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The story of Moishe the Beadle, with which Night opens, is perhaps the most painful example of the Jews’ refusal to believe the depth of Nazi evil. It is also a cautionary tale about the danger of refusing to heed firsthand testimony, a tale that explains the urgency behind Wiesel’s own account.
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- Foreword
A summary of Foreword in Elie Wiesel's Night. Learn exactly...
- Themes
Night can be read as a reversal of the Akedah story: at the...
- Character List
Eliezer. The narrator of Night and the stand-in for the...
- Moishe The Beadle
Moishe the Beadle is the first character introduced in...
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Ghetto Not-So-Fabulous? Ghettos were always defined by lack of choice — they were places inhabitants were forced to live, whether by anti-Semitic governments, discriminating neighbors or...
- Most areas aren’t technically ghettos. This from a more academic perspective, but scholar Mario Luis Small penned a paper [PDF] arguing that academics should abandon the term to describe urban black poverty, as it is often used.
- The popular concept of “the ghetto” is not typically based in reality. Lynda Laughlin, a family demographer at the U.S. Census Bureau, has pointed out on Greater Greater Washington that many people use the term based on a litany of assumptions, in large part created by popular media depictions.
- “Ghetto” is now often used as a negative adjective, not just a neutral noun. Once, Donny Hathaway soulfully crooned “The Ghetto.” Now, saying “That’s so ghetto” has become as commonplace as “That’s so gay,” and both are disparaging remarks.
- “Ghetto” has also become shorthand for poor and black. One of the more common dictionary definitions for ghetto is “a quarter of a city in which members of a minority group live especially because of social, legal, or economic pressure.”
In just a few months, millions of Jews were quickly imprisoned inside ghettos in Poland. Conditions inside ghettos were abysmal, and thousands quickly died from starvation, disease, and poor sanitation. Forced ghettoisation was a large escalation from the pre-war anti-Jewish policy in Germany.
Dec 12, 2016 · SHELBY: Some among the ghetto poor are keenly aware of the injustices they face. To maintain their self-respect, they often respond by being defiant, by transgressing certain norms, even in how they speak, dress, or style their hair.
When people describe a neighborhood today as a “ghetto,” how is it different from the Nazi ghettos? Are there any similarities? If time permits, open into a class discussion.
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Is the ghetto based on a true story?
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How do ghetto poor respond to injustices?
What can you learn from ghettoization?
The exact line from Elie Wiesel 's Night is: The ghetto was ruled by neither German nor Jew; it was ruled by delusion. This statement is meant to be taken figuratively, not literally.
