Man Arrested In Elie Wiesel Assault
New Jersey Police Arrest Eric Hunt For Allegedly Attacking Holocaust Scholar
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Eli Weisel, left, and his accused attacker Eric Hunt. (AP/Montgomery County Police)
Montgomery Township police arrested Eric Hunt, 22, of Sussex County, N.J., at 1:30 p.m. EST Saturday. He faces charges that include attempted kidnapping, false imprisonment, elder abuse, stalking, battery and the commission of a hate crime, according to San Francisco police.
He was being held without bail in the Somerset County Jail in New Jersey, awaiting extradition to San Francisco.
Wiesel, 78, was a featured speaker at a Feb. 1 peace forum at the Argent Hotel in San Francisco. He was approached in the lobby by a white man in his 20s who asked for an interview, police said.
Authorities said Wiesel agreed to talk in the lobby, but the man insisted the interview be conducted in a hotel room, and got into the elevator with Wiesel. Once on the sixth floor, the suspect dragged Wiesel from the elevator, police said.
Wiesel began yelling, and the suspect ran away down the elevator, police said.
Police have said they were aware that a man claimed responsibility for the attack in a posting on an anti-Semitic Web site registered in Australia. Police have not commented further on the case.
San Francisco police Lt. Dan Mahoney said he doesn't believe Hunt belonged to a larger organization.
"He is a lone wolf and not part of an organization or group," he said.
Wiesel couldn't immediately be reached for comment Saturday at Boston University, where he teaches, or through his institute in New York. Police in New Jersey and San Francisco said they did not know if Hunt had retained an attorney.
Wiesel, who survived the Nazi death camps at Auschwitz and Buchenwald during World War II, has worked for human rights in many parts of the world and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986.
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Best-selling author Mitch Albom on his first nonfiction work since "Tuesdays with Morrie."





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See all 30 CommentsI completely agree. "organized religion" (ie. The Crusades, Spanish Inquisition and now the most organized of all 'Islam') has caused more suffering than the associated Churches have relieved in their histories. I am a Christian, nothing more, nothing less. I stand by my statement about Jesus words. They are enough for me, others have to find their own way.
your posts have no substance other than insults. If you wish, feel free to disagree but leave insults to people who cannot think for themselves. Give us a model of correct thinking and stun us with your 'logic'. No insult intended.
Now they're ready to grow a normal-looking brain and transplant it into aardbear.
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That was the kind of hilarious "history lesson" that was the trademark of Archie Bunker on "All in the Family."
I've read some stupid posts in my day, but the one above takes the cake.
Democracy literally means the rule of the PEOPLE. It was born in Greece and nowhere else. It was imperfect in Greece (as it was among America's Founding Fathers) in that neither the Greeks nor our Founding Fathers allowed women to vote, and both the Greeks and the Founding Fathers tolerated slavery.
The Greek democracies were the Wright Brothers airplane of democracy.
We wouldn't have democracy but for them.
So how about a little respect ?
Who loves ya, baby ?
To understand what drove hitler you must have an understanding of the occult, which nobody is going to teach you because it drives our society today."
Posted by bildooreilly:
Dildooreilly, I've read many of your blogs, but this one takes the cake.
Did someone slip a tab of acid into your drink at lunch???
Nah!! If the Jews had listened to God, Jesus would never have had to die!
SQHA you and your friend basically beleived the same thing?? Were you not paying attention? Followers of the Jewish faith do not beleive in Jesus. Christianity is based on the words Jesus spoke and actions he took. That is basically very different. They are still waiting for the first comming of Christ.
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See all 30 Comments