In a recent interview Elie said, "I come from a small city somewhere in Eastern Europe. I come from a place where every Jew was drunk with God, those whose faith was burning as was burning the vision of the first Jew in history". As a young child Elie was eager to learn of religion, starting with the studies of the Cabbala, which his father thought he was too young to learn. Elie's father was also a religious man and many people in the community looked up to him. With a combination of home and school, Elie learned from an early age to have a belief in God.

"We had to go to school, so we went to school too, but I received the main impact from my religious schools as a child. We studied the five books of Moses (the Pentateuch) and then, again, Talmud and Hasidic stories. At home we didn't study the prophets

that much. My ambition really was, even as a child, to be a writer, a commentator, and a teacher, but a teacher of Talmud" (inte

Being taken from his home into a Nazi death camp made Elie emotionally unstable. It happened at such a young age and had more of an impact on him. "I was 15 when I entered the camp, I was 16 when I left it..."(interview). At such an influential age Elie felt confusion and at times he would feel revolt " Why should I bless His name? The Eternal, Lord of the Universe, the All-Powerful and Terrible, was silent. What had I to thank Him for" (31)? Everything that happened from the time he arrived at the death camps such as losing half his family and seeing his father being beaten; gave him no reason to believe in God. The situations Elie were in were a tough struggle, not only physically but also emotionally. The

Faith, Elie did anything but lose his faith after everything he went through. The Holocaust and all of the pain and suffering made his faith for God stronger. "During the war I think of the killer and I lose all faith. But then I think of the victim and I am inundated with compassion"(interview). Elie Wiesel is an example of true faith.

"He, of course, had a lasting influence on me. And here I am. I'm a writer, for want of a better word, and I'm a teacher. I don't teach the same things. I don't write about the same things -- although I do write commentaries on the Bible, and on the Prophets, and the Talmud, and Hasidic Masters. But still, I am a writer and a teacher"(interview).

After the ten years of silence, a Jew called Mendes-France influenced Elie to speak. Mendes-France was a Catholic

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Approximate Word count = 1028
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)