Then he smoothed them out,
clipped them, and saved them carefully. His playing that
night was tinged with bravado, and the Saturday evening
audience rose to it. There was about his performance a
glow, a spirit that had been lacking on the previous day.
Inconsistently enough, he missed the antagonism of the
European critics. He was puzzled and resentful.
"They hardly say a word about the meaning of the concerto.
They accept it as a piece of music, Jewish in theme. It
might as well be entitled Springtime."
"This isn't France or Russia," said Fanny. "Antagonism here
isn't religious. It's personal, almost. You've been away
so many years you've forgotten. They don't object to us as
a sect, or a race, but as a type. That's the trouble,
Clarence Heyl says. We're free to build as many synagogues
as we like, and worship in them all day, if we want to. But
we don't want to. The struggle isn't racial any more, but
individual. For some reason or other one flashy, loud-
talking Hebrew in a restaurant can cause more ill feeling
than ten thousand of them holding a religious mass meeting
in Union Square.
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