SOURCE: "Julien Benda: Assimilation with Self-Acceptance," in Mirrors of the Jewish Mind: A Gallery of Portraits of European Jewish Writers of Our Time, Thomas Yoseloff, 1968, pp. 52-67.

Born in Rehlingen, Saar Territory, Kahn is an American educator and writer. In the following excerpt, he considers the influence of Benda's Jewish heritage on his opinions and works.

Assimilation has been a much overused term in modern Jewish history. Like most such terms it has lost some of its meaning. As generally used it covers a broad range of attitudes which have but few beliefs in common. Assimilation implies a conscious desire to accept all of the ways and modes of the host people, and in the process to abandon, consciously or otherwise, one's ties to the Jewish heritage and people. Andre Maurois, it has been seen, has been silent on those ties. Emmanuel Berl, a lesser known contemporary, has...