A Conversation with Elie Wiesel

Taking Judaism Seriously: Go and study--the hardest (and perhaps the best) work

Mar 25, 2001

In the third of three evenings, arranged by 30 Jewish Community Centers in North America to discuss the question of how to take Judaism seriously, Rabbi David Woznica engages Professor Wiesel in dialogue. Professor Wiesel talks about how hard he works: writing, teaching but most of all studying. He urges the next generation to go and study, zil gamor. According to EW, the beauty of study for a Jew is that it links you to Hillel across 2,500 years of history. It is also one of the gifts that the Jewish people have given the world: their passion for learning. Immediately after the war, all Professor Wiesel wanted was to resume the tractate of Talmud which for him had been interrupted. Professor Wiesel has continued to study the Talmud and tells his audience: Talmud every day. Never give that up.

Selected Quotes:
Subthemes:
1) Miracles Today, Our Miraculous Existence
2) Fathers-and-Sons in Professor Wiesel’s Writing
3) How to Respond to Those Who Do Not Find Judaism Compelling
4) Israel Under Prime Minister Ariel Sharon
5) Jewish-Christian Relations in the 21st Century
6) What Has Judaism Brought/Given to the World?
7) Professor Wiesel's Coming to America
8) The Holocaust: Aiming to Explain the Inexplicable
9) Is My Survival an Act of God?
10) Points of Pride
11) Desire for Future Leadership
12) Biggest Influences in the 20th Century
13) A Ten Year Vow of Silence: Respecting the Holocaust Experience
14) Study and Formal Education
15) What Would You Ask God? What Would God Ask You?
16) What Does It Mean to Love God?
17) Increases in Intermarriage
18) The Responsibility of the Children of Holocaust Survivors
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