Ariel Burg­er is the author of Wit­ness: Lessons from Elie Wiesel’s Class­room, which was an Indie Next List Pick, A Pub­lish­ers Lunch Buzz Book, and which won the 2018 Nation­al Jew­ish Book Award in Biog­ra­phy. He is also an artist and teacher whose work inte­grates edu­ca­tion, spir­i­tu­al­i­ty, the arts, and strate­gies for social change. An Ortho­dox rab­bi, Ariel received his Ph.D. in Jew­ish Stud­ies and Con­flict Res­o­lu­tion under Elie Wiesel. A life­long stu­dent of Pro­fes­sor Wiesel, Ariel served as his Teach­ing Fel­low from 2003 – 2008, after which he direct­ed edu­ca­tion ini­tia­tives at Com­bined Jew­ish Phil­an­thropies of Greater Boston. A Covenant Foun­da­tion grantee, Ariel devel­ops cut­ting-edge arts and edu­ca­tion­al pro­gram­ming for adults, facil­i­tates work­shops for edu­ca­tors, con­sults to non-prof­its, and serves as schol­ar/artist-in-res­i­dence for insti­tu­tions around the U.S. When Ariel’s not learn­ing or teach­ing, he is cre­at­ing music, art, and poet­ry. He lives out­side of Boston with his family.