For Gentiles
The Jews in Our Time. By Norman Bentwich. (Penguin Books, 3s. 6d.) Dg. BENTWICH has written this short book as a proud testimony to the virtues and achievements
of his race. As a statement of the positive qualities
of the Jews for Gentile readers it seems to me. excellent; and there must be few Gentile readers
who will not profit from a reminder that the important thing about the Jews is what they are and not what has been done to them. Here we have, then, in brief, the history of the Dispersion, the contributions and failures of Assimilation, the social and spiritual promise of Israel, the relations of Israel and the communities abroad, the distinc- tive contributions of those communities to the Gentile States of which their members are citizens. As a handout for Gentiles it is admirable and most interesting within its range.
The circumscribed range, however, seems open to criticism. At first sight it would seem absurd to demand of a Pelican more than a complete historical and political survey with a side glance at eminent achievements in every field. It is the word `eminent,' however, which gives me the clue to what disturbs me about this otherwise unexcep- tionable little book. Dr. Bentwich is himself an eminent man, not only distinguished in the law, but a philanthropist, a man of cultivation in the arts, and a man who has made valuable contribu- tions in voluntary service to both England and Israel. There is' an air which people of high moral and civic distinction come to breathe as their own that can be distressingly rarefied for the ordinary reader. Dr. Bentwich is far too good a man to intend any confusion between public renown and real value, yet there is a flavour of life as it is lived at the top about his book, a perfectly natural flavour for him no doubt, that is reminiscent in total of the Times. I have no doubt that there are many readers of the Times who need a salutary reminder that the Jews are a great race; but the confusions, fears, and follies that breed anti- Semitic prejudice are to be found in classes 'less important' in the Times sense but more important numerically, people who would respond to some- thing no less serious than Dr. Bentwich's book but something rather less solcmn.
I am reminded of this, because in one sense Dr. Bentwich's book acted as an all too salutary. handout for me. All the time that I was reading of the great work of Moses Montefiore or of Edmond de Rothschild, of Weizmann's faith and of Einstein's philosophy, of the kibbutz and the Moshav, at the back of my mind I would hear the shabby fifth-rate anti-Jewish prejudices which were so familiar to me as a child. These were not the dotty, wicked intellectualisms of Gobineau, Maurras, Belloc, or even Houston Stewart Cham- berlain, who are the only anti-Semites who make their appearance in his book. The sort of silly anti-Semitic talk which was endemic in part of my family and—I have subsequently learned—in the families of other friends who came from th.e, déclassé middle classes did not even find an out in any political adherence; it was simply a Owl of grumbling appendix that never burst, yet ‘41,,, also never removed. I knew these people well ", 1 under stress gave utterance to stupid, vulgar anti' Jewish talk. I know that .though expensively but badly educated, they were not stupid; thauP morally confused, they were benevolent. 1 anj, forced to ask myself whether Dr. Bentwich's halve out would have educated them at all. The answer is, I'm afraid, that there is about it exactly that lofty tone of achievement and succo', that has done much to provoke in failed an ashamed Gentiles squalid anti-Semitic defellce mechanisms. Jewish people, by and large, desPlle all their famed cynicism and melancholy, h3“, sustained a faith and a hope that are a constant defence against material failure. This apocalyPtic,: Messianic faith is there as strongly thot1811 differently, as Dr. Bentwich points out, among the agnostic Jews as among the Judaists. Among the general run of Gentile failures there is no such sustaining faith, and I have no doubt that this 15 above all the 'difference' which they unconsciously resent and hate most. On the other hand, the second factor which most strongly contributes t0 creating a sordid hinterland of anti-Jewish prelu. dice in Gentile countries is the fear and resell!' ment which exists against people who have sal" fered so much, hatred for the wronged and the victim. To counteract this Dr. Bentwichs chronicle. of Jewish strengths may do much good. To counteract both causes of prejudice the grow* ing strength and achievement of the State of Israel may finally be decisive. Declasse or unsuccessful Gentiles will never resent achievement as they will a faith that seems to them mysterious; nor will they fear the victor as they do the eternallY
wronged. That will be a day of liberation indeed for Jew and Gentile alike.
Among the minor benefits will be that for liberal Gentiles the subject of Jewish psychology will cease to have a special aura; gone will be the need to swing from one extreme to another. to assert at one moment that specific Jewish charac- teristics are a myth and, at the next, to counteract this absurdity by 'realistically' seeing purely per- sonal idiosyncrasies in our Jewish friends as racial traits. The events of the last thirty years have laid us under a terrible burden, and I have yet to hear even the most educated and balanced people dis- cuss this question without unusual emotional stress. If Dr. Bentwich seems at times a little high- mindedly complacent it is no doubt his manner of avoiding that passionate anger which all Jews must feel about the past. If we Gentiles feel increased shame in face of his moderation, it is still a token shame for the chronicle of evil committed against his race, a chronicle which his good man- ners allow him only to hint at.
ANGUS WILSON
Previous page
