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Jiří (Georg(o)) Mordechai Langer (19 March 1894 in Prague – 12 March 1943 in Tel Aviv) was a Hebrew poet, scholar and essayist, journalist and teacher.

Jiří Mordechai Langer
Born	(1894-03-19)19 March 1894 Praha, Austria–Hungary
Died	12 March 1943(1943-03-12) (aged 48) Tel Aviv, British Mandate Palestine
Occupation	Writer
Notable works	Die Erotik der Kabbala Devět bran

Early life

Langer had been born to the assimilated Jewish family and attended Czech schools. However, already in his early years he felt attracted to Judaism and studied Talmud and Kabbalah with his friend from school: Alfred Fuchs. At the age of 19 he decided to leave his family home and went alone to Belz to join the Hasidic court of Yissachar Dov Rokeach. He later described this journey and his experience in the Hasidic shtetl in the book Nine Gates to Hasidic Mysteries (cz. "Devět bran").

At the outbreak of World War I he was drafted to the Austro-Hungarian army, but refused to obey military orders because of his religious beliefs. For refusing to obey orders he was imprisoned in military jail. After being released he came back to the Rokeah's court upon its exile to Hungary during the war years. In this time he deepened his studies of Torah, Talmud, Midrash, and Kabbalah and lived the hasidic life together with the community.[1]

With the end of World War I Jiří Langer left the hasidic court and decided to move to Vienna, where he studied at the Hebrew Pedagogic Academy. This was also a time when his philosophy turned into the direction of religious Zionism; then he "assisted in the emigration of ... Jewish war refugees to British Mandate Palestine."[2] Later he came back to Prague, where he joined the work of Zionist institutions and worked as teacher of Jewish religion in Czech schools. This was also a time when he developed his friendship with Franz Kafka and Max Brod. In 1940 he emigrated to Jewish Palestine and lived in Tel Aviv.

He is remembered today as an early modern Hebrew poet, as well as for the daring homoerotic strain[3] that runs through his writing, which was highly unusual in those days. "His reconciliation of homosexuality and Judaism involved ... a Zionist homosexuality".[4] Recent scholarship has examined Langer's homosexuality.[5][6]

He was the brother of František Langer.

Publications

• Die Erotik der Kabbala (The Eroticism of Kabbalah; 1923)
• [Zur] Funktion der Jüdischen Türpfostenroll (The Function of the Mezuzah; 1928)
• Piyyutim ve-Shirei Yedidot (Liturgical Songs and Poems of Friendship; 1929) (Hebrew)
• Die (Jüdischen) Gebetriemen (The [Jewish] Phylacteries; 1931)
• Devĕt bran (Nine Gates; 1937). En traduction : Les Neuf Portes du Ciel. Les secrets du hassidisme (traduit en français par Jacqueline et Cécile Rastoin, et Lena Korba-Novotna; Albin Michel, 1997).
• Talmud: ukázky a dĕjiny (Talmud: Anthology and History; 1938)
• Zpĕvy zavržených (The Poems of the Rejected; 1938)
• Meʻaṭ Tsori: Shirim (A bit of my Balm: Poems; 1943) (Tel Aviv, Hebrew)

References

Bibliography

• Walter Koschmal: Der Dichternomade: Jiří Mordechai Langer, ein tschechisch-jüdischer Autor. Böhlau, Köln 2010, ISBN 978-3-412-20393-1
• The YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe: Langer, Jiří

На других языках

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- [en] Jiří Langer

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[ru] Лангер, Иржи

Иржи Лангер (чеш. Jiří Langer; 4 апреля 1894, Прага, Австро-Венгрия — 12 марта 1943, Тель-Авив, Палестина) — чешский и еврейский прозаик и поэт[1].

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