In the Amud Aish Memorial Museum’s archives, we have dozens of letters written by Mr. Wiesel to Rav Yaakov’s son, Rabbi Yitzchok Chaim Avigdor. Written mostly in Yiddish, he would almost always sign his letters as “Eliezer ben Sara,” a reminder, perhaps, that Rabbi Avigdor should remember him in his prayers.
Yet, in so many ways, Mr. Wiesel himself was an emissary for his people. For when he spoke, the world listened. With his pleas, he made a difference. And he was a reliable messenger on behalf of all those who could not speak.
Mordechai Avigdor, Esq. is an attorney in private practice and a candidate for Civil Court judge in South Brooklyn. His grandfather, Rabbi Yaakov Avigdor z”l, was a Holocaust survivor. Before the war, he was chief rabbi of Drohobycz and Boryslav; after the war he became chief rabbi of Mexico. Mordechai’s father, Rabbi Yitzchok Chaim Avigdor z”l was also a Holocaust survivor, prolific writer, and spiritual leader of the United Synagogues of Greater Hartford, Connecticut.
