism continue to characterize the
world."
Pawns In Iceland
Soviet Jews and activists in their behalf are surely disappointed by
the collapse of the "pre-summit" meetings between President Reagan and
Premier Gorbachev in Reykjavik, Iceland. Those meetings, however, did
serve to focus world attention on the 400,000 of the Soviet Union's
2,000,000 Jews who have asked to leave Russia.
They also more clearly exposed the Russian policy of using human
rights in general, and SoViet Jews in particular, as a bargaining chip in
the East-West power struggle. It -is a message that has been clearly
conveyed in the decades of abuse and the few years of emigration to
which the Soviets have subjected their Jewish citizens.
The activists will continue to struggle, to maintain contact with Jews
behind the Soviet Iron Curtain and to do anything they can to increase
the emigration trickle. But the heady time of 1979, when 51,000 Soviet
Jews were allowed to leave the motherland, appears to be a distant
glimmer as we await a less-adversarial approach in Soviet foreign and
internal relations.
Now Is Time To Show
Support For Sakharovs
DAVID A. HARRIS
S
oviet physicist Andrei
Sakharov is one of the moral
giants of our age. Scientist,
Nobel laureate, human-rights
crusader and, since 1980, in internal
exile in his own country, Sakharov
epitomizes the grandeur and in-
domitability of the human spirit.
The current intensified superpower
diplomacy may determine his fate.
Once among the most privileged
of Soviet citizens, Sakharov enjoyed
all the perquisites accorded the sci-
entific elite. His material well-being
and security were assured, his status
unquestioned. Yet he abandoned it
all to pursue higher goals: world
peace, human rights, an end to
internal repression. And he has paid
a heavy price.
In 1974, while an exchange
teacher in the USSR, I had a reveal-
ing conversation with a Soviet col-
league.
- "Sakharov is crazy and should
be forcibly placed in a psychiatric
hospital," my colleague asserted.
But why?" I protested. He is a
responsible and decent man."
"Listen," my colleague retorted,
"of course he's crazy. After all, he
must have known that to challenge
the state would land him in lots of
trouble, probably force his dismissal
from work and place him in prison.
Therefore, you see, he's crazy be-
cause anyone who would knowingly
embark on such a course couldn't
possibly be sane."
In 1977 Sakharov's stepdaughter
and her family emigrated to the
United States. His wife, Elena Bon-
ner, was able to accompany them as
far as Rome. Bonner's devotion to
David A. Harris is deputy director of the
American Jewish Committee's
international relations department.
her husband and to their joint work
on behalf of human rights and world
peace impelled her to leave her
daughter, son-in-law, grandchildren
and mother in Italy and to return to
an unimaginably difficult life in the
Soviet Union. Those of us then in
Rome working on migration were
tremendously moved by Bonner's
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Andrei Sakharov:
Another Soviet hostage.
seemingly limitless courage and
strength.
Since 1980, Sakharov and Elena
Bonner have been forced to live in
exile in Gorky, a - city closed to for-
eigners. There, cut off from family,
friends and colleagues, under con-
stant surveillance, denied even
necessary medical attention, they
are prisoners in everything but
name.
Jews owe Andrei Sakharov a
special debt. Not only has he fought
indefatigably for peace and human
rights, but he has been outspoken on
behalf of Soviet Jewish emigration,
Continued on Page 36
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