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Is It Good for the Jews?

THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS

Contents

Preface......................................................................................................viiTranslator's Acknowledgments.................................................................................viii1 * In Lieu of an Epigraph A BRIEF STORY CONTAINING WITHIN ITSELF ALL THE FOLLOWING ONES.....................32 * The Officer's Ring.......................................................................................53 * In Praise of Anti-Semites................................................................................144 * Of Humility..............................................................................................205 * Okuláré........................................................................................256 * Of Wisdom................................................................................................307 * Of Children..............................................................................................368 * Wailing..................................................................................................439 * Of Education.............................................................................................4710 * Of Numbers..............................................................................................5111 * Thirsty for More........................................................................................5612 * Of Privileges...........................................................................................5913 * Environment.............................................................................................6314 * Of Strength (of Conviction).............................................................................6715 * In English in the Text..................................................................................7316 * A Witz for All Seasons..................................................................................7517 * Of Jews and of Others...................................................................................7918 * Di Ganef, Di Willst Davenen!............................................................................8319 * Assimilation............................................................................................8620 * You Can't Escape Your Fate..............................................................................9321 * Two Geopolitical Lessons................................................................................9722 * In Someone Else's Shoes.................................................................................10323 * He Who Hunts ...........................................................................................10924 * The World of Business...................................................................................11425 * Games of Chance.........................................................................................11826 * The Emigrant............................................................................................12127 * Of Money, Still.........................................................................................12428 * Of Us and Them, of Them and Us..........................................................................13229 * The Negotiation.........................................................................................135Afterword....................................................................................................141

Chapter One

A BRIEF STORY CONTAINING WITHIN ITSELF ALL THE FOLLOWING ONES

Two Jews meet in Budapest on Dob Street during bad times, during one of those very many bad times when you had to tremble, to fear for your family, your possessions, your work, your life (in this order). This might have been in 1899, or in 1920, or in 1944, or in 2007 ... or again during the Middle Ages when Jews were expelled from Hungary (and from France, and from Great Britain ...)—except that Dob Street didn't yet exist.

They were of course called Kohn and Grün.

Why "of course"? If you were a Hungarian Jew, if you were lucky enough to be Jewish and Hungarian—and these according to my father are the most precious jewels in the crown of Creation, an opinion that I am not far from sharing—you would not be asking this question. And if you are neither Jew nor Hungarian, is it really worth my while to give you an answer? In any case you wouldn't understand it. But I'll make an attempt anyway: Kohn and Grün, two Hungarian Jews, are Mutt and Jeff 's cousins, Laurel and Hardy's soul brothers.

So:

Kohn whispers to Grün: "Did you hear that twin sea lions were born in the Oslo zoo?" (For a member of the People of the Book, and the reading and writing this entails, it would be more logical to ask "Have you read?" And yet, the exchange of words of mouth might be the last remaining bit of warmth, the last human link remaining in our troubled world. Since when? Always. The use of the conditional mood here, of "might," is only for the benefit of grammatical convention.)

Grün moves close to Kohn and, worried, whispers into his ear: "No, I didn't hear about it. Say, Kohn, is this good for us?"

Chapter Two

In contrast to many of the stories whose origin I am ignorant of, this one has a clear identity. It was told to me around 1910 by my friend Molnár Ferenc, the unforgettable author of the most beautiful novel in the world dealing with youth, The Guys of Paul Street, and who later was to make his living as a scriptwriter in Hollywood. (Scriptwriter in Hollywood! My dream and that of all Hungarians. ... It's a bit late, you might tell me. Hungarians are getting pretty scarce in Hollywood. But remember the sign posted on the door of one of MGM's studios: "It's not enough to be Hungarian to make movies; one also needs talent." Robert Capa came up with a variant: "It's not enough to have talent to make movies, one must also be Hungarian.")

This story happened in the "good ole ancient Hungary," that of "before Trianon," a topic apt to provide a subject for conversations lasting evening long to any Hungarian, discussions livened up by barackpálinka, that is apricot brandy, and by expreszó made with Hungarian-style burnt coffee.

Eh, I'm thinking as I'm talking to you that I will put this story at the very beginning of my book. It sets the decor: that of Central Europe for folks nostalgic for the old Austro-Hungarian empire, and, for politically conscious folks, that of Eastern Europe, that is, the countries occupied after World War II by the Soviet Union. These are geographical notions devoid of any relationship to geography, but having lots to do with politics, history, psychology, literature, writers, readers, émigrés, the indifferent, the elected, not to forget the nonelected and the self-elected, as well as diplomats of all stripes.... These are confused notions. Should some of my stories lean toward the West (oh, this troubled word, this two-faced carrier of dreams, this noble louse of a word!), toward for instance France or the USA, this would be a sign of a desperate attempt at...