Response to "The Rage that Elie Wiesel Edited out of 'Night'"

This document is a critical response by Eli Pfefferkorn and David H. Hirsch to an article by Naomi Seidman, which was reported by E.J. Kessler in "The Forward" and is forthcoming in "Jewish Social Studies". Seidman's article charges Elie Wiesel with sanitizing his Holocaust memoir "Un di velt hot geshvign" (Yiddish) in its French translation, "Nuit" (Night), by omitting references to Jewish vengeance and fabricating a quarrel with God to appeal to a wider Christian audience. Pfefferkorn and Hirsch refute these accusations, arguing that the themes of crisis of faith and anger at God were inherent in the Yiddish original. They cite specific passages to demonstrate consistency across versions and defend Wiesel's translation choices as a strategic effort to reach a broader, often denialist, Christian readership, in line with rabbinical traditions of textual adaptation. They also criticize Seidman's understanding of survivor psychology and Jewish-Christian dialogue, suggesting her claims are a form of "postmodern Holocaust revisionism" that denigrates Wiesel.