Eli Wiesel

Elie Wiesel KBE
Wiesel at the 2012 Time 100
Born	Eliezer Wiesel (1928-09-30)September 30, 1928 Sighet, Kingdom of Romania
Died	July 2, 2016(2016-07-02) (aged 87) Manhattan, New York, U.S.
Occupation	Author, professor, activist
Nationality	American
Ethnicity	Jewish
Alma mater	University of Paris
Subjects	The Holocaust, religion, philosophy
Notable works	Night (1960)
Notable awards	Nobel Peace Prize (1986) Presidential Medal of Freedom Congressional Gold Medal Grand Officer of the Order of the Star of Romania Legion of Honour Honorary Knighthood
Spouse	Marion Erster Rose (m. 1969–2016; his death)
Children	1

Eliezer "Elie" Wiesel KBE (/ˈɛli viˈzɛl/, Yiddish: אליעזר ויזל‎, Elyezer Vizel; September 30, 1928 – July 2, 2016) was a Romanian-born American Jewish writer, professor, political activist, Nobel Laureate and Holocaust survivor. He was the author of 57 books, written mostly in French and English, including Night, a work based on his experiences as a prisoner in the Auschwitz and Buchenwald concentration camps.

Along with writing, he was a professor of the humanities at Boston University, which created the Elie Wiesel Center for Jewish Studies in his honor. He was involved with Jewish causes, and helped establish the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. In his political activities he also campaigned for victims of oppression in places like South Africa and Nicaragua and genocide in Sudan. He publicly condemned the 1915 Armenian Genocide and remained a strong defender of human rights during his lifetime. He had been described as "the most important Jew in America" by the Los Angeles Times.