This program originally aired on May 18th, 2023.
Julie Salamon (Wall Street Journal and New York Times) sits down with New York Times reporter and author Joseph Berger to discuss his new book, Elie Wiesel: Confronting the Silence. Joseph was a New York Times reporter, columnist, and editor for thirty years. He is the author of five books: Growing Up American After the Holocaust, which was a New York Times Notable Book; The World in a City: Traveling the Globe Through the Neighborhoods of the New New York; The Pious Ones: the World of Hasidim and Their Battles with America and The Young Scientists: America’s Future and the Winning of the Westinghouse.
Joseph discusses how his own family experiences led him to understand the struggles of Eli Wiesel and issues that he and other holocaust survivors confronted. During World War II Joseph’s parents each fled Poland for Russia, where they eventually met and where Joseph was born. After the war he and his parents ended up in a Berlin DP camp before coming to the United States. Inspired by Eli Wiesel’s journey from Auschwitz survivor to journalist and international human rights advocate, Joseph’s new book examines the life of one of the most influential authors and figures of the 20th century.
Topics covered in this program: World War II, Israel, immigration, Elie Wiesel, Holocaust survivors, human rights, Jewish authors of the 20th century.