On
14th Street, three men stood talking about the war. Moshe
Dayan is another Moses," said one of them . . . a 34-year-old
salesman who was in the Auschwitz death camp as a child.
[He] insisted that he had always been proud to be a Jew.
But he admitted that he was a great deal prouder today than
he was while in the Nazi concentration camp.
"It
came to me," he said, "as a tremendous relief of pressure
that they were safe in Israel."
In a West Side bar, a woman who preferred not to be quoted
by name said she was "absolutely overwhelmed" by the Israelis'
"courage, skill and spirit."
The woman, a 30-year-old youth worker, said that during
the first hours of the Middle Eastern conflict, she felt
more concern about the possibility of World War III than
the fate of Israel.
"But
yesterday I felt very identified," she said, noting that
she was neither a religious Jew nor a Zionist. "I felt a
pride in being Jewish that I've never felt. I felt admiration
for the manhood of Dayan, for his ruggedness, his vigor,
his virility. It was a real change from seeing the Jews
as the long-suffering victims."
The woman paused for a moment, letting her enthusiasm subside
a bit, then went on: "In admitting this," she said, "I suppose
I have to admit some of the negative feelings I've had about
being Jewish."
