wherever they are: united, charitable,nhospitable,” part of “a timeless community”nwithout geographical boundaries.nYet these aspects of Judaism lednPaltiel Kossover away from Judaism,nfor he saw the suffering of the poor andnwanted to relieve it. Jewish messianismnfascinated him; it also prepared him forncommunism. Fortune intervened in thenshape of a fellow student, “a master atnthe seduction and corruption of thenmind,” who introduced him to Marxistnpolitical action and thought, not onlynas an expression of the will to justicenbut as a vehicle of the friendship Paltielncraved.nWiesel’s most skillful writing arisesnfrom his perception that most humannbeings, even intelligent ones, enactncontradictory ideas and feelings whilenremaining quite decent and only a bitnguilt-ridden. Despite his partial conversionnto Marxism, on the eve of hisndeparture for Berlin (he wanted to evadenRomanian conscription), Paltiel sincerenly and doubtfully promised his fathernto remain a Jew. And in Berlin, furthernseduced by a nubile young communistnwho lectured him, in bed, on Darwinnand historical materialism, he continuednto pray, albeit surreptitiously. Onlynafter inteiise action—a street fight withnnazis—and his girlfriend’s ensuing carendid he forget his observances for thenfirst time. (Forgetting: few of the greatnmodern antireligious philosophers believednthey could induce men to rejectnGod, but they knew that a certain kindnof life, a’ life of activity in and for thisnworld, might induce men to forget God.)nThe triumph of nazism in 1932, antriumph Berlin’s communist prophetsnfailed to predict, eventually led PaltielnKossover to Paris. He met two remarkablenmen: the mysterious David Aboulesia,na wanderer searching for the Messiah,nand Paul Hamburger, a brilliantnJewish communist intellectual and organizer.nHamburger saw, as Paltiel didnnot, that the Moscow trials must involvena grotesque betrayal of the revolution.nBefore he obeyed Stalin’s ordernmnChronicles of Culturento return to Moscow, he told Paltielnto get out of Paris, to go to Spain.nDescribing the brutality of both sidesnin the civil war, Paltiel reflects that thenJews fighting there did not share in it.n”If the Spaniards massacred one another,nif they set their country on firenand bled it, it is because, in 1492, theynburned or drove away their Jews,” leavingnno moderating sense of humanenessnin Spain. Jews who were engaged innthe internecine struggles on the leftndeveloped split personalities; when Paltielninquired after a friend who had disappeared,na Jewish communist whonworked for the security forces offerednthe Party line in French, sympathy innYiddish.nDespite such incidents, Paltiel Kossovernreturned not to his family in Ro­nmania but to the Soviet Union, whichnhe still believed was the messianic country.nUpon his arrival, another securitynman warned him not to talk too muchnbecause “a past is only cumbersome.”nMemory, Jewishness, speech: “You’rennot at the yeshiva here, young man,”na member of the Jewish Writer’s Clubnin Moscow told him. “Don’t force usnto listen to things that must not benheard.” Hitler invaded before the authoritiesngot around to silencing thenannoying poet. During the war, Paltielnrevealed himself as one of those persons,nuncommon but not rare, whosentimidity in ordinary life gives way toncourage when it matters. Unfit for militarynservice, he displayed heroism as anstretcher-bearer — typically, he seemsnnot to see his own heroism even as hen,1 Vlt, 1 I m-i’van”I>Btinction^jrecq^tti7n] iOt|pQ.vnJ, . • DiscnnuiHticHB|rei.*l> cjrned brewi cJtaractef’wiUi tWoc^fi^y’l^ ^.nV ‘•.g.ju^goieiUs-‘CI&actc.rnsist£ntly-