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So I recently entered the Elie Wiesel Prize in Ethics. I found out relatively late about the contest and decided to enter it rather spontaneously. First to preface, Elie Wiesel is one of my heroes in life. I read Night when I was relatively young and the book both traumatized and inspired me. In hindsight, I should not have read the book at the time that I did; after reading Night, I continued on a wave of reading Holocaust literature and the cruelties I read about and the books I devoured led me to be quite sensitive to anything Holocaust related. However, Wiesel's books are like poetry to me and his weaving together of words are hauntingly beautiful. I remember spending an hour just looking at one paragraph, finding new layers of meaning behind each sentence as I would replay the sentence in my head. Commas and periods took on lives of their own as they jutted out from their framework to come alive as bold statements in themselves.
I remember attending a lecture by Wiesel when I was in high school. I went with my mother and I was surprised by how humorous he was. He was a tragic comedian. I shook his hand after and had so many things I wanted to say to him. Instead, all I could muster was a "Thank you". I do not know if there has ever been an author, public figure or celebrity that has ever had as much of an impact on me and my life than Elie Wiesel.
The essay called for participants to write 3,000-4,000 words (about 12 pages, double spaced) on an ethical dilemma that they have faced, or anything relating to that. Surprisingly, the essay contest itself was pretty liberal in that you could really write whatever you wanted- I looked at past examples and saw a wide range of topics. I chose to write about the refugee situation in Israel, a topic which is really important to me. This essay was the first time I had really translated my experiences from this summer into essay form and it was really cathartic for me. The essay is incredibly long, especially in the blog world so if you do want to read it, you can check it out after the jump. I'm actually really nervous about people reading it, as no one has read it in its entirety and I just feel kind of vulnerable with it. But since I know that A. My mother is the only one who probably reads this and B. My mother has not read my blog since a year ago, I am pretty safe publishing my words here. So, yes if you happened to stumble upon my blog, have a few hours to spend and want to read this, then please let me know what you think.
