The Town Beyond the Wall

Legends, Stories, Bearing Witness: The Origins and Vocation of a Hasidic Writer

Feb 19, 1967

Professor Wiesel reads from several essays, from his novel, The Town Beyond the Wall, and, in the original French, from the 1966 book describing the plight of Soviet Jews, entitled Les juifs du silence [The Jews of Silence]. The essays include his meeting with the Vizhnitzer Rebbe after 22 years as well as a tribute to his town and his teachers. He highlights a number of his key concepts: legend, storytelling, madness and silence. He begins the lecture by declaring “I am a Hasid”; he ends it with the silence, too, “belongs to the tale.”

Selected Quotes:
Books:
Subthemes:
1) Still a Hasid
2) Teachers and Masters
3) The Importance of the Hebrew Alphabet
4) The Purpose of Telling Stories
5) Memories of Childhood
6) The Story of Mad Moishe
7) The Story of Rabbi Yitzchak of Kalev and the Love Song
8) Love of Talmud
9) German Occupation of Sighet
10) Visiting Oppressed Russian Jewry and Bearing Witness to Their Greatness
11) The Silence that belongs to Storytelling
Names:
Key Words:
Categories:
Tags:

© 2026 The Young Men’s and Young Women’s Hebrew Association

All Rights Reserved.

All material accessed via the 92NY website (“content”) is protected by copyright under U.S. Copyright laws and is the property of The Young Men’s and Young Women’s Hebrew Association or the party credited as the provider of the content. You may not copy, reproduce, distribute, publish, display, perform, modify, create derivative works, transmit, or in any way exploit any such content, nor may you distribute any part of this content over any network, including a local area network, sell or offer it for sale, or use such content to construct any kind of database. You may not alter or remove any copyright or other notice from copies of the content accessed via 92NY’s website. Copying or storing any content except as provided above is expressly prohibited without prior written permission of 92NY or the copyright holder identified in the individual content’s copyright notice.

If you are a rights holder and have found your material on our website for which you have not granted permission (or is not covered by a copyright exception under US copyright laws), please contact us so that we may obtain and document accurate rights-related information. Upon email request to archive@92ny.org, we will temporarily remove material from public view while we address any rights issue and will honor takedown requests from authors who do not wish to have their work published.