Simon Wiesenthal

At the ripe old age of 96, Simon Wiesenthal has passed away today. "I think he'll be remembered as the conscience of the Holocaust. In a way he became the permanent representative of the victims of the Holocaust, determined to bring the perpetrators of the greatest crime to justice," says Rabbi Marvin Hier, dean and founder of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles.

It's with a heavy heart that I hear this news today. Mr. Wiesenthal was a major influence and inspiration to me, both professionally and personally. For nearly sixty years (I think he officially stopped looking for hidden Nazis in '93), Wiesenthal has done the right thing. He decided to act, not out of self-pity or self righteousness, but rather because he continued to cling to possibility of God's existence. He, in the words of Emil Fackenheim, refused to "hand Hitler a posthumous victory" by turning his back on his faith, despite the horrors he witnessed, the trials he faced and the ridicule he endured.