DAN BILEFSKY - May 10, 2009

PRAGUE — They say the Golem, a Jewish giant with glowing eyes and supernatural powers, is lurking once again in the attic of the Old-New Synagogue here.

The Golem, according to Czech legend, was fashioned from clay and brought to life by a rabbi to protect Prague’s 16th-century ghetto from persecution, and is said to be called forth in times of crisis. True to form, he is once again experiencing a revival and, in this commercial age, has spawned a one-monster industry.

There are Golem hotels; Golem door-making companies; Golem clay figurines (made in China); a recent musical starring a dancing Golem; and a Czech strongman called the Golem who bends iron bars with his teeth. The Golem has also infiltrated Czech cuisine: the menu at the non-kosher restaurant called the Golem features a “rabbi’s pocket of beef tenderloin” and a $7 “crisis special” of roast pork and potatoes that would surely have rattled the venerable Rabbi Judah Loew ben Bezalel, the Golem’s supposed maker.

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A few years ago someone sent me a photo of a metal-cast plaque he had found on the wall at the house of a friend of his family’s. I no longer have the original email and I fail to recall the exact details of what the person (at whose home it was found) did for a living, but he was probably an engineer or a cyberneticist. The person who contacted me was inquiring as to whether I had seen something like this before - I hadn’t.

Here is the photo:

Cybernetic Symbolism (Click for full view)

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