First anniversary of Elie Wiesel’s death marked at Limmud FSU
Romanian-born Shoah survivor and Nobel laureate was honored with a special service in the Moldovan capital Chisinau
Jenni Frazer is a freelance journalist
On the first anniversary of the death of Elie Wiesel, the Romanian-born Nobel laureate and Holocaust survivor, Moldovan Jews held a special service in the country’s capital, Chisinau.
The service took place on the eve of the one-day Limmud FSU event which attracted more than 300 young Jews from all over the country.
Wiesel was widely known as one of the fiercest fighters for Soviet Jewry in the days before the gates of the Soviet Union allowed them to go free.
The keynote service, remembering the legacy of Wiesel, was held on Saturday night at the Chisinau Chabad Lubavitch Synagogue, the only synagogue that is still active today, in a city which had more than 70 synagogues before the Holocaust.
Rabbi Zusha Abelsky, the son of the former Chief Rabbi of Moldova, Zalman Abelsky, recited a special kaddish in memory of Wiesel. Others taking part in the service were Rabbi Mandy Axelrod, the president of the Jewish community of Moldova Alexander Bilinkis, Limmud FSU founder Chaim Chesler and Elie Wiesel’s close friend and colleague, the founder of his archive at Boston University, Dr Joel Rappel.
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