Poet of plurality...

...Shadow and substance

This particular émigré dachshund fared well in the US, even if she didn’t always understand its social dynamics. Writing in 1957 about the forced integration of black students in public schools in Little Rock, Arkansas, she said: ‘If as a Jew I wish to spend my vacations only in the company of Jews, I cannot see how anyone can reasonably prevent my doing so; just as I see no reason why other resorts should not cater to a clientele that wishes not to see Jews while on a holiday.’ One winces somewhat at that.

There is a difference, in my view, between wanting to asociate with members of one group based on common ancestry, and discriminating against another group on that same measure. The second does not follow from the first.