The Anglo-Saxons
To the Editor:
I have been a more or less constant reader of COMMENTARY for many years. I have often disagreed with many things included therein, but never have I come across a piece of writing that was less deserving of publication in your magazine than “The Break,” by Dan Jacobson (October 1954). . . .
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As a picture of a kibbutz it is entirely and patently false, and indeed slanderous of one of the finest movements in contemporary Jewish social life. . . . “The Break,” far from being a condemnation of kibbutz society . . . instead merely condemns those products of the Anglo-Saxon heritage who were so poisoned by the anarchy and chaos in the intellectual and cultural spheres, the rotting influence of material acquisition, that they must forever be doomed as a “Lost Generation,” unable to find peace and contentment in their daily lives either in Paris, New York, or “Gesher Haziv”. . . .
“The Break” is another albeit cruder example of the new trend among Anglo-Saxon Zionists, led by such illustrious figures as Maurice Samuel, who in his book Level Sunlight states that he will never consider full personal identification with Israel, because he writes in English and does not think it worth his while or even possible to learn Hebrew equally proficiently. . . . Arthur Koestler is perhaps the best example of the logical conclusion of this trend, from Zionist to the negation of Judaism. . . .
Doody Cohen
Kibbutz Gal-on
Doan Na-Chaf Ascalon
Israel
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