Handwritten works of Elie Wiesel’s mysterious teacher ‘Mr. Shushani’ open to public for first time
Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
(JTA) — He knew some 30 languages, taught some of the greatest scholars of Jewish studies in the 20th century and is buried in Uruguay under a tombstone that champions his wisdom — but his identity was never known.
Now, what sounds like the beginning of a riddle is the description of an author whose notebooks are set for display by the National Library of Israel
“Mr. Shushani,” or “Monsieur Chouchani,” was a wanderer and scholar who counted Elie Wiesel and the philosopher Emmanuel Levinas among his students. A brilliant teacher who was said to possess a photographic memory and knew the Bible, Talmud other Jewish texts by heart, he traveled around the world teaching while keeping his real identity secret. Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook, the scholar and spiritual leader of Mandatory Palestine, called Shushani “one of the most excellent young people … sharp, knowledgeable, complete and multi-minded.”
Shushani was born in Imperial Russia around the turn of the 20th century and died in 1968 in Uruguay. But few details about his life, including his real name, were known even to his closest students.
The notebooks were donated by Shalom Rosenberg, an Israeli professor of Jewish thought who was a student of Shushani’s at the time of his death. Shushani’s writings are difficult to decode and contained everything from his thoughts, to memory exercises, to mathematical formulas and original ideas in the field of Jewish thought. While a small group of scholars has been working through the notebooks for several years, they will be made available to the public for the first time on Thursday.
Yoel Finkelman, curator of the library’s Judaica collection, celebrated the opportunity to introduce more people to Shushani’s writings and their place at the National Library of Israel in a statement.
“We consider it of paramount importance to bring to the public’s attention the story of one of the most mysterious and influential figures in 20th-century Jewish thought,” Finkelman said.
— The post Israel’s National Library to display notebooks of mysterious scholar who taught Elie Wiesel, Emmanuel Levinas appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
It’s our birthday and we’re still celebrating!
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news.
This week we celebrate 129 years of the Forward. We’re proud of our origins as a Yiddish print publication serving Jewish immigrants. And we’re just as proud of what we’ve become today: A trusted source of Jewish news and opinion, available digitally to anyone in the world without paywalls or subscriptions.
We’ve helped five generations of American Jews make sense of the news and the world around them — and we aren’t slowing down any time soon.
As a nonprofit newsroom, reader donations make it possible for us to do this work. Support independent, agenda-free Jewish journalism and our board will match your gift in honor of our birthday!
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
