Life

Elie Wiesel Interviewed by a Fiery Evangelical

By Nathan Guttman September 2, 2009

During the 2008 presidential campaign fiery evangelical leader John Hagee got into trouble after a sermon had surfaced in which he suggested that the Holocaust was a divine act meant to drive the Jews to the land of Israel.

This sermon led Republican presidential candidate John McCain to reject Hagee’s endorsement and distance himself from the controversial pastor.

Hagee, the leader of Christians United for Israel, has since worked to explain his views and prove his credentials to the Jewish community.

This week, Hagee invited Nobel laureate Ellie Wiesel to be his guest for an hour-long interview on his TV show.

The highlight of the interview: Hagee repeatedly attempts to make a tie between the Holocaust era and the current threats facing Israel from Iran. Wiesel stresses there is no comparison you can make to the Holocaust, although he is also alarmed by Iran’s nuclear ambitions.

And more on Hagee and the Holocaust remembrance: Last month his group sponsored a two week trip for Christian students to Poland and Israel, similar to the March of the Living trips taken by many Jewish teens.

Nathan Guttman, staff writer, was the Forward’s Washington bureau chief. He joined the staff in 2006 after serving for five years as Washington correspondent for the Israeli dailies Haaretz and The Jerusalem Post. In Israel, he was the features editor for Ha’aretz and chief editor of Channel 1 TV evening news. He was born in Canada and grew up in Israel. He is a graduate of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

The coming year promises to be filled with more complex and historic developments. We are entering an era where independent, fact-based Jewish journalism will be more important than ever. We need to be ready for whatever 2025 will bring, and with your help, we can be.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO