# data[].attributes.body
1) Social Organization

2) Customs and Traditions

3) Religion

4) Language

5) Arts and Literature

6) Forms of Government

7) Economic Systems

# data[].attributes.body
The elements of culture that seem to stand out the most in Night are social organization, customs and tradition, and religion.

# data[].attributes.headline
Social Organization in the novel Night by Elise Wiesel

# data[].attributes.subject
Social Organization in the novel Night by Elise Wiesel

# data[].attributes.body
The group of the highest significance in the structure of social organization are families.    When the Jewish families of Sighet are torn apart in the concentration camp Birkenau, the entire social structure of this Jewish community, as did many others, came crumbling down.   Another thing that must be considered about the Jews is their future generations, the children.  The Nazis were destroying the next generations of Jews by ripping children from their parents. These children learned the malicious example of their German officers, and were not acquainted with being treated humanly. These children, the future generation of the Jewish culture, were denied a childhood and charged with the burden of remembering the extremities and tortures they observed.

# data[].attributes.body
In the novel, Night, Elie has a nuclear family.  This is the same type of family unit that dominates the United States.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Nuclear family definition is - a family group that consists only of parents and children.

# data[].attributes.body
Elie and his mother, along with two of his sisters

# data[].attributes.body
Social classes in Night are not heavily addressed, but at the very beginning Elie refers to them when he introduces the character Moises the Beadle. On page 3 he says, "He was poor and lived in utter penury. As a rule, our townspeople, while they did help the needy, did not particularly like them. Moishe the Beadle was the exception."  Moishe the Beadle, one of the Jewish religious leaders in the community of Sighet, was at the lowest rung of the social ladder. So this here shows that there were social classes in Sighet.

# data[].attributes.body
As religion causes conflict often times, this was the case for Night, but also the entire cause of one of the most mortifying events the world had ever witnessed, the Holocaust. After World War I, Hitler came to power and Germany. He placed the blame for German's loss in the war on the Jewish religion. It was easier for him to single out the Jews as the dominating religion Europe at that time was Christianity. Hitler formulated "The Jewish Question" which asked what the country should do to handle the problem the Jewish race had apparently created. Eventually, Hitler reached a conclusion. In order to "solve" the Jewish Question, he camo up with the "Final Solution," a plan to extermi
nate and annihilate the Jewish race.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Adolf Hitler Issues Comment on the “Jewish Question”

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
September 16, 1919. On this date, Adolf Hitler issued his first written comment on the so-called Jewish Question.

# data[].attributes.body
Anne Frank, the author of The Diary of Anne Frank, and Elie Wiesel, author of Night, share many similarities yet also have many differences. They both were affected by the Holocaust and were teenagers in this time period. As teenagers, they were faced with learning to mature and discover who they were as people, the age they were at already offered its own challenges with self discovery. Both also tended to become angry with one parent in particular. At times, Anne expresses in her diary how she feels that her mother treats her like a child and a baby, and how she loathes it. Anne spent a lot of time fuming about her mother and venting it out in her diary. Elie also had moments like this, where he became angry at his father. Sometimes his father was beaten, and when he was Elie did not feel anger towards the officer beating him but his father for evoking the wrath of the officer himself. Anne and Elie still had two very different experiences of the Holocaust.  During the certain time period, Anne spent the majority of it in the Secret Annex with her family, attempting to avoid being discovered and dragged away to a concentration camp. Unfortunately, her family was found and she was sent to a camp, where she died.  Her diary only offers what life was like before she was sent away.  Elie was sent away to Birkenau with everyone else in his community. He suffered for years in several different concentration camps, but ultimately, he survived to tell his tale.

# data[].attributes.body
Here Wiesel is pointing to his own face

# data[].attributes.body
All the customs and traditions that Jews practice were denied when they entered the concentration camps. For example, on certain holidays it is customary that Jews fast to atone for their sins. The Germans, however, were starving the inmates and hardly giving them any food to nourish themselves. For many Jews it was imperative that they ate every last ration they were given to survive. It was a heated debate between many inmates as to whether or not they should fast for Yom Kippur. The Germans had disrupted the Jewish practice of fasting by making it difficult to fast on days that it was significant, like Yom Kippur.   "Yom Kippur. The Day of Atonement. Should we fast? The question was hotly debated. To fast could mean a more certain, rapid death. In this place, we were always fasting." Page 69 of Night by Elie Wiesel.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Shabbat, kosher, mezuzah, tefillin, mikvah . . . The essence of Judaism is in its rituals and observances. A selection of websites offering information and guidance on some of the most basic mitzvot.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Mitzvahs & Traditions - Jewish traditions and mitzvah observances

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Shabbat, kosher, mezuzah, tefillin, mikvah . . . The essence of Judaism is in its rituals and observances. A selection of websites offering information and guidance on some of the most basic mitzvot.

# data[].attributes.body
-Yiddish: A language that Jews spoke who lived in central Europe that was used before the Holocaust occurred

-Shekhinah: The presence of the divine God here on earth

-Shtibl: A place used for communal Jewish prayer

-Kabbalah: The sacred Jewish tradition of interpreting the Bible

-Talmud: The body of Jewish law, made of the Mishnah and the Gemara

-Maimonides: A significant theologian of Judaism

-Zion: The hill of Jerusalem that the city of David is built upon

-Zohar: The main text of the Kabbalah

-Rosh Hashanah: Jewish New Year Festival

-Yom Kippur: The holiest day occurs at the end of the year for Jews, they fast to atone for their sins of that whole year.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
We gather as family and community to give thanks, offer respect, and stay connected to the ancient and modern traditions that shape Jewish life and identity. We remember, we re-enact, and we retain the light for generations to come. We also honor the moments, experiences, and values we hold in fresh, but powerful ways.

We welcome you to learn more about significant holidays and observations of the Jewish calendar. We also invite you to join us for our many celebrations throughout the year!

Still have questions? Contact our Jewish Life department.

Shabbat

The day of rest and weekly observance of God's completion of creation.

Rosh Hashanah

The Jewish New Year-a holiday observed with festive meals and a day spent in prayer or quiet meditation.

Yom Kippur

The Jewish Day of Atonement-the most solemn day of the Jewish year. A day devoted to self-examination, and the chance to begin the New Year with a clean slate.

Sukkot

A celebration of the fall harvest, this holiday also commemorates the time when the Hebrews dwelt in the Sinai wilderness on their way to the Promised Land.

Shemini Atzeret

Literally the "8th day of assembly," this holiday marks the end of Sukkot with an annual prayer for rain.

Simchat Torah

The day marking the end and the beginning of the annual Torah reading cycle.

Hanukkah

A festival celebrating liberation from oppression, freedom of worship, and finding light in the darkest of times.

Tu B'Shevat

The Jewish "New Year of the Trees," celebrated with observances that connect us to our environment and the natural world.

Purim

A day celebrating the saving of the Jews from a diabolical plot of destruction, as recounted in the Book of Esther.

Passover

A festival of freedom that marks the Hebrew exodus from Egypt long ago.

Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Memorial Day)

The day Jews all over the world mourn the loss of six million Jewish lives lost during the Holocaust.

Yom HaZikaron (Israeli Memorial Day)

A day commemorating the soldiers who have fallen fighting for Israel's independence and defending its security.

Yom HaAtzmaut (Israeli Independence Day)

This holiday celebrates the independence of the Modern State of Israel.

Lag B'Omer

The holiday that marks the 33rd day of the 49-day "Omer" period between Passover and Shavuot.

Shavuot

The celebration of the giving of the Torah to the Jewish people, also known as the Festival of First Fruits.

Tisha B'Av

An important fast day commemorating the destruction of the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem in 586 BCE and 70 CE.

Tu B'Av

A Jewish celebration of love.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
​Jewish Holidays & Celebrations Explained

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
We gather as family and community to give thanks, offer respect, and stay connected to the ancient and modern traditions that shape Jewish life and identity. We remember, we re-enact, and we retain the light for generations to come. We also honor the moments, experiences, and values we hold in fresh, but powerful ways.

# data[].attributes.body
Elie Wiesel claims the circled face in this famous photo as his own. The picture clearly shows why these men could not fast during Yom Kippur, they are no more than skin and bones.

# data[].attributes.headline
A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry and Night

# data[].attributes.subject
A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry and Night

# data[].attributes.body
After thinking long and hard about it, I actually was able to draw some similarities between the famous play, A Raisin in the Sun and Night. The African American family that is comprised of the main characters in the play are heavily discriminated against because of the color of their skin. They are judged by how they look. Similarly, when the Germans come to town, Elie and the Jews in his community lose rights to owning certain processions and going places because they practice the Jewish religion. They are also forced to wear yellow stars indicating they were Jews and live in ghettos. Interestingly, both African Americans and Jews assimilated into the larger cultures around them. For example, in A Raisin in the Sun, George Murchison tries to assimilate into white culture. Beneath wants to know more about her African heritage, but George thinks that it is a waste of time. He comes from a wealthy family and is well educated, so he believes himself to be more important than people of his own race. He acts almost as if he is a white person with such little respect for African culture. The Jews in Western Europe were similar to George in a lot of ways. Unlike the Jews of Eastern Europe, they tended to assimilate into the culture of the surrounding peoples. They wore the same clothes as those who lived in their country, and many of them did not speak in the Jewish language of Yiddish. The education the Western European Jews had were much more formal than the Eastern European as well.  These are examples of assimilations seen in both cultures.  Though both the play and the novel are both about discrimination, A Raisin in the Sun is a fictional story while Night is a true account of Elie Wiesel's experience of the Holocaust.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
an act, process, or instance of assimilating; the state of being assimilated; the incorporation or conversion of nutrients into protoplasm that in animals follows digestion and absorption and in higher plants involves both photosynthesis and root absorption... See the full definition

# data[].attributes.body
The story of Night is about the author, Eliezer Wiesel and his experience in the Holocaust. The author chooses to write the story in first person, as it is told by himself. What the reader probably doesn't stop to think about is how different the story would be if it were told from a third person perspective. Overall, the whole impact of the story would not be as intense without a direct source telling the gory details of this horrific historical event. The pain-filled memories and details make the Holocaust seem realer. The mind-blowing statistics of the amount of Jews murdered in the Holocaust, no matter how jaw-dropping they may be, still seem like numbers on a page. So do the explanations of the types of tortures prisoners went through in history books, they just don't expose all the hurting and the pain these poor individuals experienced. In Night, it feels as though Elie is opening up to the reader, from describing the quick and heartbreaking separation him, his mother, and his sister to his very last moments with his father. If his story were told in third-person, the book would not be nearly as powerful or touch the reader in quite the same way because the narrator might not be able to offer all the details that Elie could.

# data[].attributes.headline
The Audience's View vs. The Characters' View

# data[].attributes.subject
The Audience's View vs. The Characters' View

# data[].attributes.body
In the novel, Night, there is not only a perspective of first person, but also the characters' view and the audience's view on the upcoming events. For example, at the point of the story in Night when Elie and the other passengers in the cattle car on their way to Birkenau have no idea what to expect when they arrive at their destination. However, as the audience and a person who knows this as a real event that occurred in history, I know the fate of the majority of the Jews in that cattle car. I know that most of them will be slaughtered when they arrive or shortly after. Elie does not know if he will survive this journey, but as the reader of his book, I know he will be a survivor of the Holocaust. Elie just doesn't know what is awaiting him when he walks through those gates, he probably predicts that the conditions will be poor but maybe not unbearable. This creates a conflict because the perpetual hope at the beginning of the journey that Elie had is quickly cut off, the Germans will destroy every ounce of belief and will to live in these Jews, causing an ultimate resistance and hatred of these officers from the Jews

# data[].attributes.headline
Hana's Suitcase by Karen Levine and Night

# data[].attributes.subject
Hana's Suitcase by Karen Levine and Night

# data[].attributes.body
Hana Brady and Elie Wiesel were two people who were inmates of concentration camp Auschwitz, but the similarities really stop there.  Hana's story and her life in the camp are pieced together slowly by a suitcase full of items that she left behind.  A woman by the name of Fumiko Ishioka used the suitcase to find Hana's brother, George Brady, who now helps to tell his sisters story. Hana died in a gas chamber in Auschwitz, while Elie survived Auschwitz to write about everything he witnessed.