GEORGE KONRAD
545
self-imposed. Following the Zionis ts, the Diaspora Jews are also beginning
to resign themselves to being what they are, and are no longer even so
dejected about it. They pop out of the box; here and there they appear
with their portable God, embodiments of a peculiar strategy. Staying
incognito has become less typical of worldly Jews. Why should they con–
ceal their Jewishness? Sometimes they stray instead toward the
tastelessness of boasting.
The person who is who he is, up to the level of civil courage, indi–
vidually, is a type of person that can awaken ill temper. Jews were most
likely in advance of the Germans in modernization, in choosing Western
values; to Jews, universalism was more self-evident. The revenge for this
was Nazism. Actually, the Germans wished for the same thing: to enter the
world at large. The European Jews lost; they were not watchful enough,
and they weren't good enough strategists; had they seen more clearly, most
of them would have escaped. They did not defend themselves resolutely
enough. Today, Israel and world Jewry stand virtually behind Jews living in
any country. Jewish consciousness is stronger and less paradoxical in Isreal
and America than in Central Europe, not especially far from Auschwitz.
The Jew transcends, but to where? In the direction of the familial par–
adise. Continuation is the meaning of his life, and in general, his wife is his
conscience. Jewish utopia is the friendly dinner table. Heaven and the cho–
rus of angels are no better than this. Wife, children, grandchildren, relatives,
friends, guests, locals, and travelers around the table set for a holiday.
It
is
difficult to conceive of anything more attractive; Jews wish all others this
same utopia. This is the other-world, other also in the sense that it is safe
for the moment, that no one breaks in for the moment, that the soldiers'
horses do not stamp under the window. Children remember this bit of
warmth from the stove, familial happiness, when everyone loved one
another; perhaps this was the other world, the one the Jew searches for here
in earthly life, because he doesn't think he needs to die before he can enjoy
it.
Jews do not mention or promise the eternal life of the soul. They
acknowledge death. They do not believe we are consoled for all suffering; they
were able to reconcile faith in God with the acceptance of human fate; for this
reason I would call them ethical realists. They do not postpone salvation to the
afterworld, to the supposed eternal life following death. They do not believe
there exis ts heavenly correction, compensation, reconciliatory reparation for
the mistakes of earthly life. What happened happened and can no longer be
changed. You may make mistakes, but there is no heavenly safety net.
