REFLECTIONS ON THE JEWISH QUESTION
467
It is as
if
the Jews were out to prove that they .are like everyone
else-inconsistent, fanatical, atavistic. Even those Jews who are dis–
tressed by these changes, who prefer to look at Jews as Sartre sees
them, "mild," endowed with "a sense of justice and reason," "spon–
taneous and warm," full of "obstinate sweetness which they conserve
in the midst of the most atrocious persecution"-even such Jews,
despite themselves, feel a throb of satisfaction at the feat of Jewish
arms in a world that has cast slurs over Jewish willingness or ability
to fight. Some Jews- fortunately a minority-judge all issues of for–
eign policy not by their bearings on the preservation of democracy
throughout the world but by the way in which the fortunes of the
State of Israel are affected. And not unlike the fellow-traveling Chris–
tian clergyman, there has emerged the disingenuous Jewish rabbi who
permits his name to be used by Communist Front organizations.
All this is reflected in cultural and theoretical matters. The same
liberal Jewish periodical which denounces in unmeasured tenns–
"undemocratic," "unconstitutional," "utterly indecent"-the Mundt–
Nixon Bill calling for the registration of subversive organizations plot–
ting the overthrow of the U.S. government by force and violence grows
lyrical over the Israeli Constitution that condemns as criminal any
propaganda against democracy-a provision which in effect makes
Plato's
Republic
seditious literature. Opposition to any official Zionist
measure, condemnation even of the Irgun, is sure to bring a raft of
scabrous anonymous letters. A people of dissenters have become impa–
tient of their own dissenters and have almost succeeded in cowing them.
There has been an upsurge in religious orthodoxy in many Jewish com–
munities outside of Palestine-an orthodoxy not a whit less supersti–
tious than that of other religions. And as if to add a comic touch, the
"new failure of nerve" is observable among some young literary Jew–
ish intellectuals, who, looking enviously at the Church, are prepared
to join the Synagogue if only Kafka is added to the Apocryphal
Books of the Old Testament. One is tempted to characterize them,
modifying a phrase of Horace Kallen's, as "amateur Catholics."
If
Sartre is right, all this is in vain. It is a matter of profound
unconcern to the antisemite what the Jews believe and how they be–
have-whether they are communists or democrats, pious or agnostic,
aggressive or shy. The antisemite hates them all. The existence of the
state of Israel will not diminish antisemitism.
It
will merely furnish the
