Lessons of Elie Wiesel

Lessons from Elie Wiesel’s Classroom

Cantor Deborah Katchko-Gray



Some people get recharged from a visit to a spa, a vacation far away, or a pulse pounding rock concert. I admit, I enjoy all of those things, but what really lifts me up and opens my heart and mind is a visit to Elie Wiesel’s classroom. Each year I try to attend at least one class and several lectures of my mentor , Prof. Elie Wiesel. His classroom is like no other, the setting is elegant and regal dedicated to his beloved parents, Shlomo and Sarah Wiesel, whose names are proudly displayed as you walk into the Elie Wiesel Center for Judaic Studies at Boston University.

Walking into the gorgeous renovated home, you feel you are walking into a European castle, with marble floors, red carpet, a fountain, and a winding staircase with polished deep wood everywhere. Crown moldings and gilded finishes are impressive, elegant and befitting the memory of his parents who perished in the Holocaust.

I was 19 when I entered Prof. Wiesel’s first class at Boston University, I’m 53 now, and I still get a thrill from being there, a feeling of awe, gratitude and hope for our world. The lessons I keep learning have helped me throughout my life. When I was essentially a single mother with four young boys struggling to stay afloat during a devastating marital crisis with a then drug addicted husband, I always knew it could be worse. I could put one foot in front of the other and go forward with the strength and knowledge of brave Jews who fought in the resistance against the Nazis, who wrote secret songs and poems, memoirs and essays to stay human in our darkest period of history.

This semester Prof. Wiesel is teaching his own works, fiction and non-fiction. I attended a class that focused on his book, The Trial of G-d, and another using Legends of Our Time, one of my favorite of his more than 50 books he’s written. The lecture on Monday evening, Nov. 1 was entitled, The Rebbe of Ger- A Tragedy in Hasidism.

I would like to share some of the interesting lessons and bits of wisdom I gathered during my two days of study.

The Trial of G-d was based on a real event that Wiesel witnessed at Auschwitz. Three prominent rabbis decided G-d was guilty of crimes against humanity, yet still prayed the evening service. The challenge is to ask questions, search for hope, and offer compassion where it is needed. Turning away from hate, and towards compassion, seeking beliefs where compassion and awe are integral to remaining human.

In the early 1960’s a Catholic man asked Elie Wiesel, " Why do you still remember the Holocaust?". Wiesel answered, " Look, many years ago one Jew was killed. Why do you still remember him?"

Wiesel went all over the world asking psychologists and psychiatrists about hate. They said that a child begins to hate only at age three. A child learns to hate, so he can unlearn to hate.

Fanaticism is the enemy of civilization, friendship, logic and love.

Wisdom from his lecture, Rebbe of Ger- Tragedy in Hasidism



One has no choice but to go forward in troubled times, but we cannot go forward if we are alone.

When one people are threatened, all people are threatened. Building a mosque at the WTC means we can build religious tolerance together.

The opposite of love is not hate, it is indifference.



When Elie Wiesel was introduced as one of the 36 Righteous men the world needs to survive according to Jewish tradition, he answered,

" The 36 are supposed to be hidden. Once one is revealed, it is no longer. I can no longer be one of them. Now there are only 35!"

At the class the week before, Prof. Wiesel showed his tattoo on his arm to the class. " Now you are all witnesses and must carry on and tell the story of the Shoah, the Holocaust"

The Rebbe of Ger was known for his passion for learning. The School of Ger is distinguished by its fervor, songs and silence, methods to overcome melancholy. Hassidism was about renewal, a new way to repeat ancient prayers, new roads leading to understanding human beings.

The Rebbe of Ger taught to understand the inner point of one’s heart.

Legends of our Time

This class was most interesting and moving to me. Prof. Wiesel recalled many incidents from his childhood, the concentration camps, his family, and his experiences after the Holocaust.

Elie Wiesel’s mantra is " Think higher Feel deeper"

Elevate yourself by the choices you make.

Of the 400 adolescents that survived Buchenwald, not one became a criminal. Wiesel returned to his childhood love, study when he arrived in France after the war.

There is usually a crazy disturbed person in Wiesel’s works of fiction. He explained to us why- When he was young, on Saturday afternoons, his father would visit prisoners, his mother and sisters would visit the hospital patients, and Elie would go to the mental wards and bring candy. He was fascinated with their world- what was it? He studied psychology, philosophy, and was interested in psychiatry. There was a fascination with someone who lives in a different world and can’t be reached. Elie Wiesel knows he can’t reach every person, but to this day he tries. Moshe the Beadle from his childhood, tried to describe what happened to the first transport of Hungarian Jews. They dug their own graves, were shot and murdered. Moshe alone, escaped and tried to tell people what he saw. No one believed him.

One of Elie Wiesel’s slogans is " against indifference". Indifference enabled the killers to kill- with no consequences they were free to murder.

Elie tries to give meaning to his life by honoring his parents. In moments of decisions, he feels they are there with him, helping him to make the right decisions. While he still feels the pain of knowing his little sister Tzipora and his beloved mother Sarah went straight to the gas chambers, his life has been dedicated to understanding hatred and Anti-Semitism. He wonders if the world will ever learn?

He was asked to give the opening address to an international conference on Anti-Semitism and asks, " If Auschwitz hasn’t cured the world of Anti-Semitism, what will? What can?"

While it would be easy to give up, Wiesel says he can’t and he won’t.

When you know someone else exists, you are not alone. When two people meet, there is a quest for searching, meaning, kindness… two people can do much more than one person alone.

His advice for living a life of meaning?

Respect the other for the mystery the other contains. Respect the other for what they understand and for what they don’t understand.

He reminded us " there are no chance encounters" – I have always felt that way about many moments in life. Certainly, walking into

Prof. Elie Wiesel’s classroom was one of those moments. It continues to enrich my life and give it meaning.