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Jacob Ries (1660–1751) of Prague first worked as a badchan (jester) for weddings. In 1710, he became court jester in Vienna under Charles VI. The artist of this portrait of Ries is not known. It…
- No one shall seek permission to become a master, unless he has it in writing from the Jewish Elders of Prague that he is native of the place, and he shall previously furnish the Jewish Elders with a…
23 October. The actors convince me by their presence time and again, to my consternation, that most of what I’ve written about them so far is wrong. It is wrong because I wrote about them with…
A passage in chapter 22 of the third Book of Moses was destined to become the starting point for one of the most peculiar religious concepts of the Jewish people. It reads: “Observe my laws and…
To define the characteristics of antisemitism it is good to proceed on two fronts: i.e., to examine its development externally in a purely empirical manner and thereby find its…
Dense crowds proceed at dawn
Through Theresienstadt’s still empty streets
Five abreast curving around corners into squares.
The beast checks if anybody has stumbled.
Today God’s chosen people are…
As Gregor Samsa woke one morning from uneasy dreams, he found himself transformed into some kind of monstrous vermin. He lay on his hard, armour-like back, and if he lifted his head a little, he could…
What is this Jewish Prague that is so much talked about here? We don’t know it in a way that would allow us to define it or draw its image. But we know that it is a reality that lives in us and has an…
All philosophy—understood in the widest sense as awe before and research into the inexplicable secrets and the inner coherence of the world—is meaningful not for the sake of knowledge but as a form of…
Before she labored, she was delivered;
Before her pangs came, she bore a son!
—Isaiah 66:7
Fear not, worm of Jacob,
O people of Israel,
For I will help you.
—Isaiah 41:14
The hard, painful hour…