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Beggar in Jerusalem
In the days following the Six-Day War, a Holocaust survivor visits the reunited city of Jerusalem and takes a spiritual journey back and forth in time.
First published January 1, 1968
About the author
Elie Wiesel
155 books4,544 followersEliezer "Elie" Wiesel was a Romanian-born American writer, professor, political activist, Nobel laureate, and Holocaust survivor. He authored 57 books, written mostly in French and English, including Night, a work based on his experiences as a Jewish prisoner in the Auschwitz and Buchenwald concentration camps.
In his political activities Wiesel became a regular speaker on the subject of the Holocaust and remained a strong defender of human rights during his lifetime. He also advocated for many other causes like the state of Israel and against Hamas and victims of oppression including Soviet and Ethiopian Jews, the apartheid in South Africa, the Bosnian genocide, Sudan, the Kurds and the Armenian genocide, Argentina's Desaparecidos or Nicaragua's Miskito people.
He was a professor of the humanities at Boston University, which created the Elie Wiesel Center for Jewish Studies in his honor. He was involved with Jewish causes and human rights causes and helped establish the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C.
Wiesel was awarded various prestigious awards including the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986. He was a founding board member of the New York Human Rights Foundation and remained active in it throughout his life.
In his political activities Wiesel became a regular speaker on the subject of the Holocaust and remained a strong defender of human rights during his lifetime. He also advocated for many other causes like the state of Israel and against Hamas and victims of oppression including Soviet and Ethiopian Jews, the apartheid in South Africa, the Bosnian genocide, Sudan, the Kurds and the Armenian genocide, Argentina's Desaparecidos or Nicaragua's Miskito people.
He was a professor of the humanities at Boston University, which created the Elie Wiesel Center for Jewish Studies in his honor. He was involved with Jewish causes and human rights causes and helped establish the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C.
Wiesel was awarded various prestigious awards including the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986. He was a founding board member of the New York Human Rights Foundation and remained active in it throughout his life.
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 40 reviews
January 29, 2022
Йерусалим – там, където все се раждат легенди: http://knigolandia.info/book-review/p...
Макар кратък, това е роман за дълго четене – а за да е пълноценно, човек трябва да е бил потопен в тази култура, ако не и да принадлежи на нея. Еврейски, толкова еврейски – от всеки ред лъха дълбината на предавана стотици поколения култура, всеки миг действието в настоящето внезапно пропада под кухата си повърхност и се спуска из пещерите на библейските предания, които този народ си предава и с кръвта, и с книгите си. Визел на пръв поглед се опитва да се потопи като външен в трескавата емоционална обагреност на една от израело-арабските войни в периода, да покаже жизнения дух на новата нация, претендираща да се е върнала там, където ѝ е мястото, обещано от техния бог. Но като оцеленец от лагерите той няма как да не вплете в своя разказ и мрачни картини от миналото – за пеещи мъртъвци край прясно изкопания си гроб или за уплашената жена в нощта, от която се иска да стане Юда.
Издателство MY BOOK
http://knigolandia.info/book-review/p...
Макар кратък, това е роман за дълго четене – а за да е пълноценно, човек трябва да е бил потопен в тази култура, ако не и да принадлежи на нея. Еврейски, толкова еврейски – от всеки ред лъха дълбината на предавана стотици поколения култура, всеки миг действието в настоящето внезапно пропада под кухата си повърхност и се спуска из пещерите на библейските предания, които този народ си предава и с кръвта, и с книгите си. Визел на пръв поглед се опитва да се потопи като външен в трескавата емоционална обагреност на една от израело-арабските войни в периода, да покаже жизнения дух на новата нация, претендираща да се е върнала там, където ѝ е мястото, обещано от техния бог. Но като оцеленец от лагерите той няма как да не вплете в своя разказ и мрачни картини от миналото – за пеещи мъртъвци край прясно изкопания си гроб или за уплашената жена в нощта, от която се иска да стане Юда.
Издателство MY BOOK
http://knigolandia.info/book-review/p...
April 11, 2018
This isn't the best book to listen to in audio format. The shifting timeline and perspective makes it rather hard to keep track of, and one scene tends to blend into the next. I think it would have been a bit easier to follow in print, where you could go back and double check exactly when/where you were.
July 7, 2017
This is really 4.5 stars. I've never read anything by Wiesel other than Night, but I really enjoy his writing. This book reminds me of Paulo Coelho but with depth. I love Coelho, but there are no hidden messages--whatever he's intending comes clearly across to the reader. But this story, which is spiritual as well as very visceral, has depth. There are layers and metaphors that aren't mere allegory. It's a beautifully written novel. The parts that contain reflections and memories are poetic and the parts that contain descriptions of battles and of the Holocaust survivors' nightmare evoke the terror and the sorrow of the real warriors and survivors. The descriptions of Jerusalem's power to Jewish people and what it meant for them to reclaim the Old City are evocative and sometimes even painful to read.
The characters are fairly well developed. The story really isn't about characters, though; it's about people and specifically a People and what they experienced before, during, and after World War II.
The reason it's not five stars for me is that some of the depth of meaning was a little too deep. Some things I would have liked more concretely explained and put forth. But that's a minor complaint. This book made me a fan of Wiesel, not just a fan of Night.
Highly recommended.
The characters are fairly well developed. The story really isn't about characters, though; it's about people and specifically a People and what they experienced before, during, and after World War II.
The reason it's not five stars for me is that some of the depth of meaning was a little too deep. Some things I would have liked more concretely explained and put forth. But that's a minor complaint. This book made me a fan of Wiesel, not just a fan of Night.
Highly recommended.
May 30, 2019
I love Elie Wiesel and his perspective on the human experience. Another interesting look at life in Jerusalem.
November 27, 2022
I've been impressed by Twilight and also by Souls on Fire (despite giving the latter a low rating). The fragmentary, dream-like structure of this book never quite gelled for me. The actual battle scenes, snippets as they are, recording the events of the Six Day War were cohesive, lucid and tersely poignant. For just a few pages, clarity would overtake the narrative - before confusion set in once more.
The whole roundtable discussion/argument/storytelling of the beggars of Jerusalem (with the unresolved question of how mad they are, still hanging) which dominates most of the book feels like wisps of mist. Nothing substantial exists as an anchor to be sure about what's real and what's imaginary. This is a huge pity, since the Holocaust forms a backdrop to the story's event and, to a degree, the question mark over what's illusion and what's not also hangs over the memories painted of it.
It wasn't too long before I was wondering about the reality of Katriel, the hero extolled by the beggar. The introduction of Malka - initially as a shadow on the Wall - did her great disservice, assuming she was not fictive. No guarantees there, though.
This book uses one of my least favourite fictional styles: that of the never-resolved mess-with-your-mind edge-of-madness float-in-and-out-of-sanity/reality forms. The fact I gave it three stars indicates how very well written it is.
November 2022: I recently reread the novel, thinking I was reading it for the first time. It seemed only faintly familiar, indicating that the piecemeal nature of the book does it a disservice , simply because it doesn't stick in the memory. I did wonder, this time through, however, if Katriel was a symbol for "covenant with/of God" and whether Wiesel was declaring that in these post-Holocaust days it's a flighty thing. Katriel's wife, Malka, is perhaps Jerusalem itself.
Some notes and quotes from a second read.
Kill a Jew and you make him immortal; his memory, independently, survives him. (p9)
He who says "I" has said everything. Just as every man contains all men, this word contains all words. It is the only word God uttered at Mount Sinai. Yet one must know how to pronounce it was He does. He says "I" and it means: I who am with you, within you.We say "I" and it means: I who am opposed to you, all of you. His "I" embraces men, ours divides them. On His lips "I" means love, on ours too, but it is no longer the same love. For it is easy for us to love one another, it is even easy to love our enemies; much easier than to love ourselves. (p10f)
Jerusalem: seventeen times destroyed yet never erased. (p14)
Let anyone other than the Messiah try to pass the heavily bolted Gate of Mercy and the earth will shake to its foundations. (p15)
With the building of the Temple, man proved himself worthy of sanctifying space as God had sanctified time. (p15)
Where are the Hasidim and their equally fanatical opponents, the Mitnagdim? (p26)
The Kotel Hamaravi, the Wailing Wall, according to the sages, protects the gate of heaven. (p63)
Katriel's father expects him to take a wife and have children so that they will transmit his name and Katriel's and one day the Messiah will hear their voices. (p89)
The Jews are God's memory and the heart of mankind. We do not always know this but the others do and that is why they treat us with suspicion and cruelty. Memory frightens them. (p104)
Mekubal: mystical madman and visionary (p167)
Har Habayit: Temple Mount (p173)
"Israel won because its army, its people, could deploy six million more names in battle." (p180)
The whole roundtable discussion/argument/storytelling of the beggars of Jerusalem (with the unresolved question of how mad they are, still hanging) which dominates most of the book feels like wisps of mist. Nothing substantial exists as an anchor to be sure about what's real and what's imaginary. This is a huge pity, since the Holocaust forms a backdrop to the story's event and, to a degree, the question mark over what's illusion and what's not also hangs over the memories painted of it.
It wasn't too long before I was wondering about the reality of Katriel, the hero extolled by the beggar. The introduction of Malka - initially as a shadow on the Wall - did her great disservice, assuming she was not fictive. No guarantees there, though.
This book uses one of my least favourite fictional styles: that of the never-resolved mess-with-your-mind edge-of-madness float-in-and-out-of-sanity/reality forms. The fact I gave it three stars indicates how very well written it is.
November 2022: I recently reread the novel, thinking I was reading it for the first time. It seemed only faintly familiar, indicating that the piecemeal nature of the book does it a disservice , simply because it doesn't stick in the memory. I did wonder, this time through, however, if Katriel was a symbol for "covenant with/of God" and whether Wiesel was declaring that in these post-Holocaust days it's a flighty thing. Katriel's wife, Malka, is perhaps Jerusalem itself.
Some notes and quotes from a second read.
Kill a Jew and you make him immortal; his memory, independently, survives him. (p9)
He who says "I" has said everything. Just as every man contains all men, this word contains all words. It is the only word God uttered at Mount Sinai. Yet one must know how to pronounce it was He does. He says "I" and it means: I who am with you, within you.We say "I" and it means: I who am opposed to you, all of you. His "I" embraces men, ours divides them. On His lips "I" means love, on ours too, but it is no longer the same love. For it is easy for us to love one another, it is even easy to love our enemies; much easier than to love ourselves. (p10f)
Jerusalem: seventeen times destroyed yet never erased. (p14)
Let anyone other than the Messiah try to pass the heavily bolted Gate of Mercy and the earth will shake to its foundations. (p15)
With the building of the Temple, man proved himself worthy of sanctifying space as God had sanctified time. (p15)
Where are the Hasidim and their equally fanatical opponents, the Mitnagdim? (p26)
The Kotel Hamaravi, the Wailing Wall, according to the sages, protects the gate of heaven. (p63)
Katriel's father expects him to take a wife and have children so that they will transmit his name and Katriel's and one day the Messiah will hear their voices. (p89)
The Jews are God's memory and the heart of mankind. We do not always know this but the others do and that is why they treat us with suspicion and cruelty. Memory frightens them. (p104)
Mekubal: mystical madman and visionary (p167)
Har Habayit: Temple Mount (p173)
"Israel won because its army, its people, could deploy six million more names in battle." (p180)
October 23, 2016
This takes place after the Six Day War ends when a holocaust survivor visits Israel and and goes to Jerusalem where he meets others at the Wailing Wall. They tell him of their hopes and dreams for the future. A haunting emotional novel.
July 28, 2018
This is a pretty dark book. Now I understand what he’s writing about and since it has been a long time since I read one of his books I have read more of my history and I understand it more. I have always found his books to be confusing in some regard because it seems as if he writes in the past and present the same time. This is probably intentional. He definitely does it here and everything gets subsumed into his quest for the erasing I have memories. Something that I found really interesting hair was when he described a massacre in a small town of the local juice. I have read descriptions of them and I knew about the mass shootings of Jews back in high school that’s about 30 to 40 years ago. He was writing about them in the 60s or the 80s. Sometimes I think some history or television channels think this is all new information. But it isn’t. Maybe the quest to document the mass graves is new. Anyway just a sidenote. My comment about the description of the mass shooting so choose is was he describing one that actually occurred or did he take some artistic license especially when he describes one of the rabbis lecturing his flock on the fact that it was God‘s will that they should die. I know this is a theory so it may be that he is incorporating that information into the novel itself. Maybe it really happened that way. This book is a mixture of the past and present in the way it ends always leaves me hanging. Eli Wiesel doesn’t ever give a book that I know of a concrete ending and this also may be intentional. Don’t read this book and I think you are going to pick up another one by him. I find his writing fascinating but I don’t think I would read two books in a row by him. Once for a holocaust class we had to read night and done together. But I wouldn’t go any further than that. But definitely do read his writing is dark, hunting, and fascinating. Whether the events he describes are in the present, the past, or somewhere in between, I always feel like I am observing a tip them personally.
August 19, 2019
Perhaps a second reading will reveal this to be a greater novel than I can recognize today. I often felt lost during the first quarter of it as the narrative focus shifted from uninteresting (to me) character to uninteresting character, and away from David, who turns out to by the protagonist. It was also hard to find the shape of this story until well past the one-third mark. I realize now that this novel raises difficult questions about god abandoning the Jewish people during the Holocaust, and the point of carrying on without that focus, especially during the terror felt in the Six Days War. Certainly, the questions are difficult for those losing their faith in the midst of these events, and I can honor that, though I think invisible friends are just silly and marvel that not everybody realizes that. Knowing the end of the book and finally finding the narrative thread, I might well respond more favorably to the first part of the book since the reason for the shifting narrative focus, and David telling us he is an unreliable reporter, may well make more sense and seem like part of an intricate narrative design, rather than a series of distractions.
March 29, 2020
A Beggar in Jerusalem by Elie Wiesel is a novel loosely based on the author's experiences in Jerusalem, Israel, during the time of the Six-Day War. I have read many other non-fiction works by this author and generally have not read much in the fiction genre. I have recently read a few novels referred to as historical fiction and liked them. So, given that I have always been impressed by this author I had to read this book. There were certainly moving portions such as a Holocaust survivor visiting the newly reunited city and the Western Wall. But I had trouble maintaining focus and following the overall point of the book. Maybe I just didn't approach it from the right perspective and a repeat future read may improve my impressions. But, for now, its back to non-fiction for me.
August 7, 2020
I feely unqualified to really talk about this book because it's unlike anything else I've read before. It almost feels like I walked into a room filled with strangers and I was not exactly invited. It's a weird feeling since books are, by their nature, invitations to go to places you normally don't, or are unable to, go to.
March 16, 2022
Raises thought-provoking questions concerning different definitions of being a Jew and the social implications that come with living in those grey areas.
August 4, 2024
This had some great discriptions but it wasn’t my favorite
August 20, 2024
I had a really hard time getting into this one.
May 23, 2025
Soon after the 1967 Arab-Israeli War, a holocaust survivor visits Jerusalem’s Western Wall. There he meets a group of beggars who tell him tales that force him to revisit old memories and old pains.
September 25, 2025
Masterful. Masterful.
July 29, 2020
I have read several of Elie Wiesel's books, and while I've always thought him a superb writer and greatly appreciated his work, I can't say I've enjoyed those books, because the subject matter is so grim. But this one, I loved this one. It has its share of tragedy too (you can't get away from that when your history includes the Holocaust) but the focus is on other things....on the link between past and present, on memory and remembrances, on the blurred line between madness and spiritual insight, on how one's soul clings to other souls even past death, be they family, friends, comrades, or Jerusalem, and how those who mean a lot to us lodge so deeply in our consciousness that they become part of us. It's also about other things; the power of a promise, the burden of being a survivor, being stuck between life and death, losing one's self...and whether it can be found again.
There's a lot in here, but I feel like all these things are one thing being contemplated from many different angles: what it means to be a link between past and present; its inescapability, the at-times crushing weight of it, our spiritual need for it; an obligation both maddening and sacred. And how much of oneself must one give up to this role? May he wish for a future for himself? Would he even know how, or has his will been subsumed by the will of destiny?
(Apologies for my ramblings; this has gone in directions I did not expect. But that should give you a good idea whether you'd like the book, as it is made up of similar ramblings, only with the addition of the characters' personal history, and better written.)
Note on the audio: Do not get the audiobook. (I'm so glad I got the ebook as well.) Because of the frequent jumping back and forth between past and present, this book is better read as text, but more importantly, the narration is all wrong. Frederick Davidson is a good narrator, he'd be great at narrating something with proud and uppity noblemen, but a snooty British accent is *completely* out of place in a deeply contemplative narrative about a humble lost soul trying to come to terms with his painful past and find his place in the present. The whole time I was reading this, I kept wishing they'd got Ralph Cosham to narrate. He narrated Tales of the Alhambra by Washington Irving, which has the same sort of dreamy quality as A Beggar in Jerusalem, and Cosham (also British-born fwiw) reads with an unassuming soft tone that is exactly suited to a meditative book. I listen to all his readings in almost a trance. I think his voice exudes empathy. He also narrated A Grief Observed. *sigh* I'm not sure why I'm trying to convince anyone, I know the publishers aren't going to read this, but I can daydream...
A couple quotes; “You’re shaking … so am I. It’s because of Jerusalem, isn’t it? One doesn’t go to Jerusalem, one returns to it. That’s one of its mysteries.”
“...the one I await. You don't think he'll come? I do. He promised. That's my power over him; without me his fate would be incomplete. Whether he likes it or not, I am the keeper of his promise. Should I die before him, without first returning to him his bond and his freedom, his secret would lose its meaning.”
There's a lot in here, but I feel like all these things are one thing being contemplated from many different angles: what it means to be a link between past and present; its inescapability, the at-times crushing weight of it, our spiritual need for it; an obligation both maddening and sacred. And how much of oneself must one give up to this role? May he wish for a future for himself? Would he even know how, or has his will been subsumed by the will of destiny?
(Apologies for my ramblings; this has gone in directions I did not expect. But that should give you a good idea whether you'd like the book, as it is made up of similar ramblings, only with the addition of the characters' personal history, and better written.)
Note on the audio: Do not get the audiobook. (I'm so glad I got the ebook as well.) Because of the frequent jumping back and forth between past and present, this book is better read as text, but more importantly, the narration is all wrong. Frederick Davidson is a good narrator, he'd be great at narrating something with proud and uppity noblemen, but a snooty British accent is *completely* out of place in a deeply contemplative narrative about a humble lost soul trying to come to terms with his painful past and find his place in the present. The whole time I was reading this, I kept wishing they'd got Ralph Cosham to narrate. He narrated Tales of the Alhambra by Washington Irving, which has the same sort of dreamy quality as A Beggar in Jerusalem, and Cosham (also British-born fwiw) reads with an unassuming soft tone that is exactly suited to a meditative book. I listen to all his readings in almost a trance. I think his voice exudes empathy. He also narrated A Grief Observed. *sigh* I'm not sure why I'm trying to convince anyone, I know the publishers aren't going to read this, but I can daydream...
A couple quotes; “You’re shaking … so am I. It’s because of Jerusalem, isn’t it? One doesn’t go to Jerusalem, one returns to it. That’s one of its mysteries.”
“...the one I await. You don't think he'll come? I do. He promised. That's my power over him; without me his fate would be incomplete. Whether he likes it or not, I am the keeper of his promise. Should I die before him, without first returning to him his bond and his freedom, his secret would lose its meaning.”
May 30, 2023
Not as good as Night, but beautifully written with so much to unpack.
#onesentencereview
#onesentencereview
March 22, 2023
Beau livre mais j'ai eu du mal à accrocher
June 26, 2013
This was a really difficult read in a few ways. First, it was very hard to follow. It reads like a bit of a dream landscape. Everything just bleeds into everything else. It's more a painting than a read. I also didn't know if I was reading an abstract memoir or something meant to be purely surreal. So, half-way through, I stopped and read up about the book. That gave me some solid foundation upon which I could piece things together. There is some pretty heavy and sordid blasphemy in here. It's devastating, but the point of it is to convey to the reader the despair of the Jewish people. Wiesel does a good job with that. You definitely feel extremely downtrodden after reading this. He accomplishes his purpose.
May 25, 2021
1☆ don't bother. Completely mired in hateful nonsense and metaphysical claptrap.
" Weaving together myth and mystery, parable and paradox, Wiesel bids the reader to join him on a spiritual journey back and forth in time, always returning to Jerusalem. "
Wiesel also wrote the lucid & captivating story "Night", which is as great as this tale is odious.
" Weaving together myth and mystery, parable and paradox, Wiesel bids the reader to join him on a spiritual journey back and forth in time, always returning to Jerusalem. "
Wiesel also wrote the lucid & captivating story "Night", which is as great as this tale is odious.
Displaying 1 - 20 of 40 reviews