Elie Wiesel says he’s not interested in becoming president of Israel.

When asked at a Montreal press conference last week about Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s suggestion that he succeed embattled Israeli President Moshe Katsav, the Nobel peace laureate, who seemed amused by the idea, said he wants to continue to speak freely and not be constrained by a mainly ceremonial public office.

“I am a professor, a writer. The president does not have a political function. He has no power. As a free man, I can do much more to bring peace to the Middle East,” he said.

Olmert made the surprise suggestion last month that Wiesel was a possible candidate to replace Katsav, who may soon face rape and sexual assault charges.

Wiesel – a Boston University professor who is best known for the autobiographical book Night, about his experiences in the Holocaust – recalled that physicist Albert Einstein turned down David Ben-Gurion’s invitation to become Israel’s first president, in part, because he did not speak Hebrew.

Wiesel said he does know the language, but having never lived in Israel, he’s not the best choice.

He also repeated his earlier call for Iran to be excluded from the United Nations as long as president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is in power.

He said the Iranian leader should be “declared persona non grata. Iran today represents a real danger, threatening not only Israel, but the whole world.”

He described Ahmadinejad as “morally degraded.”

“He denies the Holocaust, but he says that that will come. He freely affirms that Iran intends to destroy the State of Israel.”

Wiesel, a Romanian Holocaust survivor, drew a capacity audience of more than 1,300 mainly non-Jewish university students at the Spectrum in downtown Montreal for a lecture in French titled “Building a Moral Society.”

During his speech he deplored fanaticism. While he has devoted his life to the promotion of human rights, he said he doesn’t support groups that use violence to attain them, among whom he includes the Palestinians.

His appearance was sponsored by a consortium, spearheaded by Hillel, of some 20 student and young adults’ organizations, that cut across religious and linguistic lines. They included the McGill Muslim Students’ Association, the Newman Catholic Centre, Le Forum Jeunesse de l’Ile de Montréal, the Université du Québec à Montréal-affiliated L’Institut de Nouveau Monde, and SHOUT (Students Helping Others Understand Tolerance).

Wiesel praised the ecumenical nature of the project, and offered it as a model for others.

“Christian, Muslim and Jewish students working together is an act of hope. We should build on it. If it can be done here, why not elsewhere? It’s an example to other universities and communities,” he said.

He urged young people to get involved in international humanitarian crises, such as ending the conflict in the Darfur region of Sudan. Just signing petitions in sufficient numbers can have an effect, he said.

If every university student in Quebec signed a petition, it could not be ignored by governments and the United Nations, he added.

A “mistake” was made more than 40 years ago in not including Muslims as a “third partner” in the interfaith dialogue that opened between Catholics and Jews after the Second Vatican Council, Wiesel said, and he advocated extending the invitiation to Muslims now.

“It is never too late, but it is late,” he said.

Asked if it’s time to do something about building a moral society and not just discuss it, Wiesel quickly replied that “discussing is doing something.”