KOESTLER AND ISRAEL
95
out of a realized past a positive counter-tradition, capable of at least
mitigating the pressures of the Stalinist and Capitalist ethos, between
which we are being crushed. The "Judaeo-Christian tradition" needs,
I fear, constant transfusions from a living Jewish body, not merely the
initial impulse from a dead Savior and a Book. In the West there could
be many such communities, and in I srael the attempt to embody the
Jewish ethos in a total social structure.
To the latter idea Koestler subscribes no more than he does to the
former. Even the I sraelis have no right to be Jews, but must become
"Hebrews," by which Koestler seems to understand Westerners trans–
planted. As he demands of the J ew in Exile individual assimilation, so he
demands of the new State national assimilation to European culture. As if
there were not already too many European states! To such people as
Martin Buber, with their vision of a new kind of polity, he has never
talked.
His program is simple : no religious laws, no emphasis on Jewish
history at the expense of European, the gradual abolition of Jewish
cooking and Ghetto manners, the creation of an architecture free from
the influence of the J ewish suburb, and the extrication from Israeli
social life of the Biblical and prophetic strain which has tempered it.
H. E. BRICCS
Books In Things
• FEATURES.
POETRY - CRITICISM - ART - DRAMA - CINEMA - DANCE - SELECT FICTION
SCHOLARLY BOOKS - MODERN PRESSES - IMPORTS
CURRENTS - OUT·OF·PRINTS • "LITTLE MAGS"
FROM ACCENT TO ZERO
HAPPY NEW YEAR BARGAINS
HARDY, T.-The Dynasts Part 1·2 ...................................................................... $1.25
NEW ROAD No. 4-$3.50 .................................................................................. 1.00
NEW WRITINGS ETC.-194b-3.50 .................................................................. 1.00
ORPHEUS No. 1-4.00 .......................................................................................... 1.00
BRAMAH, E.-Wallet of Kai Lung, Lond. ........................................................ 1.50
BRAMAH, E.-Kai Lung's Golden Hours, Lond. .............................................. 1.50
BRAMAH, E.-Kai Lung Unrolls His Mat, Lond. ............................................ 1.50
MERTON, T.-Tears of the Blind Lions, Ph. (Mailing .10) .............................. .50
.
.
.
SITWELL, E.-Canticle of the Rose. Poems 1917-49 .................................... 3.75
O'CASEY-AII the Early Plays. 2 vols. Lond. ................................................ 5.00
REVUE.MASQUES DANCE No.3, 98 full photos ........................................ 2.75
JOYCE, J.-Year Book-Transition-Paris. Ltd. 1000 copies ........................ 3.50
JOYCE, J.-By W. Y. Tyndall-A Broad Study ............................................ 2.00
.
.
.
NEW DIRECTIONS YEAR BOOK No. II ........................................................ 4.50
HIST. OF MODERN PAINTINGS-From Baudelaire to Surrealism. 3 vols.
Skira. Switzerland. 80 col. plates in ea. vol. Quarto, Mailing .50 Vol. I
Now ready ............................................................................................................$12.50
73 - 4TH AVENUE
N. Y. C. 3
OR 3-2826
Write or Visit Us
Books of All Publishers
