Join us for an exclusive evening with Elisha Wiesel, the only son of Elie Wiesel, Nobel Peace Prize recipient, Holocaust survivor, and author of Night, his renowned memoir of survival in the Nazi death camps.
In this intimate conversation, Elisha Wiesel will offer his candid and timely reflections on his father’s writings about the long shadow of the Shoah, the creation of the state of Israel, and his unwavering belief in the resilience of the Jewish spirit.
He will also share his thoughts on the current challenges facing the Jewish People in the shadow of the largest single massacre of Jews since the Shoah, which took place on October 7 in Israel, and the subsequent shocking rise in antisemitism in the UK and across the world.
Having grown up with Elie Wiesel as his father, and as Chairman of the Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity, Elisha brings a unique perspective to this conversation. Elisha will share with us his father’s legacy, not only as a passionate humanitarian, but as a proud Jew, who wanted to bring light to the dark places in our world.
In conversation with Karen Pollock CBE, chief executive of the Holocaust Educational Trust (HET).
All attendees are cordially invited to attend a complimentary pre-event drinks reception from 6-7pm.
Elisha Wiesel
Elisha is a recovering Wall Street executive. Since retiring from a twenty-five year financial markets career at Goldman Sachs at the end of 2019, he served in 2020 as one of the lead technologists in Mike Bloomberg’s presidential campaign.
Elisha became philanthropically active through his board service with Good Shepherd Services, where he raised millions of dollars for New York’s neediest by convening “Midnight Madness”, inspiring hundreds of finance professionals to stay up all night solving elaborate puzzles on the city streets.
When his father passed, Elisha realized how many others missed his voice––and so, when opportunities for impact arise, Elisha shares his father’s message and continues his legacy by standing up for persecuted communities. In the last few years, Elisha has spoken at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum about the need to protect the LGBTQ community; shone a light while speaking at Auschwitz on the plight of Syrian refugees being denied Western asylum; written for the Financial Times about the urgency of upholding DACA; organized a Washington DC rally against antisemitism — including anti-Zionism; spoken at the United Nations about the persecution of the Uyghurs, and taken his son to peacefully march for Black Lives.
Elisha is currently starting a hedge fund, rebooting the Elie Wiesel Foundation, chairing an Israeli start-up in the FinTech space, learning a little Talmud every day, volunteering as a ski patroller even though he rides a snowboard, and generally trying to be a good father, husband and son.
Karen Pollock CBE
Karen Pollock CBE is the Chief Executive of the Holocaust Educational Trust. She started her professional life working for the Parliamentary Committee Against Antisemitism (PCAA), where she became Director. She joined the Holocaust Educational Trust as Communications Director in 1998 and became the Trust’s Chief Executive in 2000.
She was a founding Trustee of the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust and is a member of the Council of the International Center for Education about Auschwitz and the Holocaust Council at the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum. She is a Vice President of the Jewish Leadership Council, a trustee of the Community Security Trust and an Advisor to the UK Holocaust Memorial Foundation.
In 2012 Karen was awarded an MBE for her services to education in the UK. In 2020, she was awarded a CBE for services to Holocaust education.