Night,
authored by Elie Wiesel:
A Humanitarian Leader
Elie Wiesel, the light of the
world after a long night, a world
without God.
Eliezer Wiesel
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Born in Sighet, Transylvania in
Romania on September 30, 1928
and died on July 2, 2016
Jewish writer, authored 57
books
Holocaust survivor and
wrote about his horrific
experiences
in his memoir Night
Accomplishments
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Awarded Nobel Peace Prize in 1986
Professor of the humanities at Boston
University and Humanitarian Activist
Center for Jewish Studies at Boston University
was created in his honor.
He was involved with Jewish causes and helped
establish the United States Holocaust Memorial
Museum in Washington, D.C.
Elie Wiesel
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Elie a Jew, at the age of
14 years old and his family
were forced into the
Auschwitz camp and
then to Buchenwald
In Night , Elie offers a vivid
picture of the portrayal of
genocide, pain, heartbreak and the horrific suffering of
innocent prisoners during the Holocaust
Elie Wiesel’s Leadership
Attributes
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In his book, Night, Elie demonstrates strong,
resilience, love and compassion while enduring
the hell that is the Holocaust
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These are the leadership qualities in Elie Wiesel
that sets him apart as an exceptional leader of
the 21 century
Elie Wiesel’s Leadership
Attributes
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In his book, Night, Elie demonstrates strong,
resilience, love, compassion and a strong will
while enduring the hell that is the Holocaust
Based on R.D. Mann’s (1959) research in trait
theory of leadership, Elie Wiesel’s has inherent
leadership attributes that raise him up as an
exceptional leader of the 21 century
Elie Wiesel’s Leadership
Attributes
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Recent leadership trait research supports that
“possessing certain traits increases the
likelihood that a leader will be effective”
(Owings and Leslie S. Kaplan, pg. 14).
Gary Yukl (2020) has defined five key leadership
personality traits: self-confidence, stress
tolerance, emotional maturity, integrity and
Extroversion
Elie Wiesel’s Leadership
Attributes
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Recent leadership trait research supports that
“possessing certain traits increases the
likelihood that a leader will be effective”
(Owings and Leslie S. Kaplan, pg. 14).
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Gary Yukl (2020) has defined five key leadership
personality traits: self-confidence, stress
tolerance, emotional maturity, integrity and
Extroversion
Elie Wiesel’s Leadership Attributes
Elie also demonstrated
“emotional maturity”
another one of the five key
leadership traits when
he questions the reality of
their existence and feels very
guilty, “a truck pulled up to
a burning pit and emptied its
load of little children into the flames.
Elie Wiesel’s Leadership
Attributes
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He describes how “each man’s left arm was
engraved with his prison number, and each man
was now known by that number only. All
individuality, family history, and humanity had
been stripped from the men.”
Benefits Elie Wiesel’s Attributes
in Education
Elie continued to lead
with integrity and humility
after he was rescued from
the Buchenwald.
“William Ouchi defined and
effective leader as one who
facilitate a common culture
in organizations by helping people develop and share similar
values, beliefs, priorities, experiences, and traditions.”
Benefits Elie Wiesel’s Attributes
in Education
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Elie was committed to leading “integrating the
human and organization’s needs (Owings and
Kaplan, p. 85).
Three months after he received the Nobel Peace
Prize, Elie Wiesel and his wife Marion
established The Elie Wiesel Foundation for
Humanity. Its mission is to advance the cause of
human rights and peace throughout the world
by creating a new forum for the discussion of
urgent ethical issues confronting humanity
Benefits Elie Wiesel’s Attributes
in Education
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Wiesel was compelled to speak against the injustices in
the world. He was a humanitarian, focusing on
publicizing the atrocities and genocides of oppressed
regions like Armenia, Cambodia, and the Sudan.
As an educator having the leadership traits Elie selfconfidence, stress tolerance, emotional maturity,
integrity will serve to teach our students-tomorrows
generation- the value of tolerance, equality and the
importance of social justice.
Employing Elie Wiesel’s Leadership
Methods in the Classroom
Wiesel in a seminar with students of Boston University, 1982
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Elie as a classroom teacher could employ his leadership methods in a
classroom context by:
Incorporating philosophy of
social justice
Fostering classroom community of
conscience
Helping students see each other
as co-learners
Including diverse experiences
and background in the
classroom materials
Participate in discussions that help
students critically engage with issues
that affect them
What Actions Can Be Employed
By School District?
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An actions school districts can take an approach to PBIS
(positive behavior, intervention, and supports) by defining
school-wide behavior expectations.
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As a collective process this can provide positive expectations for
students and staff to help prepare students to be successful on
and off campus.
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These monthly themes can be established and recognized by
staff to enhance the culture of our campus and provide students
with positive guidance about behaviors that will help them be
successful.
What Can School District Leaders do?
Lastly, what can be employed by school district
leaders do to incorporate Wiesel’s leadership
approach?
• School leaders use to employ Wiesel's
techniques in a school-wide context by:
• Bringing social justice into schools and shining a
light on important social issues such as Black
Lives Matter, Ending the School-to-Prison
Pipeline and Families Belong Together