Elie Wiesel on a Lechaim (or Three) With the Rebbe

On Thursday, 26 Sivan (June 11), we mark 10 years since the passing of Elie Wiesel: author, teacher, observant Jew, champion of Jewish causes, human rights advocate, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, and Auschwitz survivor. For decades, he pleaded on behalf of the Holocaust’s victims. Alongside his activism, he also believed fervently that Torah study plays a crucial role in ennobling Jewish life and nurturing moral decency. Born and bred in Sighet, Romania, he regularly joined his mother and grandfather at the courts of the Rebbes of Vizhnitz. Indeed, his self-proclaimed identity as a Hasid of Vizhnitz remained a fixture of his life and observance, a badge of honor that, in what he said and how he sang, traveled with him to the furthest ends of the globe. Once based in the United States, he steadily drew close to the Lubavitcher Rebbe: attending farbrengens, meeting with him as regularly as possible, carrying on in-depth correspondence, and being guided by him in major life decisions. From the early 1960s, he was particularly uplifted by his song-filled visits to 770 on Simchat Torah and the Hasidic festival of the 19th of Kislev. This audio clip, culled from a 92nd Street Y lecture in fall 1967, is the earliest extent recording of Prof. Wiesel recounting his interaction with the Rebbe on Simchat Torah a few years earlier. The story itself has circulated widely; Prof. Wiesel himself wrote about it in his 1995 autobiography. But this recording conveys with startling freshness the give-and-take between master and disciple, capturing with exquisite humor and deep reverence the joy and compassion that defined the Rebbe’s greatness and leadership. Audio clip courtesy of the Elie Wiesel Living Archive, 92NY Our Website: https://www.chabad.org/ Find us on Social Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/chabadorg Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/chabadorg