Published in 2003, Frey’s irksome book swiftly became a cult classic. One can easily see why Oprah Winfrey and her advisers saw an Auschwitz excursion in the company of Wiesel as a sure-fire antidote to salve the wounds sustained by Oprah’s Book Club when it turned out that James Frey had faked significant slabs of his own supposedly autobiographical saga of moral regeneration, A Million Little Pieces. It’s as foolproof a character reference as is available today, at least within the Judeo-Christian sphere of moral influence. When in trouble, head for Auschwitz, preferably in the company of Elie Wiesel. As detailed in this myth-shattering piece by Alexander Cockburn from the February 2006 print edition of CounterPunch, Wiesel assiduously campaigned for the Nobel Prize and has for decades tried to pass off his short book “Night” as a true account–a “testimony” in his words– of his experiences at Auschwitz, even though key scenes in the book have been exposed as fiction. Though Wiesel offers himself as a paragon of moral virtue, the truth is somewhat seamier. Together with you we will receive the pilgrims, the holiday visitors. Strengthening the Jewish presence in Jerusalem is a challenge that we all face and with this act of settlement you are raising our stature.

We salute the Zionist action in Jerusalem of those involved. “As Sukkot begins, we are thrilled to bless the tens of new families joining us at this time in the Jewish settlement in the City of David. His chilling statement ran in an ad placed in Ha’aretz. A couple of weeks ago Elie Wiesel, Nobel laureate and self-appointed moral conscience for Holocaust survivors, praised the expulsion of Palestinians from their homes to make way for yet more illegal settlements in Jerusalem.

Night book about holocaust