Report: Wiesel and Obama not writing a book

Contrary to earlier reports in an Israeli newspaper, Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel and President Barack Obama are not writing a book together.

The subscription-only Publisher’s Lunch, citing a source close to Obama, reported that there is no book and no book deal, the Forward reported Nov. 13.

Wiesel, the Nobel laureate and author, told the Israeli daily Haaretz last month that the two would resume writing “a book of two friends” after the Nov. 6 presidential election.

Haaretz had reported that Wiesel and Obama became friends in 2009 when Wiesel joined Obama on a visit to the site of the Buchenwald concentration camp, where Wiesel was interned at the end of World War II following a death march from Auschwitz.

Wiesel and Obama first met years ago when Wiesel lectured at California’s Occidental College, where Obama was a student. — jta