26
PARTISAN REVIEW
"Later I adopted still a different attitude. I came to understand
how you could believe that here too I was maliciously betraying you.
You had really brought a certain Judaism with you from your little
ghetto-like village community. It was not much, and what there was
of it dwindled in the city and the army: yet the impressions and
memories of youth did constitute a sort of Jewish life. The fact is that
you did not have much need for that sort of sustenance, since you
came of a powerful stock and were impervious to religious forces
when they were not closely bound up with social considerations.
Basically the faith which supported your life was your belief
in
the
unquestionable correctness of the opinions of a certain Jewish social
class; since these were your own opinions, your faith was your belief
in yourself. This was enough Judaism for you, but for handing down
to a child, it was too little; in the transmission it disintegrated entirely.
All that remained were a few untransmittable childhood impressions
and your much feared person.
It
was impossible to persuade a child,
whose very fright had made him a sharp observer, that the mean–
ingless forms you went through in the name of Judaism, with an
indifference suiting their insignificance, could have any higher mean–
ing. For you they held meaning as little memories of former times,
and that was why you wanted to pass them on to me; but since even
for yourself they had no independent value, you were able to do this
only by arguments and threats. This method was, of course, unsuc–
cessful, and since you did not understand your weak position, you
became furious at me for my apparent recalcitrance.
"All this is no isolated phenomenon; the same was true of a large
part of this transitional generation of Jews, who emigrated from the
country, where a relative piety still prevailed, to the city. It was more
or less inevitable, but it added one more asperity to our already
diffi–
cult relationship. I am quite willing for you to believe- as I do-that
you are guiltless in this respect; but you should explain your guiltless–
ness by your character and the nature of the times, not by outward
circumstances. You should not say you had too much work and worry
to permit you to occupy yourself with such matters. For in this way
you turn your indubitable guiltlessness into an unjust reproach to
others-a reproach that is very easily countered. For we are here
concerned not with any instruction that you should have given your
children, but with an exemplary life; if your Jewishness had been
stronger, your example would also have been more cogent; this
is
self-evident and again no reproach, but only a defense against
your
reproaches.
"I have received a certain tardy confirmation of this estimate of
your Judaism through your conduct in the last few years, when it
