Moche The Beadle

            Essay Topic: People refused not only to believe his stories, but even to listen to them. Why didn't the Jewish take any notice of Moche's warnings?.
             Moche the Beadle worked continuously at a Hasidic synagogue. The Jews of Sighet in the "little town in Transylvania were very fond of him". The townspeople never felt embarrassed by him though he lived poorly and humbly. Moche was able to make "people smile with his waiflike timidity" therefore making nobody feel encumbered by his presence. When Moche was transferred along with the other foreign Jews and driven to a forest on Polish territory he witnessed the most horrific of slaughterings. On arrival back to Sighet several months later "Moche had changed. There was no longer any joy in his eyes. He no longer sang. He no longer talked to [Elie] of God or the cabbala". Moche had "wanted to come back, and to warn [the townspeople]" of the tragedy that had occurred yet nobody had wanted to listen to him. The Jewish community did not accept what they were warned of as they had optimism. They were living an illusion and let their hopes control their views. .
             The months that followed the deportation of the foreign Jews had allowed the people of Sighet to make a new start. "A wind of calmness and reassurance blew through their houses". The Hungarian police had not returned to take more Jews and so life was able to return to normal. The traders were doing good business, the students lived buried in their books, and the children played in the streets. To the town of Sighet there was nothing to worry about. Once Moche returned, he fed the town stories of "Malka, the young girl who had taken three days to die, and of Tobias, the tailor, who had begged to be killed before his sons". Due to life being settled and under control in Sighet, the town felt inclined to believe that Moche was making all of the stories up. Life was so content within the town that they could not believe that there were murders of innocent people and babies taking place.