Elie Wiesel and The Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity Welcome Eli N. Evans to Board of Directors

NEW YORK, May 25, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- The Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity has announced that Eli N. Evans, noted author, historian, and President Emeritus of the Charles H. Revson Foundation, was elected to its Board of Directors.

"Eli Evans is known for his classic writing on the history of the Jews in the South, as well as his visionary leadership in the field of philanthropy," Elie Wiesel said, "The Elie Wiesel Foundation is honored to welcome him on its board."

"I look forward to working with Marion and Elie to help make the Foundation a 21st Century world-wide resource on behalf of human rights and social justice," said Evans.

Looking back on the literary career of Eli N. Evans, Abba Eban said: "The Jews of the South have found their poet laureate." A native of Durham, North Carolina, after graduation from the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, a tour of duty in the U.S. Navy and graduation from Yale Law School, he served in the White House as a speech writer to President Lyndon B Johnson. 

From 1968 to 1977, Evans was a senior program officer with the Carnegie Corporation of New York, and then served as the first president of the Charles H. Revson Foundation (1977 – 2003). Under his leadership, the foundation launched such creative ventures as the PBS series Heritage: Civilization and the Jews, and Rechov Sumsum, the Israeli Sesame Street and Shalom Sesame, its American adaptation; and Bill Moyers's Genesis: A Living Conversation.

Mr. Evans is the author of The Provincials; Judah P. Benjamin: The Jewish Confederate; and The Lonely Days Were Sundays.

About The Elie Wiesel Foundation:

Elie Wiesel and his wife, Marion, established The Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity soon after he was awarded the 1986 Nobel Prize for Peace. The Foundation's mission, rooted in the memory of the Holocaust, is to combat indifference, intolerance and injustice through international dialogue and youth-focused programs that promote acceptance, understanding and equality.

The Foundation's programs include the Elie Wiesel Prize in Ethics Essay Contest, open to U.S. college seniors and juniors, the international Nobel Laureates Initiative, the Beit Tzipora Centers for Study & Enrichment for Israeli Ethiopian children, and The Darfurian Refugee Program, an after-school program at The Bialik-Rogozin School.

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SOURCE The Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity