ABSTRACT
The Orthodox Jew, the Hasid, the Yiddishist are all secure in their identity. The biologist Julian Huxley writes that "the Jews vary as much, if not more than any other people in the world". The Jews of Europe and North Africa could hardly avoid the theme of oppression and victimization. The Tunisian-born Jew Albert Memmi, in his Portrait of a Jew, defines the Jewish fate as a misfortune. Jewish children were given music lessons irrespective of whether they had talent or cared for music. By far the largest organization was the Jewish People's Fraternal Order (JPFO) with a membership of thirty-five thousand out of a total of one-hundred thousand. The International Worker's Order (IWO) had in fact emerged from a split within the Jewish socialist Workmen's Circle between the social democratic "right" and the Stalinist "left". Jews display a touchiness about their dignity even when they have not been affronted, a habit formed over centuries of indignities.
