Langer, Ji?í Mordechai
LANGER, JI?Í MORDECHAI
LANGER, JI?Í MORDECHAI (1894–1943), Czech poet and author, and a younger brother of the playwright František *Langer. Born in Prague, Ji?í rebelled against his assimilatory upbringing and in 1913 went to Belz (Galicia), where he remained for some time at the court of the Rokea? dynasty of ?asidic rabbis. When he returned to Prague, he retained his ?asidic garb and continued to lead a strictly observant life. On the outbreak of World War i, following a second visit to Belz, he was conscripted into the Austrian army but was released because of his religious inflexibility. He then became a teacher at a Jewish school in Vienna and Prague and wrote Hebrew poetry such as Piyyutim ve-Shirei Yedidut (1929). Langer applied Freudian theories to the interpretation of certain aspects of Jewish literature and ritual in such studies as Die Erotik der Kabbala (1923), Erotika kabaly (1991), Zur Funktion der juedischen Tuerpfortenrolle (1928), Die juedischen Gebetriemen –Phylakterien (1931), and Talmud. Ukázky a d?jiny ("Talmud. Extracts and History," 1938, 1993, 1994). His outstanding literary achievements are, however, Dev?t bran Chasid? tajemství (1937, 1965, 1990, 1996; Nine Gates to the ?asidic Mysteries, 1961), a volume of ?asidic tales which have also been translated into Italian and German, and Zp?vy zavržených ("Songs of the Rejected," 1937, 1993), verse ranging from 11th-century Spain to 19th-century Prague. Langer was a close friend of Franz *Kafka, whom he taught Hebrew, and of Max *Brod, who records in his autobiography that some of his works would never have been written without Langer's assistance. After the Nazi invasion of Czechoslovakia, Langer escaped and entered Palestine as an illegal immigrant. In Palestine he wrote a second volume of Hebrew poetry, Me'at ?ori (1943). Langer died in Tel Aviv. After the collapse of the Communist regime, his works were published in Czechoslovakia and in the Czech Republic.
bibliography:
J. Langer, Nine Gates (1961), vii–xxxii (introd. by F. Langer); M. Brod, Der Prager Kreis (1966); Kressel, Leksikon, 2 (1967), 287–8. add. bibliography: H. Carmel, "Mordechai Ji?í Langer: Cabbalist, Writer and Poet," in: Review of the Society for the History of Czechoslovak Jews, vol. 5 (1992–93), 93–126; J. Langer, Dev?t bran (1990), 9–47 (introduction by T. P?kný); Lexikon ?eské literatury 2/ii (1985); Slovník ?eských spisovatel? (1982).
[Avigdor Dagan /
Milos Pojar (2nd ed.)]