Rabbi Israel Meir Lau is one of the world's most revered and charismatic Jewish leaders. Lau was born in 1937 in Poland, the son of his town's last chief rabbi. He served as the Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel from 1993 to 2003. Currently, he is Chairman of the Yad Vashem Council; Yad Vashem is Israel's official memorial organization for the Jewish victims of the Holocaust. In 2005, Lau was awarded the Israel Prize (the country's highest honor) for his lifetime achievements and special contributions to society and the State of Israel. Shimon Peres was president of the State of Israel. Mr. Peres served twice as the prime minister of Israel and received the 1994 Nobel Peace Prize. He wrote numerous books and hundreds of articles and essays. Elie Wiesel was 15 when he was deported to Auschwitz, and later to Buchenwald. After the war he became a journalist and writer in Paris, and the author of more than 50 books, including the bestselling Night. He received numerous awards, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the French Legion of Honor, an honorary knighthood of the British Empire, and, in 1986, the Nobel Peace Prize. He was also the Andrew W. Mellon Professor in the Humanities and a professor of philosophy and religion at Boston University.