THAT SUMMER WITH ORA

An experiment in international living that is meaningful and fraught with contemporary problems and feelings. American Eleanor comes to spend the summer with an Israeli family, and no one is enthusiastic about the prospects. Ora, hesitant about American pretense, has her worst suspicions fulfilled when the highly fashionable New Yorker steps off the plane; brother Reuben and Girl Scout friends agree she is horrible. Eleanor comes on strong, often to their distaste and sometimes to her discredit; provoked, she calls one of Ora's friends ""a black monkey,"" precipitating an either/or situation for Ora until she conducts a ""trial"" at which each girl becomes judge and jury, defendant and prosecutor. Cultural conflict, prejudice and opinion, emerge with considerable dexterity and honesty: they resent her Americanisms and her disparagement of the Israeli way; she chides them for narrow provincialism and for mocking her. Then the sabras start in among themselves and admit to tensions within groups of Israeli Jews; and finally there is some discussion of the attitude toward race her remark reflected. What is most impressive is that all the characters, especially the minor ones, have a life and personality of their own; they exist as individuals and live in each other's lives.