Says Dr. Aviad Stolman, curator of the Jewish collection at the National Library. Until Kafka's writings arrive, which may be found in Max Brod's estate, and on which a trial will still revolve in front of the daughters of Brod's secretary, his Hebrew notebook, letters and photos are preserved in the library.
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The National Library is interested in Franz Kafka, even though he was a writer who wrote in German, seemingly on general subjects. In a conversation with the Hidaen site, Dr. Aviad Stolman, curator of the Jewish collection at the National Library, claims that Kafka's writings are important for documenting Jewish culture in Central Europe at the beginning of the 20th century.
As you know, the National Library is waiting for the documents that the writer Max Brod, who is responsible for publishing Kafka's writings after the author's death, bequeathed to the National Library, but they are in dispute with the heirs of Brod's secretary. At this point, after the ruling in favor of transferring the documents to the National Library, the heirs filed an appeal to the district court and the issue was referred to mediation.
But the National Library holds a number of items related to Kafka. Dr. Stollman specifically mentions Kafka's Hebrew study notebook and a number of photographs of Kafka from the collections of some of his friends in the Farga group.
One of the interesting stories is the story of the arrival of Kafka's Hebrew study notebook which contains, among other things, a list of difficult words in Hebrew and their German translation. The story begins with a girl named Fua Menchel and later Ben Tovim. When she was a young girl she worked at the National Library cataloging books in the German language. The director in those days was Prof. Hugo Bergman (later the first rector of the Hebrew University). When Menchel told Bergman that she wanted to study mathematics in Berlin, he recommended that she study at the German university in his hometown of Prague and even live with his mother.
"One day, Bergman's mother asked her to meet a young Jewish writer who already knows Hebrew at an academic level, and now he wants to learn real everyday Hebrew in preparation for his immigration to Israel and not the Hebrew of writers and professors, and the best thing is to learn from the mouth of a 'Palestinian girl.' The author was of course Franz Kafka. Menchel agreed and, among other things, helped Kafka interpret quite advanced words to help him understand the text "Bereavement and Failure" by the writer Yosef Haim Brenner. There were advanced words there, which indicates Kafka's high level in Hebrew" says Stolman.
When they parted, Kafka gave Menchel some of the notebooks for safekeeping and she donated them to the National Library, and thus the library has notebooks with Kafka's beautiful handwriting written in pencil in Hebrew. "Beyond her beauty, the author also teaches us something about Kafka's closeness to Judaism and Palestine. We know that he kept thinking of immigrating to Israel, the opinions differ on what he wanted to do here - some say he wanted to open a cafe in Tel Aviv, but apparently he wanted to be a farmer. Hugo Bergman, who knew him, also wrote that he planned to immigrate to Israel. It is also indirectly related to the trial. There is always a discussion to what extent Kafka is a Jewish creator or that he happened to be born a Jew but he is a Czech writer who writes in German."
In this context, Stollman points out that the author Aharon Appelfeld says that in the XNUMXs when he was a student at the Hebrew University, it was common to hold homeroom classes in the German language. At the first meeting in which the lecturer participated, Max Brod came up from Tel Aviv (in those days it was a difficult journey that took several hours) and talked about Kafka and Applefeld still remembers Brod's thesis - that his friend met with him for several hours every day in his last days is a Jewish writer not because he Born Jewish and not because his sisters perished in the Holocaust but because the content of his books is content that speaks of his Judaism in all kinds of ways. This is reflected in Brod's quote that was read at the trial: Who is that character who moves from place to place, she is constantly being accused and has no idea what the accusation is against her."
"Even the man who turns into a cockroach in the story of the incarnation (metamorphosis) is an allusion to Judaism. There are researchers who claim that here, too, Kafka is viewed as a Jew, that it doesn't matter how he goes through a metamorphosis and doesn't look like a Jew, but everyone remembers that he is a Jew."
"We know that he studied Talmud and Zohar and was involved in a whole group whose members included Bergman and the teacher who influenced them, Martin Buber. Especially among people who came from assimilated families in Central Europe, the attitude towards Judaism was more forgiving, in contrast, for example, to those who founded the state, such as Ben Gurion, who came from Eastern Europe and trampled on tradition. Zohar Maor calls it the Fergai circle."
According to Stolman, an interesting letter that probably came from Brod's archive, written by Kafka to Brod, was recently sold for 100 thousand euros. In the letter he mentions the Talmud and gives his interpretation of a Talmudic story. "We see Kafka's closeness to the texts that spoke to him and were a part of him."
Another interesting letter, this time in the possession of the National Library is a letter written by Kafka in German to Martin Buber, whose archive is also in the National Library. In other archives of some of Kafka's friends, you can also see rare photographs of the writer.
