Skip to content

Israel Quotes by Elie Wiesel

42 Israel quotes by Elie Wiesel

All Israel quotes Elie Wiesel’s page

Elie Wiesel reflects on the Holocaust and how it shapes Jewish memory. He says the Jewish people are resilient and obsessed with remembering the past. He also warns that the world has learned little from those tragic events. He notes that faith can be misplaced, even trusting a tyrant over others.

Rate this collection: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet

It's not only America. Terrorism now is a threat to the whole world.

Image

In Jewish history there are no coincidences.

Image

The primary task of a Jew in turbulent times is to be Jewish.

Image

To forget a Holocaust is to kill twice

Image

The Holocaust is not a cheap soap opera. The Holocaust is not a romantic novel. It is something else.

Image

For in my tradition, as a Jew, I believe that whatever we receive we must share.

Image

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…

Image

[Adolf] Hitler needed, he didn't want to kill Jews, he wanted to expel German Jews, and therefore it's not entirely corroborating your…

Image

There is not anti-semitism as an ideology. The civilized world must think that anti-semitism is stupid.

Image

I was convinced that hatred among nations and among people perished in Auschwitz. It didn't. The victims died but the haters are…

Image

It is true that not all the victims were Jews, but all the Jews were victims

Image

Will you join me in hearing the case for keeping weapons from those who preach death to Israel and America?

Image

Now, when I hear that Christians are getting together in order to defend the people of Israel, of course it brings joy…

Image

A Jew must be sensitive to the pain of all human beings. A Jew cannot remain indifferent to human suffering... The mission…

Image

That I survived the Holocaust and went on to love beautiful girls, to talk, to write, to have toast and tea and…

Image

My loyalty to my people, to our people, and to Israel comes first and prevents me from saying anything critical of Israel…

Image

His cold eyes stared at me. At last, he said wearily: "I have more faith in Hitler than in anyone else. He…

Image

The Holocaust is the most documented tragedy in recorded history. And therefore, later on, if there will be a later on, anyone…

Image

Today again the teacher is the important thing, but on the other hand anti-Semitism is growing today. No doubt about it. All…

Image

Worse still is that mankind - the non-Jewish world - learned nothing from the Holocaust: The event which had no precedent in…

Image

The Pope going to Jerusalem, the Pope recognising the State of Islam, the Pope going to the wall organising a concert for…

Image

How can one explain the attraction terror holds for some minds — and why for intellectuals? . . .In a totalitarian and…

Image

My faceless neighbor spoke up: “Don’t be deluded. Hitler has made it clear that he will annihilate all Jews before the clock…

Image

[The Book of the Law]was lost for so many years. And then Josiah decided to celebrate Passover. The text says that "The…

Image

I make a difference between genocide and Holocaust. Holocaust was mainly Jewish, that was the only people, to the last Jew, sentenced…

Image

I would like to see real peace and a state of Israel living peacefully alongside a state of Palestine.

Image

Historically, I come from Jewish history. I had the classic upbringing in the Yeshiva, learning, learning, and more learning.

Image

The Holocaust is a sacred subject. One should take off one's shoes when entering its domain, one should tremble each time one…

Image

I think so. 9/11 has been a turning point in American history, there's no doubt about that.

Image

I come from a tradition - from the Jewish tradition, which believes in words, in language, in communication.

Image

It's clear to me that one can't be Jewish without Israel. Religious or non-religious, Zionist or non-Zionist, Ashkenazi or Sephardic - all…

Image

I imagine, like all his predecessors, Barak Obama would like to achieve greatness in bringing peace in the Middle East. I hope…

Image

A Jew who converted, who simulated, was, at least in some periods, safe. Hitler in the beginning did not want to kill…

Image

Perhaps some day someone will explain how, on the level of man, Auschwitz was possible; but on the level of God, it…

Image

It is obvious that the war which Hitler and his accomplices waged was a war not only against Jewish men, women, and…

Image

At Auschwitz, not only man died, but also the idea of man. To live in a world where there is nothing anymore,…

Image

I marvel at the resilience of the Jewish people. Their best characteristic is their desire to remember. No other people has such…

Image

There is Israel, for us at least. What no other generation had, we have. We have Israel in spite of all the…

Image

If I were in the government, I would persuade the prime minister to see the beauty in the fact that people see…

Image

I make a difference between genocide and Holocaust. Holocaust was mainly Jewish, that was the only people, to the last Jew, sentenced…

Image

Other authors on Israel

More by Elie Wiesel

A religious person answers to God, not to the elected or non-elected official.

One more stab to the heart, one more reason to hate. One less reason to live.

“What all these victims need above all is to know that they are not alone; that we are not forgetting them, that when their…

I feel that books, just like people, have a destiny. Some invite sorrow, others joy, some both.

[Chinese] are a huge empire now, you'll soon be - in a few years two billion people in the world. So, you should be…

Did I write it so as not to go mad or, on the contrary, to go mad in order to understand the nature of…

Take the story of Cain and Abel. Why were we given that story? Scientifically, you may have an explanation for it, but I'm not…

Mankind must remember that peace is not God's gift to his creatures; peace is our gift to each other.

The world? The world is not interested in us. Today, everything is possible, even the crematoria...

every question possessed a power that was lost in the answer . . .

I think this century more than any other really has seen the phenomenon of people being uprooted in such numbers, such a degree. They…

His cold eyes stared at me. At last, he said wearily: "I have more faith in Hitler than in anyone else. He alone has…

As you know, I describe Shirat ha-Yam as part of an epic story that has qualities of history and which also has qualities of…

Every Jew, somewhere in his being, should set apart a zone of hate -healthy virile hate- for what the German personifies and for what…

“Did hope help us to survive, or not? Too many families clung to it all through the war, thus falling into the enemy's trap.…