SIXTIES NOSTALGIA is pervasive. Fashion designers have resurrected the sixties silhouettes. Beatles star Sir Paul McCartney will finally perform in Israel on September 25, 43 years after he was supposed to appear in Israel with fellow Beatles John Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. (They were banned, and it took a long time for Israel to apologize.) For the past year, Israel has been commemorating the 1967 war. And last week, the Czech Embassy hosted a lecture and film night commemorating the August 1968 invasion by Soviet troops.

A documentary of the invasion illustrates how much freedom the Czechoslovakians had in comparison to citizens of other Soviet satellites. The film, "Seven Days to Remember," depicts Czechs with Beatles hairstyles and clothes that were recognizably sixties styles, trying to resist Soviet tanks and to reason with Soviet soldiers.

On the same night as the Czech commemoration, Israel's electronic media announced the death of peace activist Abie Nathan, whose theme song from his Voice of Peace ship broadcasting "from somewhere in the Mediterranean" was the 1969 Beatles hit "Give Peace a Chance." More dramatic than any of the praise given to Nathan as a maverick pioneer of peace in the various eulogies delivered, was the tribute he received from the media. Within three hours of the announcement of his death, more than 160 media outlets around the world had reported it. It should be remembered that the once flamboyant Nathan had for several years been felled by a stroke which radically altered his appearance and all but deprived him of speech. Yet even though he had been away from the public eye in the Tel Aviv Haketana sheltered-living home, his glory days were not forgotten.

PRIOR TO the screening of "Seven Days," the overflow audience who had assembled at the Czech Embassy, one of the oldest embassy buildings in Israel, were told by Ambassador Michael Zantovsky to watch for a scene in which the Czechs, who severed relations with Israel in 1967, apologized to the Israelis. He didn't say what form the apology took, but the alert made everyone pay close attention. And indeed there was a scene of Czechs wearing signs on their backs that read: "Forgive us Israel. May we succeed as you did."
The event started exactly on time because Jerusalem-based Prof. Eliyahu Rips, who in 1968 had lived in Lithuania and who had set himself alight in protest at what five Warsaw Pact armies were doing in Prague, was also scheduled to give an address that night in Haifa. Speaking in Tel Aviv, Rips said that he believed that there were many other protests that people simply did not know about.

Before a dissertation he delivered on the differences between the Communists and the Nazis, Prof. Shlomo Avineri spoke about his visit to Prague in 1966. He had been invited to participate in an academic conference, and because there were no flights between Tel Aviv and Prague in those days, he flew via Athens, where he boarded a Czech plane. As it happened, he was seated next to an engineer who had been working on the Aswan Dam and who was married to a Jewish woman. Though not a religiously observant person, Avineri was carrying a prayer book and a memorial candle, because one of the few religious traditions he does observe is to say Kaddish for his father, and the memorial day was due to fall during his stay in Prague during the month of Elul. His intention had been to go to the Altneuschul. When he registered at the hotel, he was told that there was a note for him from Pan Am. Somewhat surprised, he read it and found a message that stated: "Welcome to Prague. Can you come to evening prayers at the Altneuschul?"

Avineri, who claimed never to have known real fear before, was, for the first time in his life, afraid. This was very cloak and dagger. He did not recall having shared his intentions with the Aswan Dam engineer. Who in Prague was aware of his plans?

Putting his fear temporarily aside, he went to the conference and in the evening made his way to the Altneuschul. When he approached the beadle, he told him of his strange experience. The beadle was very matter of fact about it. "Oh that's my son from Pan Am," he said airily.

When Avineri met the son a few minutes later, the latter told him that Pan Am had started to fly to Prague in 1966, and that he was the local representative of the airline. As yet, there were not too many people flying Pan Am to Prague, so it was always easy for him to check the flight manifest. Whenever he saw a Jewish name or recognized that someone was from Israel, he checked them out to see if they would come to the Minyan.

As for the difference between Communism and Nazism, Avineri said that many Communists saw the gap between Marxist ideology and reality and became disillusioned. "Nazism does not have a humane face," he said. "Communism in the ideological sense does, but the reality was different from the ideology, causing Communism to collapse from within." Nazis could not be disillusioned because they carried out what they preached, whereas Communists did not, he said.