Israel Library Wants Kafka Manuscripts Online
Crossposted from Haaretz
The National Library in Jerusalem has prepared a program for handling Franz Kafka’s manuscripts and promises to make them and other rare collections available on the Internet. However, the court has yet to rule on the fate of the Czech writer’s manuscripts.
The manuscripts, part of the literary estate of Kafka’s close friend Max Brod, have been the focus of a prolonged legal battle. The Tel Aviv Family Court is to rule whether they will remain in private hands, be given to the National Library or be sold to the German Literary Archive. Max Brod, also a Czech writer, died in 1968. His secretary Esther Hoffe took over his estate and her two daughters claim they inherited the manuscripts from her when she died in 2007.
Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein argued in court last week that the manuscripts — Kafka’s and Brod’s — belong to the public and should be held in public trust by the National Library in Jerusalem.
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and the protests on college campuses.
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.