They shut their ears to Moishe the Beadle’s experiences, turned a blind eye to the events foreshadowed by the restrictions on the Jews of Sighet and ruled out escaping to Palestine and other places because it was too inconvenient. As ignorance prevailed in Sighet with regard to the war around them, the townspeople believed themselves to be safe. The first few pages of Night reveal a lesson. With him gone, my generation and the ones that come after it must find ways to continue this pursuit-at home, in Israel and in seemingly unlikely places, like a JCC in Krakow. He went on to advocate against human evil, to speak out against genocide and injustice, to constantly strive for a better tomorrow. ![]() While Night ends with total destruction, Elie Wiesel’s life did not. Through the rabbis, I came to see Poland as a place of rebirth, where new Jewish communities are beginning to thrive. If these descendants are interested, Rabbi Baumol introduces them to Judaism, with the hope of eventually rebuilding the Jewish communities of Eastern Europe. We spent one of our last days in Europe at the JCC in Krakow with Rabbi Avi Baumol, who seeks out the children and grandchildren of Jews who stayed in Europe after the Holocaust but hid their religious identity. Unlike Night, however, our trip did not end with total destruction. And we saw places of destruction, too-Plaszow, Auschwitz-Birkenau and Majdanek. We mourned in the Buczyna Forest, where the Nazis murdered scores of Jewish children and threw their bodies into pits. We gathered in a small room in Theresienstadt, where words of Jewish prayer are fading from the walls. ![]() We stood in beautiful synagogues in Prague that were once staples of vibrant Jewish communities but today are simply tourist attractions. We visited Kazimierz Dolny, which was a popular vacation spot for Jews before the Holocaust. This past spring, I had the privilege of visiting Poland and Prague with my classmates. Night tells a story of total destruction.
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