The 10th anniversary of the great humanist’s passing

Reflecting of the loss today, 10 years on

July 2nd, 2026, marked the tenth anniversary of Elie Wiesel’s passing. Reflecting on the date feels complex. From one side, we and the international society today utterly need a figure like Elie was, with his quiet but stern humanity which was setting the code of decency and moral normality. From another side, many of Elie’s friends had been thinking the last three years that if he would witness what we are witnessing after October 7th in the matter of unprecedented, screaming moral decline it could affect him really badly and it would wound him enormously. 

We all who knew and loved Elie and understood the measure of the wounds that he was bearing inside himself for all 70 years that he lived after the end of the Second World War would not like him to be hurt in what would be a devastating blow to him and the Holocaust survivors from his generation, once again. 

But the more time passes after October 7th, the more I feel the necessity of the presence of Elie-like personalities in our midst. Maybe, also because of the fact that his place at the international scene is still vacant, the date of the substantial anniversary since his passing, the first ten years without him, his voice, his words, his eyes, his smile, and his thoughts feels in a particularly significant way. 

Personal recollections 

Personally, Elie was a very special man in the best possible way. Kind, caring, with an organic ability of genuine interest, respect and attention towards so many of us whom he gifted with acquaintance and friendship. Elie had such a personality that his reactions, phrases, thoughts had been imprinted in our memory for good. There was an enormous inner substance in this quiet and kind man, and probably because he was usually gentle in his manners, that magnetic substance of true humanity that Elie possessed , impacted people deeply and for good. 

Being privileged to know Elie well for many years, I have written several essays about his special world which, being formed from the unspeakable tragedy and never-vanished sorrow, has become the tool for humanity for millions people........

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