480
PARTISAN REVIEW
during his tender years. Sartre has some remarkable p'assages on
this
theme. It is difficult for anyone not acquainted with specific cases
to appreciate how deep the bewildered hurt goes into the psyche of
the child, and how often these frustrations express themselves in ten–
sions toward his parents, the innocent cause of the child's plight, or
in a tortured silence that gives rise to self-doubt, and sometimes self–
hatred. Most parents find it much easier to carry ' their own burdens
of suffering than to stand by helplessly in the presence of their chil–
dren's agony. That is why so many Jewish parents, especially in this
neurotic-conscious age, seek eagerly to supply some consciousness of
historic or contemporary Jewish association. But they avoid facing
frankly the question of what their own Jewishness consists in, and how
it is related to the Jewish and world scene.
It is at this point, usually, that a quest for definitions begins and
Jews cast around desperately for some conception or clear formula
which will express "the essence" of their Jewishness. The quest is not
only fruitless but foolish. It is a capitulation to the muddy meta–
physics of the antisemite.
Far wiser,
it
seems to me, is to recognize the historic fact of
Jewish existence, the plural sources of Jewish life, and its plural pos–
sibilities. No philosophy of Jewish life is required except one--identi–
cal with the democratic way of life-which enables Jews who for
any reason at all accept their existence as Jews to lead a dignified
and significant life, a life in which together with their fellowmen
they strive collectively to improve the quality of democratic, secular
cultures and thus encourage a maximum of cultural diversity, both
Jewish and non-Jewish. Such a philosophy recognizes that there is
no dignity in denying one's origins or in living as if they were some–
thing to be apologetic about. It recognizes that morally, even more
significant than acceptance of one's origins are the
fruits
of such ac–
ceptance, what one does with it, what one makes it mean, what comes
out of it.
This is not the place to discuss the various "positive solutions"
that have been offered as a basis for Jewish life. I shall return to
them on another occasion. Meanwhile I pelmit myself a preliminary
comment.
One solution, very unpopular among Je"vs today,
is
the
uru–
versalist solution in which the individual thinks of himself as a Jew
