Word: jew
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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Suddenly, Representative Keene asked Russo what the meaning of "cosmopolitanism" was. Before Russo opened his mouth Rep. Donlan screamed, "It means a man's a JEW, doesn't it?" (Hisses from the audience.) "The Hitler-Stalin pact came from a desire to slaughter the Jews. You're dripping with Jewish blood, aren...
Should an American Jew abandon his Jewishness and try to "assimilate" himself? Or should he cling to the fundamentals of his own tradition, even though it makes him "different"? Either course would be preferable to the one U.S. Jews are actually following, says British Literary Critic David Daiches, who has spent ten years teaching English at the University of Chicago and Cornell...
...American Jew really wants to assimilate, says Daiches, but he feels guilty about it and "gets his assimilationist urge horribly mixed up with the fiercer kind of Zionism ... No one would be more astonished or upset than the American Zionist if out of Zion were really to come forth the Law and Word of the Lord from Jerusalem. He hopes that out of Zion will come forth good Rotarian Israelites and Hebrew-speaking hot-dog sellers...
Daiches thinks the American Jew should frankly accept assimilation as an ideal or else seriously cultivate Judaism: "To cultivate a Jewish consciousness while ignoring or disbelieving or glossing over the ideas and doctrines which constitute the Jewish heritage [is] both illogical and unintelligent. If you believe that the Jewish religion can be prettied up into a modern mixture of Freud and Jefferson and kid yourself into calling your fancy synthesis Judaism (as was done in that absurd book, Peace of Mind), then I suppose nobody can prevent you; but don't then sneer at assimilationists-they are at least...
Just two years ago the Advocate, in an attempt to abandon a stereotyped "artiness," printed a flurry of expository articles like "The Jew at Harvard." The articles were interesting, but they ducked the problem. Instead of improving its content, the magazine simply changed it. The latest Advocate takes on a bigger job; it sticks largely to fiction, which means that content alone cannot put it over. This is a much more limited and therefore a much more difficult job. The new Advocate does it well...