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L IP T Z IN / R EM EM B ER ING S T E F A N ZW E IG
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hordes. T h e Jews were portrayed as innocent victims and scape
goats, exiled and forced to wander on and on. “But, scattered
as we are and thrown like weeds from the morn ing to the m id
night o f this earth , we have nevertheless remained a people,
a single and solitary people among the nations, because o f ou r
God and o u r faith in Him. An invisible something binds us,
preserves us, and keeps us together; and this invisible something
is o u r God.” Despite these vague sentiments, voiced on the brink
o f despair, Zweig’s affirmation o f Jewishness is unconvincing.
He remained to the end an uproo ted European o f Viennese
vintage, as evidenced by his last work, his autobiography
The
World o f Yesterday,
published posthumously.
I f only Zweig had listened to the call o f his friend Herzl and
jo ined Beer-Hofmann , Martin Buber and the precious few Vi
ennese who sparked the national Jewish rebirth , he might have
emerged from the World o f Yesterday to a b righ ter dawn! In
stead o f end ing his life in despair, he could have gloried in
the regeneration o f his people and its rejuvenation on its ancient
soil.