Nobel Prize winner Elie Wiesel to speak at UF March 12

February 26, 2013

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The ACCENT Speaker’s Bureau and Jewish Awareness Month at the University of Florida will bring Nobel Prize winner and writer Elie Wiesel to campus on March 12.

Wiesel, who was taken to Auschwitz by the Nazis during World War II at the age of 15, retells his Holocaust story in his internationally acclaimed memoir “Night.”

Using his experiences as a foundation, Wiesel has become an internationally known advocate for Israel and an advocate for other persecuted groups, including the Kurds and victims of genocide in Africa. President Jimmy Carter appointed Wiesel as the chairman of the President’s Commission on the Holocaust, and he later became the founding chairman of the United States Holocaust Memorial Council.

Author of more than 50 books, including “A Beggar in Jerusalem,” Wiesel has received various awards including the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the U.S. Congressional Gold Medal and, the most prestigious of all, the Nobel Prize for Peace.

Wiesel will be talking telling UF students about his experiences as a Holocaust survivor, his Jewish identity and his writing career.

The program starts at 8 p.m. at the Phillips Center for the Performing Arts and will be followed by a question-and-answer session. Doors open at 7 p.m., and admission is free and open to the public. Photography will not be allowed during the program, but press may record and photograph during the first five minutes of the remarks.

For persons with disabilities requiring special accommodations, please email accent@sg.ufl.edu at least 72 hours prior to the event.