Elie Wiesel Attacked in a San Francisco Hotel:
I’d really like to write a bunch of posts about my time here in Los Angels which has been both lovely and transformative but this item caught my eye and bears comment.
The San Francisco Chronicle reports the following:
Elie Wiesel, the renowned Holocaust author and Nobel Peace Prize winner, was attacked and dragged out of a San Francisco hotel elevator last week, possibly by a Holocaust denier who claims to have stalked Wiesel for weeks, police said Friday.
Wiesel, 78, was at the Argent Hotel on Feb. 1 for an interfaith conference when he was confronted around 6:30 p.m. in an elevator by a man insisting that he wanted to interview the author, said police spokesman Sgt. Neville Gittens.
Wiesel said he would do the interview in the lobby of the Third Street hotel, but the man insisted on going to Wiesel’s room. The man then stopped the elevator at the sixth floor, dragged Wiesel out and tried to force him into a room on that floor.
“That’s when (Wiesel) started yelling,” Gittens said. The man fled, and Wiesel went down to the lobby and called police.
Wiesel was not injured. He decided to leave the conference on “Facing Violence: Justice, Religion and Conflict Resolution,” and police escorted him to the airport.
I’ve had a few hours to cool my blind fury. Speaking then wouldn’t have been the best expression of what was in my head as well as my heart and the ignorant psychotics who engage in this behavior wouldn’t understand it anyway. Therefore, let’s talk reason.
Let’s say you don’t like Elie Wiesel. Despite having surived Buchenwald, won a Nobel Peace Prize, authored more than 40 books and been called a “messenger to mankind,” he has his detractors. Professor Norman Finkelstein has accused Wiesel of profiteering from his experience as a Holocaust survivor, a claim not without merit, and Wiesel’s unwavering support for Israel is, at the very least, troubling. Let’s say you’re tired of hearing about the Holocaust or you’re one of the willful imbeciles who believes it never happend. Even if you’ve agreed with everything I just said…
Elie Wiesel is a 79 year old man. I draw the line at abusing children, the impaired and the elderly. Got a fight to pick? Chose someone who can fight back. If they can’t physically, take it to a public forum and beat them with your arguments.
Attacking an old man, even one with the stature of Elie Wiesel, is what cowards do: slimy, punk-ass, thuggish cowards. If this is the best the opposition can mount, Elie Wiesel and the rest of us who believe in acceptance and humanity, who believe as Wiesel has said that we walk towards the future “carried by profound fear and extraordinary hope”, then we have already won. We have won and feel sorry that you have wasted your lives not seeing it yet. (via Michelle Richmond)
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6 Replies to “Elie Wiesel Attacked in a San Francisco Hotel:”
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Well-said, Kevin. Thanks for a thoughtful take on a bizarre event that boggles the imagination. At least, it SHOULD boggle the imagination, but then it’s really no surprise, sadly, that such nut jobs exist.
Well-said, Kevin. Thanks for a thoughtful take on a bizarre event that boggles the imagination. At least, it SHOULD boggle the imagination, but then it’s really no surprise, sadly, that such nut jobs exist.
Thank you Michelle.
Thank you Michelle.
“Wiesel’s unwavering support for Israel is, at the very least, troubling.”
Troubling? Why?
This event doesn’t boggle the imagination.
I live in San Francisco. I lived in Berkeley for a year. There are TONS of nuts out here like this.
These people politicize anything related to Jews, Israel, or the Holocaust. And for some mysterious reason I haven’t figured out yet, to be in their camp means you have to be an anti-Semite, anti-Israel. You have to believe there’s some sort of conspiracy involving the Jews, 9/11, and the Iraq war. You have to subscribe to it all, lock stock and barrel.
You gotta be that way to be a bonafide card carrying Berkeley nutjob.
They may have issued an arrest warrant for a New Jersey man in this case, but the politics behind the attack are pure San Francisco/Berkelely “left winger”.
“Wiesel’s unwavering support for Israel is, at the very least, troubling.”
Troubling? Why?
This event doesn’t boggle the imagination.
I live in San Francisco. I lived in Berkeley for a year. There are TONS of nuts out here like this.
These people politicize anything related to Jews, Israel, or the Holocaust. And for some mysterious reason I haven’t figured out yet, to be in their camp means you have to be an anti-Semite, anti-Israel. You have to believe there’s some sort of conspiracy involving the Jews, 9/11, and the Iraq war. You have to subscribe to it all, lock stock and barrel.
You gotta be that way to be a bonafide card carrying Berkeley nutjob.
They may have issued an arrest warrant for a New Jersey man in this case, but the politics behind the attack are pure San Francisco/Berkelely “left winger”.