SOURCE: Cedars, Marie M. “Silence and Against Silence: The Two Voices of Elie Wiesel.” Cross Currents 36, no. 3 (fall 1986): 257-66.

In the following essay, Cedars traces Wiesel's development as a writer and political activist.

Against Silence epitomizes Elie Wiesel's obsession: to sensitize people to the injustices that afflict their contemporaries. Having suffered from the silence of others' indifference, he spends his life speaking out against inhumanity everywhere. Now his Nobel Peace Prize signals that people are listening. It gives him reason for hope. “It is not for prizes that one works,” he replied, when asked if the award would change him. To Wiesel, who was notified of the award at the close of Yom Kippur, the prize means “a new beginning. … It is a possibility to speak louder.”¹

Although Wiesel is best known for his untiring efforts to keep the memory of the Holocaust alive in order to prevent...