ORANGE, Calif., Sept. 30, 2009 -- Elie Wiesel, Nobel Peace Prize recipient, Holocaust survivor and human-rights advocate, will return to Chapman University in April 2010 to participate in a fundraising event marking the 10th anniversary of Chapman’s Rodgers Center for Holocaust Education and Stern Chair in Holocaust Education. During his visit, he also will speak to Chapman students and to middle and high school students who submitted winning entries in the 11th Annual Holocaust Art and Writing Contest sponsored by Chapman and The “1939” Club, a Holocaust survivor organization.

“It was a tremendous honor to have Professor Wiesel visit our campus once, and it is an even greater honor that he has chosen to return,” said Marilyn Harran, Ph.D., Stern Chair in Holocaust Studies at Chapman and director of the Rodgers Center.

Wiesel’s return, on April 25-26, 2010, will come five years after his first visit to Chapman, when he took part in dedication ceremonies for the university’s Sala and Aron Samueli Holocaust Memorial Library. On that visit in April 2005 – which also marked the 60th anniversary of Wiesel’s release from the Buchenwald concentration camp – the university unveiled a large bronze bust of Wiesel near the entrance of the Holocaust Memorial Library.

Wiesel also received an honorary doctorate degree from Chapman during the 2005 visit.

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