Be Careful What You Wish For

Fritz Ascher captured those forces in 1916. His foreground translates Einstein’s trio into the hands and faces of:

—terminal Fear,

—expiring Wisdom,

—and desperately grasping Greed.

And, rising above them, looming over the toxic miasma, their collective golem.

"Thou shalt not pass!" say its arms, "I will kill!" say its eyes, and "darkest night" says its cloak. "No moon or stars for you. Nur die Nacht."

Behind this apocalyptic gang of four stands their salient element: a wall, a fortress—or shall we call it a Trennungszaun?—perhaps the most iconically prescient part of Ascher’s vision. And stupidity, fear and greed have different faces now, smoother, white-haired, silver-tongued. But Ascher’s wall still evokes … the wall.

Benjamin Netanyahu: "Will we surround all of the State of Israel with fences and barriers? The answer is yes. In the area that we live in, we must defend ourselves against the wild beasts."

Hear O Israel: hear this latest misguided, misguiding, misstepping "rabbi" protecting his community unto its death.

Will Judaism survive its current golem?

Marc Estrin is a novelist, cellist and political activist who lives in the US. His novel Golem Song was published in 2006 and tells the story of Alan Krieger who manages it to make a Golem out of his very self.