Dorot Presents:
Words of Witness, The Fiction of Élie Wiesel
with author Léonard Rosemarin
Tuesday, May 20, 11:00 am
Dorot is invited to join author and academic Léonard Rosemarin as he presents his book, Words of Witness: The Fiction of Élie Wiesel. In the book, Rosemarin emphasizes that in his novels, far more than in his essays, the great Nobel Prize winner celebrates the triumph of the human spirit over the forces of degradation and death.
This event is $15/members and $18/non-members
Copies of the book will be available for sale/signing at the discounted rate of $25 (normally $35)
A delicious lunch will be catered by our Holy Grounds Cafe
All are welcome to Games in the Schwartz/Reisman Atrium following the program
The Dorot program is generously sponsored by Carole and Jay Sterling and Family
ABOUT THE BOOK:
Through his novels, Rosemarin traces Wiesel’s spiritual trajectory as he moves from utter agony and despair when, as an adolescent, he was liberated by the American army from one of the most infamous of the Nazi death camps, Buchenwald, to an unconditional embrace of life despite its multiple flaws, fragility and potential for tragedy. In so doing, he created a huge resonating chamber, in which many of the anguishing moral, spiritual, religious and social dilemmas of the 20th and 21st centuries receive a magnificent orchestration through his mastery of storytelling. What makes this book unique is that it is the only one to encompass all of Élie Wiesel’s novels from Dawn (1960) to Hostage (2010) written a half-century later.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Dr. Léonard Rosmarin is Professor Emeritus and former Chair of the Department of Modern Languages at Brock University. He received his B.A. (Honours French) as well as his M.A. from McGill University, a Licence ès Lettres from the Université d’Aix-Marseille, and his Ph.D. from Yale University. He taught for several years at Yale University, then Wesleyan University before returning to Canada where he was at Brock University for the remaining 33 years of his career. He has also been Visiting Professor at the School for Doctoral Studies during a ten-year period (1992-2002) at the Université de Perpignan where he also directed Brock’s Third Year Study Program in France. He is the author of 17 books including critical studies of French and Franco-Jewish authors, translations and even a novel based on his larger-than-life Jewish family in Montréal. He was invited to contribute ten articles to the huge Histoire juive de la France published by the illustrious publishing house, Albin-Michel in Paris in 2023. He is the only Canadian scholar to have been asked to participate in this important project. He has been twice decorated by the Republic of France for his outstanding contribution to French literature. He firmly believes that working at the advanced age of 86 prevents old age from doing too much damage.
