In Pursuit of the Golem of Prague. Talk by Professor Hillel J. Kieval.

“During the reign of Rudolph II,” begins one well-known version of the Golem story, “there lived among the Jews of Prague a man named Bezalel Löw . . . This rabbi was well versed in all of the arts and sciences, especially in the Kabbalah. By means of this art he could bring to life figures formed out of clay . . . who, like real men, would perform whatever task was asked of them.” A dramatic opening, but why the city of Prague, one might ask? Why Rudolph II and Rabbi Judah Löw ben Bezalel, known as the Maharal? Is there evidence of this legend in the actual history of late-medieval or early modern Jewish Prague? In this lecture Hillel Kieval explores the cultural background to the Golem story, its traces in traditional Jewish literature, its resonances in Czech culture and memory, and the surprisingly modern settings of the tale’s narration as we have come to know it today.

Hillel Kieval is the Gloria M. Goldstein Professor Emeritus of Jewish History and Thought at Washington University in St. Louis. Over the course of his career, he has held visiting appointments at Charles University in Prague, the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in Paris, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the Universidad Hebraica in Mexico City, Vilnius University in Lithuania, and the Center for Advanced Judaic Studies at the University of Pennsylvania.

Professor Kieval’s research examines Jewish culture and society in Central and East-Central Europe in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, in particular the impact of nationalism and ethnic conflict on modern Jewish identities, modern antisemitism, and the phenomenology of "ritual M**der" trials at the turn of the 20th century. Among his published books are Blood Inscriptions: Science, Modernity, and Ritual M**der at Europe’s Fin de Siècle (2022); Prague and Beyond: Jews in the Bohemian Lands (Co-editor, 2022); Languages of Community: The Jewish Experience in the Czech Lands (2000); and The Making of Czech Jewry: National Conflict and Jewish Society in Bohemia, 1870-1918 (1988).

In May 2022 Hillel Kieval was awarded the Silver Medal of the Faculty of Arts, from Charles University of Prague. In May 2024 he received the Moses Mendelssohn Award from the Leo Baeck Institute, New York.

Suggested donation $15.

The event is organized by the Society for the History of Czechoslovak Jews with support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic, Consulate General of the Czech Republic in New York and Bohemian Benevolent and Literary Association.

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

Bohemian National Hall, 321 East 73rd Street, New York, United States

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