(Forward) A new translation of the diaries of celebrated Jewish author Franz Kafka reveals how conflicted and alienated he was from his own people — such as by their bizarre “religious” rituals and dirty personal hygiene — while at the same time compulsively drawn and devoted to their neurosis, misery, and failure as artists:
A long overdue new translation of an authoritative German language edition of Franz Kafka’s diaries that appeared in 1990 offers welcome insight into the Bohemian novelist’s evolving concepts of Judaism.
The translator, Ross Benjamin, is alert to Jewish nuances in Kafka’s discourse, although in a preface, may overstate matters at times. One example pertains to how, when in close contact with a friend, the Yiddish actor Jizchak Löwy from Lemberg, Kafka feared “at least the possibility of [contracting head] lice.” The translator proclaims: “Here Kafka confronts his own Western European Jewish anxiety about the hygiene of his Eastern European Jewish companion.” Yet in the matter of head lice, for someone as health-obsessed as Kafka, Judaism would have been irrelevant.
More impressive here is the attentive care for the original German text, provided for the first time in English to replace his friend Max Brod’s sanitized version, intended to give the best possible image of his dear friend Kafka.
The English Jewish author Will Self, in a review, claimed that the present new edition “gives us a sketchier Kafka, both morally and artistically.” Yet the reverse may be true, as the fuller text provides a more accurate portrait of Kafka, closer to reality and therefore more artistically valid. The result is in no way dishonorable to Kafka.
On the contrary, his obsessive interest in things Jewish reflects admirably on him. In 1911-1912, Kafka attended almost two dozen performances by Löwy’s traveling Yiddish theater troupe during their guest season in Prague.
Kafka reveled in the company of exuberant theatricals. He was drawn to them with the fascination of an anthropologist or entomologist who makes value judgments as part of an awareness of the futility of human endeavors…
…Kafka was an outsider in terms of everything, including Jewish ritual observance. In December 1911, he recounted the ultra-Orthodox custom of metzitzah b’peh (direct oral suctioning), when at a bris, the mohel sucks blood away from the baby’s circumcision wound. Under the pseudo-ethnographic heading “Circumcision in Russia,” Kafka notes some details worthy of Nikolai Gogol: “The circumciser, who officiates without payment, is usually a drunkard, since busy as he is he cannot participate in the various feasts and therefore only tosses down some schnapps. All these circumcisers thus have red noses and bad breath.”
By nature, Kafka was a warts-and-all portraitist who saw flaws in all actions by Jews, perhaps because Jews as humans are necessarily flawed. In an October 1911 account of a lecture hall presentation, Kafka implied that the poet Chaim Nachman Bialik translated his poem “In the City of Slaughter,” about the Kishinev pogrom of 1903, as a career move, to advance himself as well as the political future of the Jews. According to Kafka, Bialik “lower[ed] himself” from Hebrew to the vernacular “to popularize his poem exploiting the Kishinev pogrom for the Jewish future.”
…Although Kafka was long dead when these events played out, his note from December 1911 about lack of “significant talents” among certain Jewish writers seems pertinent, since he added the observation that the “[Jewish] people remain, of course, and I cling to them.” This human connection is also expressed in informal jottings, such as one in January 1912, when a dubious interpretation of Jewish lore appears: “Talmud: He who interrupts his studies to say, how pretty this tree is, deserves death.”
…Despite these vagaries of meaning, Kafka’s devotion to Jewish culture remained constant.…
Though relatively unknown and unsuccessful during his lifetime, after World War II — and 25 years after his death — Franz Kafka (1883-1924) became celebrated as one of the greatest of the “modernist” writers — thanks to his heavy promotion by his fellow Jews who dominated the publishing industries and academia.
And it’s not difficult to understand why the Jews became so enamored with this troubled, neurotic, sexually depraved and alienated writer — Kafka came to embody the Jewish “zeitgeist” of the “post-Holocaust” 20th Century, also known as “The Jewish Century.”
In his diaries, Kafka described himself in quintessentially Jewish terms:
“Enclosed in my own four walls, I found myself as an immigrant imprisoned in a foreign country….I saw my family as strange aliens whose foreign customs, rites, and very language defied comprehension;… though I did not want it, they forced me to participate in their bizarre rituals….I could not resist.”
Not only was he alienated from the larger “gentile” Christian society, Kafka also felt himself alienated from — yet utterly drawn to — his own Jewish milieu.
And again, in his diaries he wrote of the Jewish penchant for finding identity through misery:
“I have the true feeling of myself only when I am unbearably unhappy.”
As such, Kafka gives a rare, unvarnished insight into Jewish culture that “gentiles” find so alienating — and his reactions to it often mimic what Jews are wont to attribute to classic “antisemites.”
While his graphic description of a Jewish circumcision evokes feelings of justified disgust — yet Kafka seems to be fascinated by and drawn to it — like a dog eating its own vomit.
When “gentiles” are repulsed by the thought of rabbis sucking the blood off a baby’s penis, Jews are “appalled” and cry “Antisemitism!“
Yet when Kafka reacts in a similar fashion, Jews give him a pass because of the fame he brings to his fellow Jews — and his conflicted compulsion to embrace of the culture of “Yiddishkeit.”
And Kafka’s repugnant feelings about the hygiene of his fellow Jews seem to confirm the stereotype of the eastern European Ashkenazi Jew — as the “dirty Jew” — whose body, Kafka fears, is infested with lice.
Kafka internalized these Jewish feelings of self-repugnance in his most famous work, “The Metamorphosis” where he imagines himself — through the character of Gregor Samsa — transformed into a cockroach, ignored and despised by his own family (see video below).
Kafka’s description, of course, confirms how the National Socialists perceived these Jews — as “The World’s Parasites“ — which is why the Germans expended so much time and effort to clean them up and “delouse” them upon entering the concentration/work camps during the war.
These Jews — straight out of the shtetls of eastern Europe and Russia — had a well-deserved reputation for poor personal hygiene — even assimilated German Jews looked down on them — and in order to save their lives — and the lives of other Jews in the camps — the Germans stripped all Jews of their clothing, and then shaved off their lice-ridden hair and beards — followed by — gasp — hot water showers, something most of them had never experienced in their entire lives.
Their clothing was then put in fumigation “gas chambers” using the insecticide — Zyklon-B — to kill any lice they were carrying — and then it was returned to them.
Lice carried the deadly disease of typhus — and if not kept in check, had the potential to spread disease and death throughout the camps.
“Nazi” boogeyman, Heinrich Himmler, gave strict orders to the camp commandants to take whatever hygienic measures necessary to stop the potential spread of typhus — a strange order issued by the so-called “architect” of the “Holocaust.”
If the Germans truly wanted to kill all the Jews in the camps, they would not have made any of these efforts to stop the spread of typhus — and just let nature run its course.
That is exactly how Anne Frank died at Bergen-Belsen — according to a report by the International Red Cross, the relentless Allied bombing had made it impossible for the Germans to keep the lice — and therefore typhus — under control.
This association of Jews with infestation has followed them even after the delousing program of the Germans — a few years ago Chelsea Clinton — who is married to a Jew — publicly insisted that Jews should not be compared to “termites” — a notion that made Kafka an international literary sensation.
If the writings of Franz Kafka have any truth to them — and they most certainly do — then Jews should celebrate this close identification with bugs.
After all, the head of the World Economic Forum, the Jew Klaus Schwab, wants us all to start eating insects to “save the environment” while we own nothing and like it — as punishment for ever agreeing with how Kafka felt about his fellow Jews.
If West won’t let me call Bill Gates a Jew, can I call Jew Rabbi’s who suck penis , homosexual’s?
Gene …………….
Forgive me when I ask — Is the English Language your first language?
I simply say this because CLEARLY you did not understand my comment to you. It was never meant to be an argument. It was a discussion. a “Cooperation” if you will.
I believe Bill Gates to be a Jew BECAUSE — he is not a pure Adamic man.
Anyway ……………………….. I apologize if I hurt your feelings in any way.
I just believe that the more we can TEACH our Peoples the message of Genealogy i.e., “This is the book of the genealogy of Adam. In the day that God created man, He made him in the likeness of God.” Genesis 5:1
When an Adamic man or woman mixes their seed with a non-adamic —- we end up with a Jew, whether they believe themselves to be one or not. To be a Jew is more than a religion. Bill Gates does not come out and say that he is a Jew, nor does he practice Judaism, nor can we POSITIVELY find a self-proclaimed Jew in his woodpile. BUT we know there is one.
If you were to say to a normie White christian that Bill Gates has “non-adamic” blood in him and this is why he hates White people so much —- they are going to stand up and pay attention. “What, they may ask?!!!!”
Now you have their attention. If you say Bill Gates is a Jew and this is why he hates White people, they will ignore you as some crack-pot anti-semite. And now you just lost them.
I won’t bother you anymore with it. My apologies.
“If you say Bill Gates is a Jew and this is why he hates White people, they will ignore you as some crack -pot ant-semite. and now you lost them”.
That must be why this site is considered antisemitic then, because most of the articles and comments are against Jews.
So if you wanted to prove anything you say against the Jews , the only listeners you would have are exactly the ones you have on the Christians for Truth site and any where else that contains the same religious views that you try to show the Jews are not related to the White race.
My language understanding of your argument is that Kamela Harris and Megan Markel are Jews then. Maybe the Chaney’s and even Obama are Jews as Chaney’s wife says he is in their family tree.
My comment was just that, a comment, not to argue on a site with Protestants who are stuck in their beliefs and the Bible if the pages of it caught fire and burned their house down, would still call it the word of God and a blessing.
Gene …………
“….not to argue on a site with Protestants who are stuck in their beliefs and the Bible …..”
Wow. Nothing more to say really on my part. Just like the Bear ……………. I wonder why you waste your time here??? Rhetorical question.
The Renegade Tribune exposes the Jew too. Try there — http://www.renegadetribune.com
Gene writes “That must be why this site is considered antisemitic then, because most of the articles and comments are against Jews.”
“Is considered antisemitic” by whom? “Antisemitic” is a meaningless term, or do you believe that “antisemitism” is real, Gene?
I just happened to think:
If as some say, that Eve has sexual intercourse with Satan, Cain then becomes a Jew because that would make Satan a Jew. Isn’t along your line of thinking? Any other racial mixture with a “Adamite ” becomes a “Jew.”
Gene ……………….
Myself and CFT does not believe Eve had sexual intercourse with satan, so you are barking up the wrong tree.
After reading this article, I am struck with the absolute impossibility that Jews like Kafka could ever be honest and sincere converts to Christianity.
Nothing about him suggests to me that the truth “is written on his heart.” (Romans 2:15) And yet the Catholic Church would accept his baptism as “sincere” if he were to go through their ritual of baptism.
It is astonishing how the Church or any judeo-Christian could believe that such Jews would or could ever sincerely convert and become a “new creation” under Christ. And yet the Church continues to pray for their conversion.
I firmly believe that the Christian faith is not “for every man” and confirms the words of John 10:26, “But ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep, as I said unto you.”
To believe in Christ, we must first be one of His sheep. We don’t become one of His sheep by merely “believing”. Some call this predestination.
The Bible is about, and only about, the “generations of Adam” (Gen 5:1) who are His sheep. Those outside that creation are not His sheep and do not, and cannot, hear His voice.
Kafka is a case in point.
Mark ……
I’d like to see some of our Universalists commenters argue your comment.
They like to “shame us” and even warn us of Hell Fire, but they never argue the Scripture that has been presented in this forum numerous times.
Great comment/observations.
Thank you
Even in the comments here on CFT it’s not “settled science” as I have seen Luke 13:34 raised as a counterpoint to John 10:26, as well as a general sentiment that the Pharisees must have been Israelites because a) the “men of Israel” abided their authority; b) Christ didn’t name them as imposters.
My pet theory is that 1 Kings 11 explains this by its strong implication that most every Edomite from then (~1000 BC) on was ultimately of an Edomite mother and an Israelite father.
The last surviving Edomite male was given an Egyptian wife, and while he may have bred with Edomite women later on, this suggests that there was also a faction of Edomite that had an Edomite father but an Egyptian mother.
Maybe the thousand years between David’s annihilation + colonization of Edom, & Christ, saw the those branches of Edomites rejoin and breed together, but even if this could have “purified” their bloodline they could not forget their subjugation, not with it immortalized in scripture.
Though I find it strange that the Pharisees tell Jesus that they are “sons of Abraham”, rather than Israelites.
RB, the Pharisees call themselves the “sons of Abraham” instead of “Israelites” because they are responding to what Christ said to them, “If you believed Abraham, you’d believe me.”
To be a true “son of Abraham”, you have to not just be from his bloodline but also do the works of Abraham, and the Pharisees did not do so in rejecting Christ.
To be a true Christian, you have to be an Israelite who follows Christ. That is the meaning of being “born again” into Christ.
RB ………………
“……not settled science ………………”
Would you mind unpacking that more? I’m confused by what you mean.
I was speaking of “Universalism” and then you and Mark seemed to be talking about an older discussion we had here about Edomites and Israelites. Whether or not Edom was a pure Genesis 10 people during the time of Christ.
and by the way ……………………. did you used to go by Reforming Boomer? Just want to make sure you are the same guy as before.
Thanks.
Another example of Jews ruining art with depravity, is classical Jewish musician Felix Mendelssohn– son of banker Abraham Mendelssohn; the Mendelssohn Banking Family was one of the Jewish banks the Nazis seized, and the Nazis had a particular distaste for Mendelssohn’s music.
Now while some of his music is good (Fingal’s Cave), the majority of it is simply technically proficient; the actual melodies themselves are so disjointedly harmonious & without any real direction other than to play each instrument well, while remaining strangely listenable, that it leaves the listener wondering, “how did this music survive for 200 years as though it were just as good as Boccherini?”
If classical music is supposed to be the voice of God in the mind of the musician, the Jewish voice of “God” asks the question, “what music can I make that will make me as much money as possible with the least amount of creativity?”
The artificial elevation of Jewish musicians such as Mendelssohn, Joseph Schillinger (some of whose music just sounds ugly & depressing), Leonard Bernstein, and George Gershwin to the status of Dvorak, Boccherini, Tartini, or Wagner, is in large part responsible for the watering down & total collapse of gentle music in the 20th century.
Mathilde von Rothschild of the Rothschild family, was also a classical composer, her music is interesting because of the family connection.
Yes, and Bach is “problematic” because he was an antisemite:
https://christiansfortruth.com/j-s-bach-smeared-for-depicting-jews-as-murderers-and-liars/
So was Tchaikovsky:
https://christiansfortruth.com/flashback-jewish-conductor-in-hot-water-for-tchaikovsky-piece-about-the-jews-killing-christ/
Mendelssohn’s family converted to Christianity, Lutheransim. But the poet Heinrich Heine, another Jewish convert to Lutheranism, cynically remarked that baptism for Jews was “the ticket of admission to European culture.”
“The famous conductor Hans von Bülow said that Mendelssohn began as a genius and ended as a talent…
…Cosima Wagner, who had been Bülow’s wife before running off with Richard Wagner, reported in her diaries Wagner’s impressions of Mendelssohn in a way that gives additional insight into this verdict:
‘Spoke with Richard about Mendelssohn. Comparison to a crystal: the Hebrides Overture so clear, so smooth, so melodious, as definite in form as a crystal, but also just as cold; such an enormous talent as Mendelssohn’s is frightening, it has no place in the development of our music. A landscape painter, incapable of depicting a human being.'”
https://www.catholiceducation.org/en/culture/music/mendelssohn-great-or-also-ran.html
“A landscape painter incapable of depicting a human being”
Is it a cohencidence that modern Jews have promoted the exact same criticism about Hitler?
German poster from occupied Poland reads, “Jews are lice. They cause typhus”
https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/photo/antisemitic-poster-published-in-german-occupied-poland-in-march-1941
“They are not rooted in any land, but they proliferate everywhere, acting as destructive parasitic bacteria in each host people. This destructive power became truly powerful only when deceitful commerce was combined with a religion suited to it. The nature of the Jewish faith — seen from this perspective — is that its adherents need no homeland, no fatherland, but rather are content with “Jerusalem” (“over there in the light”). That corresponds to their rootlessness.
Their law (the Torah) is the spiritual bond that holds together all those who are racially and religiously related, even if they are scattered across the whole world. This internal force of faith favors racial relatives and generates bitter hardness and passionate hatred against everything foreign (the foreign host peoples, the Goy). They are scattered and spread out around the world, but are held together by the ethical command to undermine the detested foreigners.”
–Ferdinand Fried, National Socialist author, from his 1937 book “The Rise of the Jews”
Petr,
“…The law (the Torah) is the spiritual bond that holds together all those who are racially and religiously related, even if they are scattered across the whole world….”
If only that were true! Although we (White Adamic) peoples were much more united even just 150 years ago. But there was always the Jew in the mix agitating for war amongst our own peoples. It truly was a sad day when our Inheritance as Israelites and Adamites was lost seemingly forever.
Petr ………. The Jews don’t follow the Torah. It is not their book. They may say it is, but they don’t. They stole it from us, just as they stole our Identity. They place the Talmud higher than the Torah and the Torah is just there for window dressing.
I knew a Mormon once — he was my lab partner in Grad School. One day he was offended that I didn’t consider him a “Christian”.
But the truth of the matter was anytime we spoke about Theology, he never quoted the Bible. It was always the Book of Moroni.
So ………….. similar comparison.
When Jews say “Torah” what they really mean is “Talmud”, which is the glue that holds all racial Jews together in the diaspora.
Petr ……………….
Agreed.
It’s sad, isn’t it, that White people don’t have that same solidarity.
So hard to watch our People vanish from the face of the Earth. I’ll catch an old newsreal or photos from the 50’s and just want to break down and cry. Breaks my heart.
Same here. I follow this vintage rockabilly channel on youtube. All the videos are 1950s America. Cars, clean cities and 100 percent happy white people. It truly is heart wrenching.
John D …………
Yep. Thanks for sharing. btw ……… drop the Rockabilly link. Was a Stray Cats fan myself in High School. Funny ……… there was a “gang” (really just a group) of guys at my High School that dressed like the Stray Cats. Maybe 8 guys and a girl or two. They kind of looked funny — but this was the early 80’s and “Preppie” was the fad.
In his book “The Track of the Jews Through the Ages” Eustace Mullins shows how Alfred Rosenberg, prominent National Socialist thinker, was very aware that Jews did not follow the Torah but rather the Talmud:
https://christiansfortruth.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Alfred-Ages.pdf
Kafka was brutally honest about what it felt like to be a Jew in Europe.
No wonder Jews imagined the “Nazis” as “exterminators” who killed them on an industrial scale using a household insecticide.
These macabre imaginings reveal exactly how the Jews feel about themselves.
As Sarah Silverman said, white people make Jews feel like “hairy monkeys” in comparison.