Elie Wiesel Sexually Assaulted Teenager at Charity Event, Woman Claims in 'Me Too' Account
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A woman claims that esteemed scholar, philanthropist and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel molested her as a teenager, squeezing her "ass" at a charity event in New York three decades ago.
In a "Me Too" post on Medium last week, Jennifer Listman, a former doctoral student at New York University and researcher at Yale University, recounts that the late Wiesel forced himself between her and her boyfriend during a photo shoot at the 1989 memorial event and molested her. As the photographer focused, Wiesel allegedly moved his hand from Listman's right shoulder to her shoulder blade, then down her back where he groped her as the photo was taken.
Wiesel immediately ran, she said, disappearing into the crowd and leaving her "frozen to the spot" where she stood. Listman ran through a list of possible excuses in her head but eventually realized: "I know exactly where my ass is, and that’s where his hand was,” she told her boyfriend at the time.
That boyfriend, who later married Listman, confirmed the account to Newsweek. David Listman said he did not see Wiesel grab Listman, but he remembers his then-girlfriend's reaction and their conversation after. The couple is no longer married.
Listman was 19 at the time and writes that the squeeze "was a calculated act and worse than you think," saying that she dressed conservatively and looked young for her age, believing Wiesel mistook her for an "ultra-religious underage girl who was unlikely to tell anyone" about the assault.
"In other words, he purposefully chose to molest someone who he assumed was a minor and who would be compelled into silence," she wrote.
Listman said she waited so long to discuss the incident out of fear she would damage Wiesel's legacy or spark anti-Semitism by speaking out about the Holocaust icon, saying she struggled with "anxiety, panic attacks and suicidal depression" as she kept the story inside.
