Undergraduate Honors Theses

Molded from Clay: The Portrayal of Jews through the Golem in Yudel Rosenberg’s The Golem and the Wondrous Deeds of the Maharal of Prague and Gustav Meyrink’s Der Golem

Reynolds Nelson Hahamovitch, College of William and MaryFollow

Date Thesis Awarded

4-2016

Access Type

Honors Thesis -- Access Restricted On-Campus Only

Degree Name

Bachelors of Arts (BA)

Department

Interdisciplinary Studies

Advisor

Robert Leventhal

Committee Members

Ronald Schechter

Jonathan Glasser

Abstract

This thesis examines and compares Yudel Rosenberg’s The Golem and the Wondrous Deeds of the Maharal (1909) and Gustav Meyrink’s Der Golem (1915). These texts brought monumental changes to the Golem legend and brought the creature for the first time into popular modern literature. This thesis pays particular attention to how Rosenberg and Meyrink bind the Golem legend to the portrayal of the Jew in contemporary Jewish and non-Jewish discourses. I conclude my discussion of these two novels by examining them in light of the Finis Ghetto program, an urban renewal program which almost completely destroyed Prague’s Jewish Town, shocking Jews and non-Jews and changing the Golem legend forever.

Recommended Citation

Hahamovitch, Reynolds Nelson, "Molded from Clay: The Portrayal of Jews through the Golem in Yudel Rosenberg’s The Golem and the Wondrous Deeds of the Maharal of Prague and Gustav Meyrink’s Der Golem" (2016). Undergraduate Honors Theses. William & Mary. Paper 886.
https://scholarworks.wm.edu/honorstheses/886