Wiesel was a Zionist, and my ancestor

This invocation was a malicious appropriation, a repugnant abuse of a sacred Jewish voice to build hatred for the Jewish-led Israel Wiesel so loved. I was particularly and personally disgusted because Elie Wiesel was my cousin, through my grandmother, Sara Wiesel Meyerovics, who like him survived Auschwitz. May their memories be a blessing and a reminder of Jewish vulnerability.

Wiesel was an ardent Zionist in writing and in speech, over and over calling out the importance of Israel as a Jewish state. Though he carried the darkest and most profound wisdom about why Jewish people need a state of their own to be safe in the world, he was reviled amongst Palestinian rights supporters. Supervisor Corzo’s invocation of my family to call for public health for Gazans as she omitted the reality that hospitals are havens for Hamas’ fighters is a blasphemy. She should be ashamed, and as our representative, she should strive for cohesion and tolerance-building, not the hateful divisiveness she has sponsored from her seat.

If she bothered, she might come to understand how so many of us are feeling, captured in the words of Elie Wiesel: “This is all I can say: as a Jew, I need Israel. More precisely: I can live as a Jew outside Israel but not without Israel.”

Heather Green

San Mateo