Given that we at Moment are in the midst of celebrating our 50th anniversary, it seems particularly fortuitous—and also fitting—that Nobel laureate and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel (cofounder of Moment) was honored this week with the release by the United States Postal Service (USPS) of a new stamp bearing his image.
The stamp is part of the USPS’s Distinguished Americans series. Wiesel, who died in 2016 at the age of 87, is the 18th person to be featured in the series, joining such notable Jewish Americans as Jonas Salk, developer of the first influenza and polio vaccines, and playwright and Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Edna Ferber in being so honored. Other notable Jewish Americans separately featured on USPS stamps include Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg and author and illustrator Shel Silverstein.
Born in Romania on September 30, 1928, Wiesel was sent to Auschwitz as a teenager along with his family. His mother and younger sister were killed upon arrival; Wiesel and his father were assigned to a labor camp in the Auschwitz complex. His father died before liberation, but Wiesel survived and went on to become a distinguished educator and passionate advocate for human rights. He authored a number of essays and books, including Night, a 1960 memoir about his experiences in Auschwitz and Buchenwald during the Holocaust. Wiesel became a U.S. citizen in 1963.
In addition to the Nobel Peace Prize, Wiesel received a number of honors in the United States, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the Congressional Gold Medal and the National Humanities Medal. In 1978, he was appointed chairman of the President’s Commission on the Holocaust by Jimmy Carter, which in turn led to his later appointment as the founding chairman of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council and the ultimate establishment of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
The Wiesel stamp, which was released on September 17, features a 1999 black-and-white photo of Wiesel by Russian photographer Sergey Bermeniev along with Wiesel’s name and the word “Humanitarian.” It will be used for two-ounce mail, a less common category of postage, and will always be valid for the rate printed on it.
“In this time of rising antisemitism, it is especially important to remember my dear friend Elie Wiesel and his dedication to standing up to hatred in all of its forms,” says Nadine Epstein, editor-in-chief of Moment magazine and author of Elie Wiesel: An Extraordinary Life and Legacy.
The description of the stamp on the USPS website reads: “The 18th stamp in the Distinguished Americans series honors humanitarian Elie Wiesel (1928-2016), a survivor of Nazi concentration camps whose dozens of works bore witness to the Holocaust and whose resilience and compassion continue to be a source of inspiration.”