On The Bookshelf

N£ IL SIMON S

*There will be perfomances
Saturday, Dec. 25 & Jan. 1

THE.
PRISONER
OF
SiECOND
Fine fun!"
- NY Post
AVE.NUE

Simon captures the
hell of modern city life,
while maintaining his
signature "tickle of the
funny bone".

...

JCC • Aaron DeRoy Theatre • 6600 W. Maple Rd • West Bloomfield
(248) 788-2900 • http://comnet.org/jet

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PROAIR

ment with the U.S. Holocaust
Prime Minister Ehud Barak, real
Memorial Council. Again, he has said
peace with the Palestinians will be
nothing about the national museum
achieved in the year 2000.
in Washington, D.C., until now, but
Otherwise, he is singularly unexcit-
writes that he would have "preferred a
ed about the approaching millennium.
more sober, more humble edifice, one
"As a Jew, I don't really care," he
that would suggest the unspoken, the
says. "In any case, does anyone think
silence, the secret."
that a change in calendar will change
Revisiting it, he changes his mind
human nature? Will hatred stop? Will
to some degree. He then goes on to
people unite to face common threats?
praise much about the museum, rec-
And the Sea Is Never Full is filled
ognizing that it is not
with anecdotes, not all
meant for people like
of which made head-
Above left: Elie Wiesel with
himself who remember,
lines.
son Elisha and President
but for those who know Jimmy Carter at the first Day
Wiesel writes about
little or nothing.
attending a meeting of
of Remembrance ceremony,
Yet, Wiesel charges,
the Council of Jewish
Aril 24, 1979: "The presi-
"the Holocaust is being
Federations in 1971,
dent's willingness to place his
assaulted. I don't mean
in which he tactfully
administration in the service
the deniers — they
helped the officials and
of memory touched me."
don't matter — but I
Above right: With Egil Aarvik, student leaders avoid a
fear the latest assault,
standoff over the
chairman of the Nobel
which comes from the
committee. In the background chanting of the tradi-
academic community."
tional grace after
are wife Marion and son
Among the attackers, he Elisha. Aarvik is talking,
meals.
says, are teachers and
For his efforts, Max
and I am far away, on the
scholars "who have to
Fisher, then president,
other side, with Elisha, with
say something new,"
agreed to Wiesel's
Marion, strolling through
and do so by question-
requests — that the
the town of my childhood"
ing the testimony of
organization be more
Holocaust survivors.
sensitive to observant
Wiesel holds that even the most
Jews, make Jewish education and
well meaning of films, docudramas
Jewish memory priorities, found a
and novels of the Holocaust diminish
council for Soviet Jewry. All were car-
its purity and sacredness, and that
ried out. "It is thanks to a simple
ultimately the only words that count
prayer rescued in extremis that the
are those coming directly from the
most important Jewish organization
survivors.
in America became more Jewish," he
"The Holocaust," he writes, is the
writes.
"ultimate event, the ultimate mystery,
In his final chapter, titled with the
never to be comprehended or trans-
characteristic "And Yet," he writes,
mitted. Only those who were there
"There are some who understand my
know what it was, the others will
itinerary; others never will. I continue
never know. "
to learn — thus to take and give back
Wiesel continues his intense
— to reach out to others, to begin
involvement with Israel, though
and begin again with every encounter.
resenting its treatment of the
I have said certain words; I have kept
Diaspora as Jews "of the second
others for future attempts to tell the
rank." We "must establish an honest
tale that is waiting and will always be
relationship, in which neither side is
waiting to be told."
better or worse," he says. He is opti-
It seems NViesel remains uneasy in
mistic that under the leadership of
his dual roles of inward-looking