George Orwell Always in the News Number 13

Daring Unimaginable

Anyone who wished to read more about George Orwell and anti-Semitism after reading our note on Orwell, Lionel Davidson and the Royal Navy, might want to read a review in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, which appeared in August 2012.

Anshei Pfeffer’s article was written as a review of Orwell’s Diaries which were to be published in one volume with an introduction by Christopher Hitchens. The article discusses ‘Antisemitism in Britain’ in detail:

http://www.haaretz.com/weekend/week-s-end/was-orwell-an-anti-semite-1.455763

The article says that ‘Contemporary Jewish Record’, where Orwell’s essay first appeared, became the magazine ‘Commentary’, which is still in print today.

It concludes ‘Orwell put the handling of his own feelings toward Jews on public display, an act of daring unimaginable today by any “respectable” writer.’

‘(A)n act of daring’ – praise indeed.

By LJH