Elie Wiesel, Nobel Peace Prize laureate, world-renowned Holocaust survivor, humanitarian, professor and author of more than 40 books, made a whirlwind tour of Utah on Monday. He came to receive an honorary doctorate from Snow College, where he also delivered the Tanner Lecture on Human Values. But before he rushed off to Ephraim, Wiesel came to Salt Lake City's Jewish Community Center, where a sold-out crowd of more than 300 people hung on his every word.

Wiesel, 77, spoke briefly of his childhood and the violin he played. But the music stopped during the war. And after he had survived Auschwitz, Buna and the death march to Buchenwald, Wiesel - who landed in France after the war - was faced with a choice. He could pursue music or study philosophy. He chose the latter.

"I came to it because of the questions," he said. "I left because of the answers."

Later, he explained further that questions unite people; only answers divide them.

For 30 years, Wiesel has been a professor of philosophy and humanities at Boston University. He said bringing students together and teaching them to question yet always respect one another is his greatest passion.

There were some in the crowd for whom Wiesel's visit was especially personal. Abe Katz was one of them. Katz, a Salt Lake area Holocaust survivor was in Auschwitz and Buchenwald at the same time as Wiesel, and yet, it took a luncheon in Salt Lake City for the two to meet.

The visit from Wiesel left many misty-eyed. Comforted by his wife and daughter, Leonard Haas, a University of Utah professor, broke down in tears. "Six million people couldn't be here today, and among them, most of my family," he said.

Wiesel also met with Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. before he flew south to Ephraim.

His lecture in the Eccles Center for the Performing Arts drew 1,400 audience members who filled the auditorium, lobby and overflow room.

Rabbi Shmuley Boteach introduced Wiesel as "the greatest living Jewish man of all," and thanked him for questioning the presence of God in the face of atrocity.

"Where was God?" Boteach asked the hushed audience, before listing off the crimes against humanity during the Holocaust and in, among other regions, Kosovo, Cambodia and now Darfur. It was Wiesel, Boteach said, who affirmed the "right to wrestle with God and to question God."

"Suffering does not confer any privileges," Wiesel told the audience. "It's what you do with it" that matters.

He turned to his roots - the Hebrew Bible and Jewish tradition - in discussing forgiveness. He referred to a "great teacher" who once taught him that of all the characters in the Bible, God is "the most tragic figure."

"He created a good world, and he looks down and says what are they doing to my world?" Wiesel said.

"God was not angry at people for rebelling against him," he said. "God is angry when his creatures do not live in peace with each other."

jravitz@sltrib.com

More on Wiesel

Learn more about Elie Wiesel's visit and the words he shared in next Saturday's Faith section. -