“Boundless faith, joy inspired by other-worldliness, humility, hope and love, but above all simplicity of soul—these are the qualities that form the foundation of the ethics and moral strength of this legendary Chassidic world”
– Jiří Langer
Within every avenue of history, is the history of queerness. Not only due to the queer people who have inhabited every corner of the world, but also due to the influence every queer person has had on their little corner of the world. This is true within the history of religion as well. Though many people have made it their mission to exclude and remove queer people from various religious spaces, queerness is a sacred part of humanity, and every religion has found queer people in their midst. The queer people in question have shaped not only their direct religious community, often making it more accepting and open to people like them, but they have also played a large part in the vital task of interpreting religious texts. Despite what modern Christianity has said, queerness and religion are not mutually exclusive. In fact, the opposite is often true. There have been, and continue to be, religions and religious spaces where queer people and voices are heard and valued. Jiří Langer is one of the queer voices in history that can be seen in this specific journey.
Born on March 19, 1894, in Hungary, Jiří Langer was raised in an assimilated Jewish family in Prague. His family, like many families in areas that were hostile to Jewish people, were often quiet about their beliefs. Jiří Langer had two brothers, one of whom would go on to become a doctor and playwright, and is where much of the modern understanding of Langer’s life can be sourced from. He would write about the shock and dismay that came upon the family when, after leaving at nineteen to join the Hasidic court of Yissachar Dov Rokeach, Langer would return a Hasidic Jew himself. While his family seemed to have accepted this change in large part, his brother would remember the change very negatively, writing:
“It seemed to resemble the situation in Kafka’s novel, The Metamorphosis, in which an entire family finds its way of life completely upset when the son of the house is suddenly changed into an enormous cockroach and consequently had to be hidden from the rest of the world.”
This possible hostility did not deter Langer though, and he would be strict in his religious belief and study, even when inconvenient. It has been theorized, and Langer writes about it himself, that the homosocial environment encouraged in the Hasidic Court in Belz made it a comfortable place for a gay man such as himself. He writes about the environment:
“To understand what kind of love dwelled between the talmudic scholars, one only has to step into the house of study where they are enveloped with their studies. Here sit two young men, with beards just beginning to cover their chins, ‘studying’ assiduously over thick Talmud-folios. The one holds the other by his beard, looks deep into his eyes, and in this manner explains a complicated Talmud passage. And there, two friends pace around the hall deep in conversation, while embracing one another. (During meals one can see that they always dine out of the same bowl.) In the dark corner stand a pair. The younger of the two rests his back against the wall, the elder has the entire frontal part of his body literally pressed against him; they look lovingly in each other’s eyes, but keep still. What could be playing out within their pure souls? They themselves don’t even know.”
Upon his return, he would take the taboo topic of homosexuality and Hasidic practices, and write extensively about them. As a poet, translator, scholar, essayist, and teacher, his work would often focus on homosexuality and homoerotic undertones in religious texts. He would go on to become a fairly popular teacher at the university in which he worked, and would meet and befriend Franz Kafka when Kafka approached him to learn Hebrew. The two would become close, both intrigued by the other. Though their writing was often very different, they bonded over a shared passion for Hebrew. Langer wrote of one experience:
“Once when we were travelling together by streetcar and speaking about the airplanes that were circling the skies of Prague at that moment, some Czech people who were riding in the streetcar with us … asked us what language we were speaking. … When we told them, they were surprised that it was possible to converse in Hebrew, even about airplanes. … How Kafka’s face lit up then from happiness and pride!”
As the Nazi influence began to spread into Prague, Langer, who was a fierce Zionist, would rebel against many other figures who encouraged Jewish people to stay the course and would leave Europe. As his own book, now viewed as a masterpiece, was one of the pieces targetted by Nazi officials and largely destroyed, he was able to see the writing on the wall and fled to Palestine. Unfortunately, bringing 200 books with him, likely trying to protect texts that were also in danger of being destroyed by Nazis, he did not bring adequate survival materials for the trip and ended up suffering multiple health issues on the journey. He did not live long in Palestine, and much of his time there was spent in poverty until his death on 12 March 1943, at age 48.
Though he was not able to live as long as he should have, Langer undoubtedly had an impact on not only his direct religious community but the larger Jewish community as well. His translations and his original works are both still seen as important texts in their own right. While his homosexuality has been removed in certain biographical texts, it is simply too baked into every aspect of his works to ever fully erase.
REFERENCES AND FURTHER READING
Disclaimer: some of the sources may contain triggering material
Halper, S. (n.d.). Comments for LGBT-RAN DINNER, May 2010. 2.
HALPER, S. J. (2011). Coming Out of the Hasidic Closet: Jin Mordechai Langer (1894- 1943) and the Fashioning of Homosexual- Jewish Identity. The Jewish Quarterly Review, 101(2), 189–231. https://doi.org/10.2307/41300133
Jiří Langer: Jewish Mystic, Hebrew Poet, Friend of Kafka » Mosaic. (n.d.). Mosaic. Retrieved September 29, 2022, from https://mosaicmagazine.com/picks/uncategorized/2014/11/jiri-langer-jewish-mystic-hebrew-poet-friend-of-kafka/
Jiri Mordechai Langer Poems > My poetic side. (n.d.). Retrieved September 29, 2022, from https://mypoeticside.com/poets/jiri-mordechai-langer-poems
Kafka’s Gay, Hasidic Hebrew Teacher: Georg Mordechai Langer. (2014, November 6). Tablet Magazine. https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/arts-letters/articles/kafka-langer
Langer, Jiří Mordechai | Encyclopedia.com. (n.d.). Retrieved September 29, 2022, from https://www.encyclopedia.com/religion/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/langer-jiri-mordechai
Poem, O. T. M. O. A. (n.d.). Jiri Mordecai Langer—Poems by the Famous Poet—All Poetry. Retrieved September 29, 2022, from https://allpoetry.com/Jiri-Mordecai-Langer
Schulman, M. A. (2013). Not Only Forgotten but Never Known: The Life and Contributions of Jiří Langer. Psychoanalysis and History, 15(2), 191–205. https://doi.org/10.3366/pah.2013.0132
YIVO | Langer, Jiří. (n.d.). Retrieved September 29, 2022, from https://yivoencyclopedia.org/article.aspx/Langer_Jiri