Choose Your Golem!
for Golems outside of Elie Wiesel
The Golem of Jewish folklore has been a special interest of mine for a while now, which shouldn’t surprise anyone. Semi-related, my prospective poem, “Golem and the Librarian” has, as of this date, been rejected from twenty-seven publications.
SUMMER 2023 UPDATE:
GOLEM AND THE LIBRARIAN HAS A LITERARY HOME AFTER ALMOST THIRTY REJECTIONS
My variety of infodumping, besides poetry, is resource-sharing; that’s my communication style.
My first introduction to Golem came from a fellow Jewish poet, and a very dear friend of mine, Lior Hardin, without whom this post wouldn’t exist.
On that note…
CHOOSE YOUR GOLEM
Paper Golems: A Pandemic Diary | Isaac Brynjegard-Bialik [IG]
“The golem story is one of power and protection. When the pandemic began and the world seemed to unravel in so many different ways, I wanted to regain a sense of control over my life, and so I started making golems… Every golem is a response to what I saw happening in the world, day after day and week after week. The series is, at its heart, a pandemic diary.”
For The First Time The Golem Is Angry | Lior Hardin [Iris Literary Journal]
Rubin Hardin’s Golem storytelling dives into disability in Judaism.
glitter golem | Elana Lev Friedland [FreezeRay Poetry]
The Golem Returns | Diane R. Wiener [swallow::tale press]
“THE GOLEM RETURNS is an enchanting conversation about the unknown and the known. With equal parts earnestness, mysticism, and whimsy, Wiener celebrates the Golem as a queer, crip, Mad, and uniquely Jewish figure, and as a deliciously mischievous muse.”
Highlights include, but are not limited to:
“The Golem is a Sefer”
“The Golem Joins the X-Men”
Speaking of Wiener’s Golem lore, there’s also The Golem Verses & two Golem poems in the Kalonopia Collective Disability Pride Anthology (2021).
GOLEM: A Call To Action | Julie Weitz | Contemporary Jewish Museum
“GOLEM: A Call to Action is an exhibition in three parts by Los Angeles–based artist Julie Weitz, comprising three video artworks—Golem v. Golem, My Golem as a Wildland Firefighter, and Prayer for Burnt Forests—that draw on Jewish allegory, folklore, and spiritual practice to confront societal and ecological disasters.”
The Golem and the Wondrous Deeds of the Maharal of Prague | Yudl Rosenberg
Golem, in this universe, knows what time of the year it is based on smells. There’s other points of interest in this book, but that one in particular grabbed me.
“Leivick referred to this work as a "dramatic poem" rather than a "play". As originally written, it was unstageable, requiring, for example, that flames flicker out of their own accord and that actors be visibly knocked about (and even bloodied) by invisible forces; furthermore, the full piece would probably take at least four hours to stage, perhaps longer. However, stageable versions were soon developed, and the play became a standard of Yiddish theater.” [Wikipedia]
There Is Nothing So Whole as a Broken Heart: Mending the World as Jewish Anarchists | Cindy Milstein (Editor)
Specifically, the essay, “We Are The Golems They Fear” by Zelda Ofir (though I do recommend reading the whole anthology)!
“The contemporary renewal of Jewish anarchism draws on a history of enslavement, displacement, white supremacy, and genocide as well as ancestral resistance, strength, imagination, and humor—wisdom that is sorely needed today.”
GLASGOLEM & OUT WEST | Golem Zine Issues 1 & 2
“GLASGOLEM is a collection of Jewish stories from Glasgow, filled with new writing, poetry, art, and plenty of Scottish schmaltz.”
“OUT WEST is a brilliant new collection of prose, poetry, recipes, and riveting storytelling from the Jews of the traditional Ute, Hia Ced O’odham, Arapaho, Cheyenne, Ktunaxa and Salish lands... the Mountain West.”
This is by no means an exhaustive list, I mean, there’s Golem folklore that I’ve devoured that I didn’t include here (bigoted text, lack of interest, etc.), and there’s well-known adaptations I haven’t gone through yet, such as Michael Chabon’s “The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay.”
TIME TO SCULPT!
Which Golem(s) do you choose? Why?
Can Golem(s) be counted in a minyan? Why?
Let me know your own Golem recommendations!