ABSTRACT
Zionism — by the term the author would understand the continued consciousness of the Jew directed towards a Holy Land rather than the formal movement of recent years — before the formation of the State of Israel had posed problems predominantly of ways and means. Since that time these difficulties have been transformed into ones of concept and vision. It is, however, in their more systematic effort to analyze the coming development of the Jew that the disagreement of the two writers becomes most explicit and in light of which the alternatives that they finally pose are defined. Both Koestler and Konvitz agree that the emergence of Israel the State has precipitated a crisis into the situation of the Jew. For Konvitz’ position on this same point would hold that the notion of exile is properly a metaphysical one and that as such its concrete, or literal embodiment is distinctly subordinate and apart from its general import.
