The Invisible Voice: Meditations on Jewish Themes

Rating:
Summary: Spiritual-intellectual freedom
Review: George Konrad is a Jewish Hungarian essayist and novelist. Once imprisoned for his political writings, he participated in the Hungarian uprising and has played an ctive role in the birth of democratic principles in Eastern Europe. "The Invisible Voice" is a collection of essays (20 altogether) encompassing a variety of issues, with the usual strong moral basis of a great thinker. Advocating a spiritual-intellectual resistance and plurality of human reality, Konrad tackles the issue of the importance of free will both at the level of the individual, and collective society.

He discourses on issues such as nationalism and the imperative of human being not to submit his freedom of conscience to any human institution, be it state or church. As a Diaspora Jew, Konrad firmly holds to the principle that it is impossible to have total jewish assimilation -- "Jews cannot free themselves from the gift, or burden, of having born Jews" -- Jewishness meaning the imperative of personal freedom of thought.

On the issue of the conflict between Israel and Palestine, Konrad stands for a peace that is not limited to a "cease-fire," but rather on mutual acceptance, respect, a peace to be made by the whole of society.

Konrad is a humanistic Jew, seeking for a validity more universal than the national; always conscious of the fact that man's fate designated him for choice, to decide what is good and what is bad, every day of his life. Great reading, and it is unfortunate that his two best-known novels - "The Case Worker" and "The City Builder" - are presently out-of-print.

Rating:
Summary: Spiritual-intellectual freedom
Review: George Konrad is a Jewish Hungarian essayist and novelist. Once imprisoned for his political writings, he participated in the Hungarian uprising and has played an ctive role in the birth of democratic principles in Eastern Europe. "The Invisible Voice" is a collection of essays (20 altogether) encompassing a variety of issues, with the usual strong moral basis of a great thinker. Advocating a spiritual-intellectual resistance and plurality of human reality, Konrad tackles the issue of the importance of free will both at the level of the individual, and collective society.

He discourses on issues such as nationalism and the imperative of human being not to submit his freedom of conscience to any human institution, be it state or church. As a Diaspora Jew, Konrad firmly holds to the principle that it is impossible to have total jewish assimilation -- "Jews cannot free themselves from the gift, or burden, of having born Jews" -- Jewishness meaning the imperative of personal freedom of thought.

On the issue of the conflict between Israel and Palestine, Konrad stands for a peace that is not limited to a "cease-fire," but rather on mutual acceptance, respect, a peace to be made by the whole of society.

Konrad is a humanistic Jew, seeking for a validity more universal than the national; always conscious of the fact that man's fate designated him for choice, to decide what is good and what is bad, every day of his life. Great reading, and it is unfortunate that his two best-known novels - "The Case Worker" and "The City Builder" - are presently out-of-print.