By Bradley R. Smith
Published: 1984-10-01
Elie Wiesel
is the Andrew W. Mellon Professor in the Humanities at Boston University,
recipient of honorary degrees from universities scattered across North America
and Israel and "spokesman for Jews in the United States and throughout the
world." Nevertheless, I propose that it is selfevident that this man is
not wrapped too tight.
For example, in his book The
Jews of Silence: A personal Report on Soviet Jewry (NAL 1966, p48) Wiesel
asks rhetorically: "How many Jews were killed at Babi Yar?" He's not
certain about that, but he records for us, and for all those children who study
his writings in our high schools and colleges, one of the spectacular phenomena
of our age. "Eyewitnesses say that for months after the killings the
ground continued to spurt geysers of blood."
Pretty wonderful, eh? Let's pause
here for a moment and reflect on what Wiesel is telling us.
"Eyewitnesses say that for months after the killings the ground
continued to spurt geysers of blood."
Do you believe "for months
afterwards?" Do you believe "the next day?" I wonder what you do
think about this. One thing that occurs to me is that this is the sort of
statement a professor in the "humanities" can allow himself to make
when he is certain that no other professor will ever dare not accept
the statement as being true for fear of being slandered as an Anti-Semite.
I know what you're thinking; that
the "geysers of blood" statement was the result of a short psychotic
break in professor Wiesel's mental apparatus, which has since been repaired.
Prepare yourself for a siege melancholy.
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