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A Manhattan
Socrates
Published Posthumously
by Abraham Joseph Stybel
Rfd lights stopped the entire
stream of traffic on the Avenue of
the Americas. I had entered a
vacant taxi headed for Central
Park. The taxi, in obedience to the
red light signal, lurched and halt
ed at 57th Street.
In my haste, I had failed to
observe the face of my driver, as
is my inevitable custom. Only as
we moved up Central Park West,
did I notice his unusual appear
ance: a swarthy skin, a curly
beard, short, brittle dull-brown
hair covering his right temple.
His face was still turned away
from me. He wore a beret, French
style.
I wondered at this type of per
son, so infrequent among New
York taxi-drivers. I asked him:
"A Jew?”
“No."
"A Frenchman?”
"No.”
"An American?”
“No.”
After a short while, he asked
in his turn:
"And you’re an American?”
"I’m a Jew.”
“The Jews,” said he, "must now
mobilize all their forces, relent
lessly, strenuously. There can be
no sleep and ease, when the fate
of a nation, petrified and suppress
ed for thousands of years, is in the
balance. The hour has struck:
either now or never! You must now
build with one hand and fight with
the other, even as in the days of
Cyrus. The Labor Government has
removed the film from your eyes.
Bevin is a ne’er-do-well, con
temptuous of public opinion. He
doesn’t even take the trouble to
be hypocritical. He has learned
from Hitler. And it is well that it
is so, otherwise you would have
missed the hour of decision.
Churchill would have continued
to feed you with lying promises,
and you would have feared to lose
your present gains. The danger of
division lurks for you. Bevin is
cynical and haughty, and the Brit
ish masses love him for this. In
practice, there is no difference
whatsoever between Churchill and
Bevin, or even between Balfour
and Bevin, between your own Her
bert Samuel and Bevin. Samuel,
too, is an Englishman before every-
ing else. The English—even the
best of them—are all hypocrites.
They know that their hour is due,
and that with the fall of their Em
pire, also their existence as a
power is doomed. No enlightened
person wants this, but one cannot
fight against a law of nature. Thus
it happened to Greece and Persia;
so fell Rome and Germany; now
nothing can stop the fall of this
great state.”
His speech flowed mightily. His
pleasant voice and his wide know
ledge charmed and overwhelmed
me. Who is this marvelous man?
Time and again, I stopped his
flow of talk, and inquired con
cerning his origin. He paid no heed
to my curiosity. I told him that
I was amazed at his thorough mas
tery of the English tongue and
at his eloquence. He then let fall
a word about his background.
"I come from an island in the
Caribbean Sea. I was born there.
My governess and my instructor
were English. I was employed in
an important position with the
Foreign Office. I know the machin
ations of the Britishers from with
in, and not as an outsider.”
In the course of his talk, the
driver expressed an opinion that
approximated a saying of the Tal
mudic Sages: "A pit cannot be fill
ed with the sand taken out of it—
fashion an army for striking.”
Afterwards, he continued vehe
mently:
"India is slipping from their
hands. Who will pay the expenses
of the Empire, if not the Oriental
people in their vast ignorance? The
British could not foresee the creat
ive talent of the Hebrew people.
They were, therefore, frightened
by the tremendous progress of
these people. They are afraid of
Jewish competition; they are also
afraid that the display of Jewish
energy will waken the Arabs from
their letargy.”
"I marvel at your great wisdom.
Tell me, what made you come to
this country?”
"Something frightful happened
to me, which stirred my soul to its
foundations. I was so wounded in
spirit that I had to make a com
plete change in my way of life.”
"What course of action do you
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