In another universe, Elisha Wiesel might be an attorney. Or an Israeli citizen. Or a video game creator. But in this world, he is a husband and father of two embarking on retirement in a world mired in pandemic. Wiesel, the son of Nobel Peace laureate Elie Wiesel, spoke to Jewish Insider’s Melissa Weiss about the new chapter in his life and his religious and political awakening.

Next stage: Wiesel has already crammed several lifetimes worth of experiences into his 48 years. The philanthropist, activist and self-described geek with a knack for computer programming left Goldman Sachs as its chief information officer at the end of last year. Just nine months into his retirement, he has already volunteered with former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s short-lived presidential campaign, archived his father’s writings, joined the board of Zioness and prepared his daughter for her pandemic-era bat mitzvah.

Why he liked Mike: “I'll never forget Mike flying out to Israel, when the Gaza War was occurring,” Wiesel recounted. “The FAA was shutting down flights in and out of Ben-Gurion Airport. And Mike was like, ‘This is crazy. I'm gonna go and I'm gonna stand with the people of Israel.’ I was so impressed by that. But more generally, that was the balance I was sort of looking for in the political spectrum — people who understood the need for social justice, but also understood that you know, the answer is not Marxism.”

Father knows best: “My father was very clear with me. He gave me only really two guidelines in life. One was he expected me to marry Jewish,” Wiesel explained. “And the other thing was he asked me to say Kaddish after he passed. And I had originally thought that he was asking me to say Kaddish for him, that I was doing him a favor. I really realized only later, it was actually the reverse. He was kind of doing me a favor because, you know, I think that's when my reentry into Judaism kind of accelerated.”

L’dor v’dor: Now a parent, Wiesel has worked to ensure his children have a solid Jewish foundation upon which to build. “The number one thing I feel I can do is perpetuate yiddishkeit, is perpetuate Jewish continuity, in my own home.” And his home is not only where he holds regular minyanim, but also where his daughter was bat mitzvahed in April. While untraditional in many ways — it was held over Zoom — they used Wiesel’s father’s Torah.

Runs in the family: While much has been said and written about Wiesel’s father, it is his mother — who came to the U.S. shortly after WWII with her family, aided by HIAS — who instilled in him a passion for social justice. “When my mom came to this country, she kind of surprised her parents, started spending all of the weekends that she could down in Florida and the South, marching for racial justice,” Weisel explained. “She made friends who were black, who were gay, and I'm sure that you know, for Eastern European [immigrants], my grandparents... I'm sure that they were floored by what my mom was doing, but she just jumped into that whole new world of America, that this was where we should be and she was extremely proud as a young person to be an early card-carrying member of the NAACP. And that meant a lot to her.” 

Getting involved: As he approached the brink of retirement, Wiesel began to notice a trend of Zionist voices being intentionally excluded from conversations in the LGBTQ community and other social justice issues. “My brain was exploding, I couldn't process it,” Wiesel said. “When I started hearing Zionists are not welcome in things like women's rights or African Americans’ rights.” It was through social media that Wiesel found Zioness, a progressive organization whose board he joined earlier this year. “I just thought, like, ‘Oh my god, thank god, there's somebody doing this right,” he said. “Thank god, there's somebody, you know, breaking this false duality of you can't both be a progressive and a Zionist.”

Read the full interview here.