Holocaust survivor and Nobel Peace Prize winner Elie Wiesel was memorialized at a funeral service Sunday in Manhattan.
Family and friends gathered at the Fifth Avenue Synagogue for the private service and paid tribute to Wiesel, who is widely known for promoting education about the Holocaust.
In his classic memoir “Night”, Wiesel shared his story of surviving Nazi concentration camps as a teenager.
He was freed in 1945, but only after his mother, father and one sister had died in the camps.
His book was one of the most widely read and discussed books of the 20th century.
Among the attendees at Sunday’s service was Abraham Foxman, the former national Director of the Anti-Defamation League, who said Wiesel carried the message of the Jewish tragedy to the world.
“I think the world has lost a courageous moral voice,” Foxman said. “I think the Jewish people and Israel have lost a staunch defender. We the survivors have lost a voice of memory. I personally lost a very special friend.”
Wiesel was 87-years-old.