So What’s the Plan, Jerusalem?

Countless urban plans have been drawn up for Jerusalem over the years, but the Holy City, and history itself, always seemed to have plans of their own…

Tehila Bigman | 11.12.24

A map of land ownership in Jerusalem in 1948, before the establishment of the State of Israel. From the archive of the Jerusalem Institute for Policy Research (Reference # IL-JIPR-JPL-01-02-0001)

Upon taking office as the first British High Commissioner for Palestine, Sir Herbert Samuel announced that the region would have its own special administration. The unique status which the British granted to Mandatory Palestine was an indication of its importance in their eyes. Known to its Hebrew-speaking Jewish residents as Eretz Yisrael – the Land of Israel – Mandatory Palestine was established as an autonomous administrative unit with its own currency (displaying the names of the land in Arabic, English and Hebrew), and for the first time since the days of King David, Jerusalem was declared its capital.

But the Jerusalem the British encountered in 1917 was far from worthy of such lofty status. Sewage flowed in the streets. Dirt, filth, and disease were everywhere to be found. Roads were in disrepair, there was no electricity, and the First World War had led to serious shortages and even famine.

The first step was to bring order to the system. The High Commissioner announced that a general land survey and registration would soon begin. Steps would be taken to ensure that the new neighborhoods to be built would be constructed according to appropriate plans.

A British Mandate map of the Jerusalem area. From the archive of the Jerusalem Institute for Policy Research (Reference # IL-JIPR-JPL-01-01-0001)

A Stone-Carved Mountain

No fewer than five comprehensive city plans came across the desk of the Military Governor of Jerusalem over thirty years of British rule, outlining how the city would look in the years to come. These plans navigated the complexities of both preserving the Old City and developing the new city towards the west, while also mapping out new roads, neighborhoods, gardens, and commercial areas.

Of the five plans, the most impactful was that of architect Henry Kendall, which was submitted in 1944. Kendall studied architecture at the University of London and came to Mandatory Palestine in 1936. He was appointed the High Commissioner’s advisor on urban planning, he was the chief architect for the Mandatory public works department, and he was also the city engineer of Jerusalem. His plans for Jerusalem were detailed and differentiated between residential, commercial, industrial, and other uses. Kendall mapped out the network of streets and town squares, planning for six categories of building density and height, depending on proximity to the Old City. His plan was for neighborhoods to be built on mountain ridges, separated by valleys that would remain free of buildings and contain public gardens. He also added industrial zones to the city. Kendall’s plan implemented the customary British practice of preserving the Old City and separating it from the new city. It defined the building materials and architectural style to be used, which aligned with the British perception of Jerusalem. For example, the use of corrugated iron, asbestos, wood, and essentially any material other than stone was prohibited; the architectural style in the new city also featured arches and paid meticulous attention to the skyline.

Kendall’s impact on the city’s appearance and character was the most lasting and significant among those that preceded him. Many of the principles he set continue to affect the city, its residents, and its appearance to this day.

Henry Kendall could have sat in his office for many more years, continuing to plan the city, if history did not have its own plans for Jerusalem – and for Kendall himself. Four years after he submitted his plans for the city, the map of Jerusalem changed drastically.

A map of land ownership in Jerusalem in 1948, prior to the establishment of the State of Israel. From the archive of the Jerusalem Institute for Policy Research (Reference # IL-JIPR-JPL-01-02-0001)

Jordanian Jerusalem – Israeli Jerusalem

The UN Partition Plan of 1947, which stipulated that Jerusalem would be a demilitarized city under international control, was not welcomed by any of the sides involved in the fierce battle over control of Jerusalem during Israel’s War of Independence. As a result, it was the developments on the battlefield, rather than mapmakers sitting in their offices, that decided what the city would look like. In the armistice agreements, Jerusalem was divided between the Jordanians and the Israelis, and each side rushed to assert sovereignty over its part. How? Through planning, of course.

While the Israeli Jerusalem municipality hired architects to draw up a new urban plan for West Jerusalem, the Jordanians turned to none other than our old friend Henry Kendall.

Kendall’s 1944 plans continued to serve as a guideline for the Jordanians in Jordanian East Jerusalem, and after a fair amount of work that included making adjustments to account for the new geopolitical reality, Kendall submitted an improved plan for Jerusalem: “Jerusalem (Jordan) and Region Planning Proposals”.

Kendall’s plan for Jordanian Jerusalem. From the archive of the Jerusalem Institute for Policy Research (Reference # IL-JIPR-JPL-01-02-0003)

Kendall envisioned Jordanian Jerusalem as a spacious city, combining residential areas, commercial zones, roads, and open spaces. In practice, however, the Jordanian government’s complicated relationship with the Arab residents of Jerusalem led to a far less developed city. Despite all of his hard work, only a few years after Kendall submitted the plan, history struck yet again, and all of his meticulously prepared blueprints had to be shelved in the archive.

“My City has Changed Her Face”

The Six-Day War brought about a drastic change in the city’s appearance, size, character, and planning principles. For the first time, Israel assumed planning authority over the Old City, without neglecting the new city.

Senior teams of planners and architects began preparing the master plan for (Western) Jerusalem in the early 1960s. Israel (Lulik) Kimhi, a veteran researcher and one of the pillars of the Jerusalem Institute for Policy Research, describes how, for the umpteenth time in Jerusalem’s history, the city laughed in the faces of those who prepared such intricate plans for her: “The office [=Office of the Master Plan for Jerusalem] began following a detailed work plan and was about to finish its work on the eve of the city’s reunification. However, due to the sudden change in Jerusalem’s situation following the Six-Day War, [Mayor] Teddy Kollek asked the team to continue working, and so we, the members of the master plan team, were tasked with preparing the first plan for a reunified city.”

Development of Jerusalem’s area of jurisdiction. From the archive of the Jerusalem Institute for Policy Research (Reference # IL-JIPR-JPL-01-02-0002)

In the decades that followed the Six-Day War, Jerusalem entered a period of planning and construction unlike any before. Areas that had previously been neglected now received plans and development programs; old neighborhoods saw renovations and expansion; massive new neighborhoods were built and parks were developed, and highways were constructed to connect the newly unified parts of the city.

Plan for the Old City and its surroundings. From the archive of the Jerusalem Institute for Policy Research (Reference IL-JIPR-JPL-02-03-0005)

Development of construction in Jerusalem 1967-1990. From the archive of the Jerusalem Institute for Policy Research (Reference IL-JIPR-JPL-01-03-0001)

In addition to building new neighborhoods within Jerusalem – Ramot, Gilo, Pisgat Ze’ev, and others – a decision was made in the 1980s to expand the broader urban territory by establishing cities and towns around Jerusalem. Thus, Ma’ale Adumim, Efrat, Givat Ze’ev, and other communities were founded, marking the beginning of the era of “Greater Jerusalem,” with the city functioning as a metropolitan area serving a large region of Jewish and Arab communities surrounding it.

The distribution of Arab and Jewish populations in the Jerusalem area. From the archive of the Jerusalem Institute for Policy Research (Reference IL-JIPR-MET-03-04-0004)

Jerusalem 2000

How was the eternal city to prepare for a new millennium? With plans, how else? As early as 1985, work began on the ultimate urban plan for Israel’s capital city – the Jerusalem 2000 Master Plan. Lulik described it as follows: “The plan included population and construction forecasts, economic and demographic analysis, preservation zones, transportation systems, new areas for construction, landscape considerations, open spaces, and more. The plan had a comprehensive, systemic vision and was supposed to guide the city’s development… until the year 2020.”

But as we have already learned, the city of Jerusalem has a life of its own. Security issues, demographic changes, political processes, various economic pressures and the realities of life itself have reshaped the city’s appearance. To this day, the Jerusalem 2000 plan has not been formally approved by the Israeli Ministry of the Interior, but it still serves as a guiding document for the local planning committee in Jerusalem.

For their part, planning committees and city planners are still attempting to design Jerusalem’s urban landscape, trying to reshape the image of this vibrant and chaotic ancient city. These efforts are likely to continue until the next historical turn of events that will force the planners to shelve their maps and blueprints in the archive of the Jerusalem Institute for Policy Research – and begin rethinking everything, once again.

The items appearing in this article are preserved in the archive of the Jerusalem Institute for Policy Research and are digitally accessible as part of the Archive Network Israel project, made possible thanks to the collaborative efforts of the archive, the Ministry of Heritage, and the National Library of Israel.

The Clerk Who Became a Writer Against His Will: Who Was Franz Kafka of Prague?

What would have happened if Kafka had lived for many more years and died of old age? How did a seemingly nondescript clerk become one of the greatest writers of the 20th century? Was his death the best thing that ever happened to him? Kafka's fascinating character is explored in a new exhibition at the National Library, showcasing the man whose life, work, and death became an inseparable part of the modern human experience.

Stefan Litt | 03.12.24

Franz Kafka Jewish Authors

"One Kafka, One Hundred Times", Michel Kichka, 2024

Franz Kafka is one of the greatest writers of the 20th century. His works, particularly The Metamorphosis, The Trial, The Castle, and Amerika, are among the most important pieces of literature written in the West, due to the themes discussed as well as the style of writing, which was remarkably ahead of its time.

But why did Kafka – a seemingly nondescript government clerk whose works remained largely unpublished during his own lifetime – have such a profound impact on world literature? How did this person, who wanted his own writings burned after his premature death, become such an important author, whose style continues to be emulated by other writers 100 years after his death?

Today we can say that Kafka pioneered modern literature during the first quarter of the 20th century. The themes of his works—contending with oppressive bureaucracy, questions of identity and self-worth, the breakdown of traditional social structures, and the challenges of the modern world—were innovative for his time and found their place in contemporary literature thanks to him. The human condition depicted in many of his works is terrifying, grotesque, meaningless, and hopeless; In short, it is “Kafkaesque,” a term that is nowadays a common figure of speech.

Despite all the belated praise he eventually received, Kafka didn’t actually want his novels and stories published. Most of them were published gradually, contrary to his explicit will, only after the author’s death on June 3, 1924—at the age of 41—and were later translated from German into many other languages.

The many fascinating facets of Franz Kafka are currently on display in a special exhibition at the National Library of Israel marking 100 years since his passing, shedding light on the author, his works, and his life. Here, I will try to review some of the milestones of his life, as displayed in the exhibition, and answer the question, “Who was Franz Kafka, and why is his work so revolutionary and important?”

המהדורה הראשונה של הספר התבוננות עם הקדשה אישית למקס ברוד 1913 — First edition of *Contemplation*, with a personal dedication to Max Brod, 1913

Franz Kafka was born in Prague on July 3, 1883, as the eldest son of Hermann and Julie Kafka, the owners of a textile shop in the city center. He was followed by three sisters: Gabriele (“Elli”), Valerie (“Valli”), and Ottilie (“Ottla”). The Kafka family identified as Jewish, but like many Jews of the time, they saw themselves first and foremost as a part of German culture. Franz attended a German-speaking high school and graduated in 1901.

He studied alongside Samuel Hugo Bergmann who later became the director of the Jewish National and University Library in Jerusalem (today’s National Library of Israel) and rector of the Hebrew University.

After completing school, Kafka began studying law, art history, philosophy, and German literature at the University of Prague. This was where he met his close friend Max Brod, another law student who was also a writer, poet, playwright, and composer. During this period, Kafka wrote the first draft of his stories Description of a Struggle and Wedding Preparations in the Country. Although he lived in Bohemia and spoke Czech, Kafka chose to write in German.

He took his first steps as a writer after completing his law studies at the University of Prague while simultaneously working as a professional clerk, which demanded that he be well-versed in the bureaucratic complexities of the insurance world. Following his university studies, he joined a law firm in Bohemia specializing in workplace accidents. He disliked the job and yet he excelled at it. Still, his heart was set on writing. Despite his new financial independence, he continued to live with his parents until the later stages of his life, something which contributed to family rifts that became motifs of his literary work.

כריכת המהדורה הראשונה של הרומן המשפט ברלין 1925 — Cover of the first edition of the novel *The Trial*, Berlin 1925

Clerk by Day, Writer by Night

Kafka often drew on themes from his experiences working as a lawyer in an administrative-bureaucratic system in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, where the difference between his identity as a writer and his self-perception was significant. Many of his personal texts (for example, Letter to His Father, his personal letters to his friends, and his journals) reveal his pondering over his self-image and his literary capabilities. In contrast, his literary work focused on something that he himself had mastered, but that many feared and recoiled from– the great beast of bureaucracy. The two novels The Trial and The Castle reflect his experiences in the realm of bureaucracy and the sense of helplessness it instills in the ordinary citizen. His short story Before the Law serves as a sort of summary of these novels. None of these works have lost their value over time. They remain relevant today, which is the secret of Kafka’s success in many cultures around the world.

Kafka’s first book, Contemplation, was published in 1912. It was a collection of short stories he had composed a few years earlier. Later he released the story The Judgment, which was written in a single night in the fall of 1912 and reveals Kafka’s typically gloomy style. His most famous work, The Metamorphosis, tells the story of a traveling salesman who wakes up one morning in his bed to find that he has transformed into a giant insect. These works established a new style that required readers to confront the unpleasant and even frightening aspects of human existence and absurd situations that could not be based on real experience but rather on a well-developed imagination. In many of his works, the bureaucratic motif is expressed in the form of dark mechanisms that operate according to unclear principles that are not in the citizen’s favor, or in characters who serve those mechanisms. Kafka’s writing was very different from anything written before. He was likely aware of this, which may be one of the reasons why he refused to publish most of his works and even instructed that they be destroyed.

First edition of Contemplation, with a personal dedication to Max Brod, 1913.

The three novels Kafka wrote, which continued the themes he developed in his shorter works—Amerika (originally titled The Missing Person), The Trial, and The Castle—remained unfinished. Kafka asked Max Brod to burn all his manuscripts after his death. However, Brod decided not to fulfill Kafka’s wishes and instead published all of them. In doing so, he saved a number of literary masterpieces from destruction, making Kafka one of the greatest writers of the 20th century and a key figure of Western literature.

הנחיות קפקא למקס ברוד להשמיד את כל עזבונו אחרי מותו 1921 — Kafka’s instructions to Max Brod to destroy all his works after his death, 1921

Saving Kafka From Himself

What would have happened if Kafka had lived for many more years? It seems that his tragic end, which prevented him from controlling the publication (or non-publication) of his works, is what ironically helped him become one of the greatest writers of our time. The story of how he ordered his own works to be destroyed and his “betrayal” by Max Brod, who did the exact opposite, contributed to Kafka’s posthumous fame, which he never experienced in his lifetime.

Kafka contracted tuberculosis during World War I, in 1917, and it ultimately led to his death. Tuberculosis was one of the most common diseases of the early 20th century. At that time, there was still no cure for it. The disease spread primarily among populations suffering from nutritional deficiencies, and wartime periods were disastrous in this regard.

Initially, Kafka tried to treat the disease by taking a few months of rest outside the city, at his sister Ottilie’s home. However, as his condition worsened, he was forced to spend longer periods at various sanatoriums in Bohemia and Austria. In the final weeks of his life, the disease spread to his throat, preventing him from speaking, and forcing him to communicate with those around him through writing.

Despite the deterioration in his health, Kafka did not stop creating and writing. In 1921, he began to fear that his time was limited and he instructed his friend Brod to destroy all of his writings after his death. He nevertheless wrote The Castle in 1922 but was unable to finish it. During the last year of his life, he collected short stories for his final anthology, A Hunger Artist.

העטיפת המהדורה הראשונה של הרומן אמריקה מאת קפקא ספרו הראשון שראה אור בתרגום לעברית 1945 — Book cover of the first Hebrew edition of the novel *Amerika* by Franz Kafka, 1945. This was the first of Kafka’s works to appear in Hebrew translation.

Kafka Arrives in Mandatory Palestine

Kafka’s manuscripts were saved by Max Brod twice. The first time was when he refused to burn them, and the second – when Brod carried the manuscripts with him when he immigrated to the Land of Israel in 1939. Had that not happened, the writings could have fallen into the hands of the Nazis, and likely would not have survived World War II.

However, Kafka’s success is also due to the efforts of Shlomo Zalman Schocken, a man of words and action. From 1934, Kafka’s major works were published by the Schocken Publishing House in Berlin, and after the company was moved to Mandatory Palestine following its closure by the Nazis, Schocken made sure to translate them into Hebrew. From 1945, the novels and stories were published in numerous editions, and Kafka gained recognition among Hebrew readers as well. His novels were published in various editions and were translated several times. Additionally, the sale of publication rights for translations into different languages helped spread Kafka’s books to countless countries and tongues.

Book cover of the first Hebrew edition of the novel Amerika by Franz Kafka, 1945. This was the first of Kafka’s works to appear in Hebrew translation.

After making Aliyah, Max Brod continued to work in Israel and shared his personal stories about his relationship with Kafka among the local cultural circles. Kafka’s works became the subject of academic research, were analyzed in literary newspaper supplements, and inspired Israeli artists from various fields. Brod’s adaptation of The Castle into a play paved the novel’s way into the heart of the wider Israeli audience.

Kafka’s unique writing also attracted interest in Arab countries. In the late 1960s, various translations of his books and short stories began to be published in Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan. They sparked discussions about Kafka’s writing and his relationship to Judaism and Zionism.

Franz Kafka’s life story continues to capture a great deal of attention, primarily due to the tension between the simplicity of his life and the prominence of his status as a modern-classical writer. Since 1969, no significant steps have been taken in Israel to present the man, his surroundings, and his works in a significant exhibition. Now that the Max Brod Archive, which contains Kafka’s manuscripts and writings, has been brought to the National Library, this will be the first time such a wealth of unique Kafka materials will be displayed to the public.

Remembering Yonatan Richter: The High-Tech Professional Who Translated Spiritual Literature

Yonatan (Shafik) Richter was an exceptional person. He lived a life full of practical achievements as well as great spiritual awareness, the kind of life that can serve as an inspiration to us all. He was a family man with a thriving career who also sought greater meaning and hoped to share his insights with others. On October 7 2023, he volunteered as a mental health supporter at the Nova festival, where his life was cut short.

Yael Ingel | 03.12.24

Lives Lost: The Works of the October 7 Fallen – A Special Project

Yonatan (Shafik) Richter, in a photograph from a family album, and the cover of the book he translated into Hebrew, "Inner Engineering: A Yogi’s Guide to Joy" by Sadhguru

Right now, you are holding a book. Where do you see the book? […] The light is falling upon the book, reflecting, going into the lens of your eyes, and projected as an inverted image on your retina – you know the whole story. So, you are actually seeing the book within yourself.

Where do you see the whole world?

Again, within yourself

All human experience is one hundred percent self-created […]

This is the fundamental shift in understanding that has to happen. Do not look for a way out of misery. Do not look for a way out of suffering. There is only one way – and that is in.
[From “Inner Engineering – A Yogi’s Guide to Joy” by Sadhguru ]

“We will all die in the end; it’s just that no one knows when. The question is how we lived and what we did with the time that was given to us,” says Ahmad Diab, a close friend of the late Yonatan (Shafik) Richter, who was murdered in the Hamas attack on October 7. Richter was volunteering as a mental health supporter at the Nova festival when the attack began. “Shafik had a big influence on our lives, also thanks to this book.”

The book referred to above is Inner Engineering – A Yogi’s Guide to Joy, which Richter translated into Hebrew. As part of the National Library of Israel’s efforts to find works produced by those who were murdered on that dark day, we were surprised to come across a book written by a spiritual leader from India named Sadhguru, which was published in Hebrew in 2023. The book focuses on ways we can help ourselves and achieve happiness and well-being by adopting simple spiritual and practical understandings.

Who was this man who had undertaken such a large project in translating this guidebook for life, and was murdered so close to its publication?

We embarked on a journey to find out more about Yonatan (Shafik) Richter and discovered an exceptional man who had created for himself a life rich in both spirituality and practical achievement, a man whose life can serve as an inspiration to all of us. It seems that everything connected to Shafik was unique. His mother, widow, publisher, and a close friend all speak of him with a kind of calmness and a deep sense of gratitude for the time they shared with him.

Richter lived in Ein Hod, a small community of artists in northern Israel, which his parents helped establish. He was born and raised there. Shafik is a nickname that stuck with him from childhood, as his mother, Eli Ben Zvi, recounts, and so we will call him that as well.

“As a child, Shafik was both very physical, mischievous, jumping around, climbing, and running, and at the same time balanced and attentive,” says his mother. “Strangers often approached me and asked: ‘You’re Shafik’s mother? You should know you have the most amazing child in the world,’” she recalls, adding, “I heard this from many people throughout his life.”

During his military service in the IDF’s Mamram unit (dedicated to computing and information systems), Shafik met his wife, Doron. He became a father at a young age to two daughters – Gaya, 21, and Sol, 17 – with whom he had a special bond. “He was an amazing father, present in every aspect of their lives, and he thoroughly enjoyed fatherhood – whether he was changing diapers or being a life mentor,” Doron shares.

To make a living, Shafik embarked on a successful career in high-tech, first in the gaming industry and later independently, and was supposedly far removed from the rich spiritual world presented in the book he translated. So how does a 45-year-old high-tech professional come to translate a spiritual guidebook?

From High-Tech Professional to Translator

“One day, I sent him a video I saw on YouTube that I thought would interest him,” recalls his mother, Eli Ben Zvi. The video featured a spiritual leader by the name of Sadhguru. Shafik was immediately taken in by him and began listening to his lectures and reading everything he could about him. That very day, he ordered Sadhguru’s book and started reading it. His deep interest in the writings led him to travel to India, to Sadhguru’s ashram, where he participated in a seminar there. Studying Sadhguru’s philosophy changed Shafik’s view of reality; he connected with the guru’s spiritual path, which also included daily yoga exercises.

The book Inner Engineering allows for a deep dive and the discovery of new depths and meaning in everyday life. It is recommended for anyone who wants to live a better, more pleasant life and gain a greater understanding of life itself. It is an easy read, and often a paragraph or two gave me enough to ponder for hours at a time. In the “Translator’s Note” at the beginning of his Hebrew version, Shafik writes: “I first became acquainted with Sadhguru in 2019. I discovered a fascinating person who opened a door for me to a better and happier life. Every time I returned to the text, new aspects and depths were revealed to me. This is a book that can and should be read more than once.”

Shafik knew that many would struggle to read and understand Sadhguru’s philosophy in English and wanted to bring this knowledge to others in Israel. He ultimately decided to take on the task of translating the book into Hebrew himself.

“It wasn’t easy,” recalls Yuval Ben Mordechai, who was at the time the publisher at Astrolog Publishing House, which published the book in collaboration with Yedioth Books. It took about three years to translate since this was a volunteer project for Shafik, who worked on it in his free time. Ben Mordechai taught him the intricacies of the profession and paired him with Sigal Gefen, an experienced translation editor.

Gefen shares how surprised she was to discover that the book she was editing was not the work of a seasoned and experienced translator. “It was amazing. You couldn’t tell this was his first translation. And I could feel how close the subject was to his heart.” His mother, with whom he sometimes consulted on the translation, said, “Every sentence was meaningful to him. We would discuss it for hours, and he would go to bed, only to come back the next day with new insights about the translation of that very sentence. It was a fascinating process.”

As part of his deep exploration of Sadhguru’s philosophy, Shafik became familiar with the Isha Foundation, an international volunteer organization which Sadhguru founded (“Isha” is a Sanskrit word meaning “the formless divine”). The organization’s goal is to guide all people worldwide toward their full potential in this life, in harmony with themselves and their environment. Shafik contributed to the organization’s Israeli branch as part of a team that worked to translate Sadhguru’s content into Hebrew. In addition to translating the book, he also translated content for various social media platforms, making it accessible to anyone in Israel. That’s how he met Ahmad Diab, and the two became close friends, even traveling together to another program at Sadhguru’s ashram in India. “Shafik,” Diab recalls, “was known for his total commitment. If he got involved in something, he would do it to the fullest. He wanted to bring change to Israel, to raise awareness in society, and that was his contribution. He invested endless hours in it.”

עטיפת הספר — Yonatan (Shafik) Richter’s Hebrew translation of *Inner Engineering – A Yogi’s Guide to Joy* by Sadhguru

Something He Left Behind

The book was published in the summer of 2023: “Finally, all of us volunteers at Isha had a way to share with friends and family what had touched us so deeply. It was an emotional moment for the community. I remember Shafik saying to me, ‘Brother, I can’t believe this is happening…’” Right after finishing the translation of the first book, Shafik began translating Sadhguru’s second book, Karma, but he didn’t get the chance to complete it.

There is something within every human that dislikes boundaries, that is longing to become boundless […] No matter how much we achieve, we still want to be something more. If we just looked at this closely, we would realize that this longing is not for more, this longing is for all. We are all seeking to become infinite […] The moment I realized that human desire was not for any particular thing, but just to expand illimitably, a certain clarity rose within me. When I saw that everyone is capable of this, it felt natural to want to share it. My whole aim since then has been to somehow rub this experience off on other people, to awaken them to the fact that this state of joy, of freedom, of limitlessness cannot be denied to them unless they stand in the way of the natural effervescence of life.”
[From “Inner Engineering – A Yogi’s Guide to Joy” by Sadhguru]

The Infinite Volunteer

The translation was just one of many things Shafik did voluntarily, as part of his desire to contribute to a better world.

In addition to his involvement in Isha projects, Shafik also volunteered to distribute food packages to the needy, and over the last two years of his life, he found time for another volunteer initiative: a special project by the Elem organization called Anashim Tovim (Good People). As part of this project, trained volunteers attend dance raves and set up safe spaces where participants can go if they feel unwell and in need of emotional support. He attended the Nova festival as a volunteer for the organization. He was murdered there, along with Sigal and Lior, two other volunteers who were part of the same initiative. He was 48 years old.

Shafik’s translated book touched many people, even beyond the Isha community. Ben Zvi recalls one of the many messages she received after Shafik’s death. Matan Chapnizky, a musician and director of the jazz studies program at The New School in New York, wrote to her: “Yonatan translated Sadhguru’s book exactly as I had mentally translated the many conversations with him [Sadghuru] that I had heard in English. The translation is fluid, precise, light, and witty. Every word and comma received a world of attention. It’s a masterpiece.” Ben Zvi is currently in the early stages of an initiative to establish a music center in Shafik’s memory in Ein Hod. In speaking with them, it is clear that Eli and Doron are just beginning to process the enormous grief and the immense void Shafik left behind as a husband, son, and a man who did so much good in the world. “He was a mensch, a person of noble spirit, generous, considerate, and wise – and also the funniest person in the world – and much more,” adds Ben Zvi. “The book he translated is yet another echo in this world of the person he was.”

Another Trial: A Kafkaesque Love Triangle

Despite his romantic and tortured image, Franz Kafka’s attitude towards women had its darker aspects. Who would have guessed that the tangled romantic triangle between Kafka, his fiancée Felice Bauer and her good friend Grete Bloch would produce one of the greatest literary classics of all time?

Judith Kagan | 27.11.24

Franz Kafka Jewish Authors

Franz Kafka and Felice Bauer, 1917. Mondadori Portfolio, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Four years ago, a new trend took TikTok by storm, with young women developing an obsession with a desirable bachelor by the name of Franz (Amshel) Kafka. The #Kafka hashtag received over 140 million views, and female TikTokers filmed themselves reading selected passages from Letters to Milena, the collection of correspondence written by Kafka to his muse, Milena Jesenská. Praise was lavished on the iconic author for his good looks and poetic writing style, and his written expressions of love were soon setting the bar for young women on TikTok, who declared that they would settle for nothing less in their future partners.

But what the Kafka fangirls missed was that the writer’s relationships with women had less positive aspects as well. In today’s terms, one could even argue that he was a bit of a “douche” or a “gaslighter.” These tangled relationships did not lead to a happy marriage or to a settled family life, but they did result in one of humanity’s greatest literary classics.

But the story I’m about to tell isn’t just juicy gossip concerning this tortured author. Who knew that the hurt feelings of a single man would lead to the creation of one of the greatest novels of the 20^th century, one which ostensibly has nothing to do with romantic relationships?

מרב סלומון, מתוך תערוכת אומנים ישראלים יוצרים בעקבות קפקא — By Merav Salomon, from the “Kafka: Metamorphosis of an Author” exhibition at the National Library of Israel

Kafka met Felice Bauer at the home of his good friend Max Brod in 1912 and was immediately impressed by her as a talented businesswoman and even a Zionist – a trait he found endearing, to his surprise. Bauer was an independent and modern woman by the standards of the time, the daughter of a German Jewish family who worked as a clerk in Berlin. He wrote to her five weeks after their first meeting and presented himself as the man who had been seated across from her at a table in Brod’s apartment and who had handed her a series of photographs to examine:

“and who finally, with the very hand now striking the keys, held your hand, the one which confirmed a promise to accompany him next year to Palestine”

(From a letter by Kafka to Felice Bauer, appearing in Kafka’s Other Trial by Elias Canetti)

Kafka was a man who fell in love via the written word, and indeed, his relationship with Felice was characterized by intense, powerful writing – more than 700 pages spread over the course of 500 letters.

They corresponded for years, yet only the letters that reached her have survived to this day. Even his marriage proposal was put in writing, included as a mere side issue in a letter that mainly discussed his manuscript of The Stoker. But as was his wont – the moment Felice said “yes,” Kafka began to panic at the very thought of settling down with a woman. In the following letters, he presented legal arguments that essentially attacked himself, artfully edited and arranged in a manner that clearly disclosed his own professional experience as a lawyer. He explained why she should reconsider marrying him – due to his own great concern for her:

“Haven’t I for months now been squirming before you like something poisonous? Am I not here one moment, there the next? Are you not beginning to feel sick at the sight of me? Can you not see by now that if disaster – yours, your disaster, Felice – is to be averted, I have to remain locked up within myself?”

(From a letter by Kafka to Felice Bauer, appearing in Kafka’s Other Trial by Elias Canetti)

Felice used the only weapon at her disposal in response – silence. She ceased responding to his letters, and if she did reply – she did so with a succinctness which tortured him. After months of sparse communication, Kafka told her that he had fled to Vienna. There, he participated in the Zionist Congress taking place at the time, but due to his bitter mood, his impression of the event was entirely negative.

Felice continued her stubborn silence, but since she heard nothing from Kafka, she sent her good friend Grete Bloch and asked her to mediate between them. Had she known the consequences of putting her friend in Kafka’s sights, she probably would have done anything to reverse that decision.

כרטיס הביקור של פרנץ קפקא — Franz Kafka’s calling card

Very little is known of Grete Bloch. Like Felice, she was also Jewish, a businesswoman and a practical type. Kafka’s quotes of her letters imply that her writing was efficient rather than literary, though she also tended to open up emotionally and share her experiences and inner world freely with the author.

The two often corresponded regarding Felice, discussing her deficiencies – such as dental treatments which left her with mostly golden teeth. Despite this occupation with Felice’s less attractive sides, Kafka finally returned and asked Felice once again to marry him, as a result of his correspondence with Bloch.

Yet despite the renewed engagement between Kafka and Felice, he continued to correspond with her good friend, sharing his continued fears regarding his upcoming marriage to Felice.

“Our relationship, which for me at least holds delightful and altogether indispensable possibilities, is in no way changed by my engagement or my marriage”

(From a letter by Kafka to Grete Bloch, appearing in Kafka’s Other Trial by Elias Canetti)

Although we know little about Bloch, we do know one thing for certain – she was a good and faithful friend to Felice. Bloch therefore took care to inform Felice that her fiancé was again becoming fickle and getting cold feet regarding their engagement. She also let Felice know that Kafka was corresponding with her (Grete) with the same passion and emotional warmth he’d expressed when writing to his betrothed.

אחד מרישומיו הידועים ביותר של קפקא מתוך המחברת המכונה המחברת השחורה — One of Kafka’s own drawings, appearing in what’s known as the “The Black Notebook”, the National Library of Israel

The High Court of Love

This strange love triangle reached a crescendo in a particularly charged meeting that included all three parties. Kafka was invited to a hotel in Berlin, and there in the lobby, he was put on trial for his duplicitous behavior with Bloch and Bauer. The prosecution was represented by Felice and her sister Erna, while Kafka was defended by his good friend, writer Ernst Weiss, who never liked Felice. Grete Bloch served as the judge, while also bringing forth his letters and marking all his dismissive statements towards Felice in red.

Kafka did not even try to defend himself on this occasion, and it is no wonder that this improvised trial terminated the engagement.

“He felt attacked,” said Stefan Litt, curator of the Humanities Collection at the National Library of Israel, “he felt that he was being unjustly tried, and that he was being accused without even understanding the charge.”

The sense of persecution and the “romantic trial” – in which Kafka’s loves served as accusers, judges, and executors – greatly influenced Kafka. As part of his effort to process and respond to what happened, he began to write one of the most important works in the western canon – The Trial.

מכתב של קפקא לגרטה בלוך, חברתה הטובה של פליצה באואר — A letter by Kafka to Grete Bloch, Felice Bauer’s friend, the National Library of Israel

All’s Fair in Love and War

The Trial tells the story of Josef K., a senior bank clerk who is accused one fine day of a crime he did not commit. Except that the investigators don’t investigate him, and the judges and surrounding officials aren’t even willing to tell him what he’s being charged with, instead making his life miserable with a row of damning accusations, charges, and legal proceedings. Josef feels powerless to halt the wheels of justice which are slowly but thoroughly grinding both him and – justice itself – into dust.

Alongside the many deep readings of Kafka’s story, which was previously thought to be primarily an indictment of modern bureaucracy, there is also the interpretation which establishes it as the way he experienced the “court” formed by the two women in his life, who put him “on trial” when they chose to support each other against him.

In real life, despite the traumatic encounter which led to the writing of the book, Kafka and Felice Bauer continued to correspond and even became engaged again after the dust had settled. Kafka intended to marry her – until he learned he was sick with tuberculosis. This bitter news greatly affected him emotionally and he had difficulty imagining a future, so he called off the engagement, thus ending his relationship with Bauer.

Other women over the years had an influence on Kafka’s writing and work, the most famous of which were Milena Jesenská – a Czech journalist and intellectual who also translated Kafka’s works into Czech from their original German – and Dora Diamant. Diamant met Kafka towards the end of his life, when he was 40 and she was 25. Originally from a family of Ger Hasids, she was the only woman he lived with in his adult life and she was the one who cared for him during his final years.

The Court Adjourns

Most of Kafka’s relatives and the women in his life were murdered in the Holocaust. Felice Bauer was an exception, having immigrated to the United States before the war. Like the good businesswoman she was, she sold the letters Kafka sent her, which were then collected into a volume. Bauer ultimately married to another man, one who did not panic at the very thought of being in the presence of a woman, and ultimately passed away in the 1960s in the United States.

You must be asking yourselves: What about Grete Bloch? As already noted, we know very little about her and her fate aside from the fact she perished in the Holocaust. But there are unconfirmed rumors about her and Kafka continuing their relationship, even after he ended things with Felice Bauer. Bloch gave birth to a child, and never said anything about the identity of the father. Some tried to claim that Kafka may have been the father, but the child died at the age of five, and documentation of him has not survived.

For his part, Kafka married neither Bauer nor Bloch. It’s really no wonder that the Kafka-Bauer-Bloch love triangle did not result in any sort of stable or normal relationship, and instead brought The Trial into the world. Kafka’s story would likely not have seen the light of day were it not for the tension and difficulty he experienced when confronted by two friends, bound by a sense of sisterhood, who stood together against him in the moment of truth.

One of the many letters Kafka wrote to Bloch will be displayed in the “Kafka: Metamorphosis of an Author” exhibition, which will open on December 4, 2024 at the National Library of Israel. In the exhibition, rare items such as Kafka’s will, letters in his handwriting, and even draft pages of The Castle that were left out of the published book will be on display, as well as items which tell the complicated story of Kafka and the women in his life. The exhibition marks the 100^th anniversary of Kafka’s passing.