The Golem by Isaac Bashevis Singer

First published: 1982; illustrated

Subjects: Love and romance, religion, the supernatural, and war

Type of work: Novel

Type of plot: Fantasy and folktale

Time of work: The sixteenth century

Recommended Ages: 10-15

Locale: Prague, Bohemia

Principal Characters:

  • Rabbi Judah Leib, a scholar of mysticism and magic
  • Genendel, his charitable wife
  • Joseph, the golem, a clay giant
  • Miriam, a servant girl who grows to love Joseph
  • Count Jan Bratislawski, a duplicitous nobleman

Form and Content

The Golem retells a story from Jewish folklore. Initially intended for an adult readership, The Golem first appeared in a 1969 edition of the Yiddish language periodical The Jewish Daily Forward. Author Isaac Bashevis Singer wrote all his fiction in Yiddish, only afterward publishing an English translation.

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In the 1982 publication of The Golem as a children’s book, Uri Shulevitz’s chiaroscuro drawings capture the interplay of light and dark that conveys the story’s tone. They also illuminate the story’s medieval setting.

A classic tale of misdirected ambition, The Golem draws on legends dating back to the sixteenth century. These legends center on a clay giant, or golem, created by the historical figure Judah Loew ben Bezalel, a noted Kabbalist, or practitioner of Jewish mysticism. The golem is intended to champion the Jewish community in time of need.

Singer blends several of the legends surrounding the golem into a single narrative. He begins by introducing the reader to Rabbi Leib, humble as well as learned, and therefore suited to his sacred task. The rabbi is instructed about how to bring the golem to life and for what specific purpose: to exonerate a Jewish banker—and with him the entire Jewish community—from a charge of killing a Christian child for ritual purposes.

This first part of the narrative reaches its climax when the golem disrupts the banker’s trial by bringing the supposed victim, very much alive, into the courtroom. It is revealed that the child was locked away by her own father, Count Jan Bratislawski. The count, an inveterate gambler, vengefully accused the banker of murdering the girl after the banker refused to finance his fall deeper into debt.

The ethics of the situation become complicated in the second part of the story. Now that the golem, named “Joseph” in Singer’s version, has fulfilled his mission, Rabbi Leib decides to extinguish his life. The rabbi is dissuaded, however, by his wife, Genendel, who proposes that Joseph lift an enormous rock in their backyard, under which is believed to be buried a great treasure; the rabbi is persuaded by her argument that many could be aided by the recovered gold. This plan, although motivated by compassion, confuses the golem’s purpose, and chaos ensues.

Rabbi Leib loses control over the golem, who becomes more human and, at the same time, more dangerous, if innocently so. Finally, orders come from the emperor that Joseph is to be drafted into the army. Concerned about the unmanageable golem running amuck and the Jews being blamed, the rabbi enlists the help of Miriam, an orphan who serves his family—including Joseph, who dotes on her. Miriam agrees, reluctantly, for she herself has grown fond of Joseph. Succumbing to an all-too-human weakness, Joseph becomes drunk on the wine that Miriam supplies to him, and, in the narrative’s second climax, the rabbi is able to erase the Holy Name on his forehead, rendering him lifeless. The sense of relief that ends The Golem is disturbed, however, by the discovery one morning of Miriam’s empty bed, generating rumors ranging from suicide to a reunion with her beloved Joseph.

Critical Context

The ancient legend of the golem began appearing in novels, plays, and films beginning in the late nineteenth century. The golem was even featured in a Marvel comic book in the 1970’s. Most treatments of the legend were written for adults, until Beverly Brodsky McDermott’s picture book The Golem: A Jewish Legend appeared in 1976. The Golem: The Story of a Legend, written for children by Nobel Prize winner Elie Weisel, followed in 1982, the same year that Singer—also a Nobel Prize recipient—published his version.

All three authors generally tell the same story, with variations. The versions diverge most significantly regarding Genendel’s role in the narrative’s downturn of events. McDermott omits her participation entirely, while Weisel includes hers among other similar schemes—well-intentioned or otherwise—to misdirect the golem’s purpose. Critics seem at a loss to explain Singer’s choice here. Is Singer reflecting the traditional view of women in much Western literature since the Bible as temptress, or is he simply streamlining the narrative?

In any case, appearing twenty-some years after Singer’s first fictional work for children, The Golem continues to demonstrate Singer’s conviction that “No matter how young they are, children are concerned with so-called eternal questions.” The Golem also resembles Singer’s other writings for children in its basis in folklore. According to Singer, being rooted in folklore “alone makes children’s literature so important,” adding that without it, “literature must decline and wither away.”