Case file · Folklore / legend
The Golem of Prague
Jewish legend says Rabbi Judah Loew ben Bezalel of Prague, in the late 16th century, made a clay man from the Vltava's banks to defend the ghetto.
1580 CE · 50.09, 14.42 · status: legend
The account
Golem ideas go back to Kabbalistic tradition of the 12th century and even the Talmud. In some tales the word emet ('truth') is written on its forehead.
The sceptical view
The Prague story is a later legend attached to a real rabbi.
Connections in the atlas
- Golem
- Prague Old Town and Josefov
- The Dybbuk box
- The Jews