Dear Editor
DEAR EDITOR BRUM BERG It was only a few days ago that I had a chance to see Abraham Brumberg's review of my book. Sexual Behavior in the Communist World (NL, November 4), in your excellent...
...or on that young lady from Prague?a bosomy blonde., no intellectual but full of bounces" (p...
...but I shan't bite...
...Sexual Behavior in the Communist World (NL, November 4), in your excellent magazine...
...But this visit took place in 1935, before the show trials took place...
...I can only think that Miss Pettingell...
...Please let me reiterate that the whole evidence of my book reveals the tragic origin of the anti-Jewish attitude that characterized Christianity for so many centuries...
...or one of those delightful Polish "kittens" addicted to "heavy petting" (p...
...saying of the defendants in the show trials, 'the more innocent they are, the more they deserve to die.' " So far as I know, the only source for this story is an article written long afterward by Sidney Hook for The New Leader which claimed that Brecht said this during his only visit to the U.S...
...The origins of Christianity require a new evaluation, both in the light of recent archaeological discovThe New Leader welcomes comment and criticism on any of its features, but letters should not exceed 300 words...
...In some parts of her review she seems to write like a Christian Fundamentalist, in others like an old-fashioned Rationalist who denies the existence of Jesus...
...In the caption to the Bosch illustration I comment specially upon the anti-Semitic character of the painting...
...He did not publish this poem at the time...
...Manchester...
...I do not grudge him his fun at my expense—but I wish he had been a little more open-minded and less snide about it...
...I am profoundly shocked that Miss Pettingell should interpret it in such a perverse manner, if that is indeed what she means by her innuendo...
...Brussels, Belgium Pftf-r Stafford Abraham Brumberg replies: If Mr...
...Perhaps this was because I did not travel on an American passport and because I had a good many other things to do in their countries apart from discussing economic reforms or German revanchism...
...whatever their nationality...
...I write as an historian of religion, trying to be objective and judicious, and 1 give full documentation to all my statements...
...Tacitus is no more contemporary than the Gospels...
...In answer to the one technical point that Professor Brandon makes...
...I would gladly do so...
...My acquaintances were not "chance...
...Let me assure Brumberg that it is not at all difficult to obtain the information contained in my book—if you know how to go about it...
...I think I've got the goods on Peter Stafford: His bait is unsettlingly tempting...
...One thought that she was writing from a Jewish point of view and was accusing me of anti-Semitism...
...Two other persons, to whom I passed her review, interpreted it in two different ways...
...If, as he says, American withdrawal is as inevitable as the Hanoi-nfl victory it will lead to, then perhaps the sooner the process begins the better...
...Surely he must realize that I. too...
...instead of reading the book carefully, got her impression by glancing at the pictures by Hieronymus Bosch (Plate 26), which I have included among other illustrations showing the manner in which the Trial and Passion of Jesus has been depicted in Christian art...
...in the mid-'30s...
...I profoundly hope that is not Miss Pettingell's intention, because my book has absolutely and completely the opposite intent...
...BRECHT Richard Pipes writes in his review of Robert Conquests book...
...As to Brandon's ingenious misreading that I accuse him of anti-Semitism, I find it quite in keeping with his other misreadings...
...t have visited the countries included in my book—with the exception of Albania and China—many times...
...There are probably quite a few more, for after all we are all fallible...
...In answer to Miss Pettingell's apparent skepticism about the existence of Jesus, I would remind her that, if she rejects the evidence of the Gospels and Josephus, there is still the evidence of the Roman historian Tacitus (Annates, XV:44) writing early in the second century, that Jesus was executed by Pontius Pilate, when Tiberius was Emperor of Rome...
...Stafford expects me to take him up on his offer, then he should make it a bit more explicit...
...I would point out that the reference he cites in Tacitus only shows that the Christ myth was known in Rome circa 117 ad and proves nothing about Jesus* historicity one way or the other—in short...
...Of the rest of the review, which is written in such an emotional and bitter spirit, I content myself with two observations...
...But I did not find it particularly difficult to meet other people —mostly writers, journalists, sociologists, physicians—and they talked to me...
...My book endeavors to do this...
...New York City Eric Bentley KIRK One brief comment on Donald Kirk's most recent piece ("Vietnam After the Bomb Halt," NL, December 16): I am concerned about his apparent bitterness over what he sees as American duplicity—unless, of course, he truly believes in the rather tarnished domino theory and a nearly inevitable Red Chinese domination of the entire Far East...
...many of them are old personal friends whom I also met outside their countries, where they talked perhaps a little more freely...
...England S. G. F. Brandon Department of Comparative Religion University of Manchester Phoebe Pettingell replies...
...say, the Bulgarian young lady possessed of "the natural rare talent of the great courtesans to prolong lovemaking . . . while at the same time to give exquisite and almost unbearable pleasure to her partner" I p. 83...
...sellout is just as clumsy as U.S...
...Is he prepared to provide the necessary data on...
...I was both impressed and amused by it...
...eries at Qumran and Masadu and the reassessment of the Zealots and the evidence of Josephus...
...168...
...PETT1NGELL A reader of your magazine has sent me a copy of Phoebe Pettingell's review of my book The Trial of Jesus of Nazareth (NL, December 2), asking me to make some reply...
...Brumberg may have seen some of my articles in East Europe and other publications, and could have easily discovered my bona fides...
...I. too, have talked to officials and politicians...
...December 2): "Here is Bertolt Brecht...
...Brumberg has apparently found three small mistakes in my 287 pages...
...have met writers and journalists in Eastern Europe, and that sociologists and physicians are—with notable exceptions—a somewhat wearisome lot...
...Whereas, if we turn to what Brecht certainly did say about the purges, there is his poem on the shooting of his friend Tretya-kov...
...I must confess that I am not personally acquainted with Brumberg, nor have I ever heard of him before...
...Moreover, what assurance do I have that the sundry "young lovelies" are still young and willing—and, indeed, that my efforts would be rewarded as amply, pleasantly, and consistently as those of Stafford...
...I am, however, not responsible for the publisher's blurb...
...or perhaps one of his chance acquaintances with "very generous cleavages" at the Hotel Gellert in Budapest" (p...
...involvment...
...New York City Maurice Schaeffer...
...For obvious reasons I had to disguise my informants, but I am perfectly prepared to provide names—if T can be guaranteed complete discretion...
...having read the review carefully through three times, I am still not certain of Miss Pettingell's meaning or purpose...
...The Great Terror (NL...
...182...
...but it is entirely on Tretyakov's side...
...But he should have admitted that 90 per cent of my sources are Communist, printed or available in easily accessible form...
...It is an ugly, brutal situation in any case, and a U.S...
...Am I not likely to be hampered by my American passport and by the use of my real name...
...But I do accept his claim that he is an expert on "Problems of Communism...
...Indeed, it exposes the tragic cause of Christian anti-Semitism by showing how Christian apologetics shifted the responsibility for the crucifixion of Jesus from the Romans to the Jews...
Vol. 51 • December 1968 • No. 25
