Jiri Langer (1894–1943)

Jiří Mordechai Langer was born to a Jewish family in Prague and attended Czech schools. His older brother František Langer became a successful playwright. At age 19, he traveled with his friend Otto Muneles to the Hasidic community of Belz, Galicia (present-day Ukraine). He later described the journey and his experiences there in his most important book, Nine Gates to Hasidic Mysteries (1937), which also chronicled the tales and the lifestyle of Hasidic Jews before the Holocaust. At the outbreak of World War I, Langer was drafted into the Austro-Hungarian army, but had trouble integrating into army life due to his religious beliefs. After being imprisoned in military jail and released. he returned to Belz, where he studied Torah, Talmud, Midrash, and Kabbalah. He returned to Prague and in 1923, influenced by Sigmund Freud, he published Die Erotik der Kabbala (The Eroticism of Kabbalah), in which he combined Jewish mysticism with psychoanalysis. He became a teacher at a Jewish school. During this period, he began his lifelong friendships with writers Max Brod and Franz Kafka. In addition to Hebrew and the main European languages, he also learned Yiddish, Aramaic, and Arabic. In 1929, he published the collection of poems Pijutim ve-širej jedidut (Poems and Songs of Friendship). In 1939, Langer decided to flee the Nazis to the British Mandate of Palestine, and headed for Istanbul via Slovakia. The ships were delayed by the Nazis under various pretexts, until they were trapped by severe frosts in the port of Sulina until February 1940. With the help of Czech compatriots, the ship finally landed in Romania and the sick and starving passengers were rescued. Langer eventually reached Palestine but he was ill from a kidney infection and spent most of his time there in hospitals. However, he continued to write Hebrew poetry that was published in magazines. He died at age 49 in 1943. His poetry collection Me'at cori (A Drop of Balm) was published posthumously.