Elie Wiesel addressed a gathering of evangelical Christians at a salute to Israel hosted by the John Hagee Ministries.

The Ministries’ 28th Annual Night to Honor Israel featured not only Wiesel, the Nobel laureate and Holocaust survivor, but also Israel’s minister of national infrastructure, Uzi Landau, and its consul general to the Southwestern U.S., Asher Yarden.

“Life is not made of years but of moments,” Wiesel said. “Some are privileged moments, and tonight I realized that I had to come here also to live a privileged moment, to be with you. Never in the history of my people have we witnessed an event such as this.”

Hagee, the president and CEO of John Hagee Ministries, stressed his organization’s solidarity with Israel and the Jewish people. He also encouraged the crowd to read Wiesel’s book “Night.”

The $9 million raised for the evening in donations to Hagee’s organization was distributed to representatives of 29 Jewish and Israeli nonprofits, charities and humanitarian organizations.

Hagee also is the founder and national chairman of Christians United for Israel, a Christian pro-Israel organization. — jta