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The National Library of Israel has the honor of holding the third largest collection in the world of Franz Kafka's original manuscripts, letters, and drawings; it represents a significant perspective of Kafka's legacy. While Kafka did not foresee the sacred value of his work, his friend Max Brod, who was part of Kafka's literary circle, did and he preserved Kafka's material even when instructed not to do so. Dr. Stefan Litt, Humanities Curator of the National Library of Israel, will not only share highlights of the Kafka archives, but will tell the story behind the Kafka collection and how it ultimately came to the National Library of Israel. Stefan Litt received his PhD in Pre-Modern History from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He has researched and taught at the universities of Erfurt, Duesseldorf, Graz and Bar-Ilan in Israel, and has published on the history of early modern European Jewry and on Jewish archives and book culture. He was awarded the Rosl and Paul Arnsberg Prize for his research. Since 2010, he has worked as an archivist at the National Library of Israel, responsible for the foreign language holdings. In 2018, Dr. Litt assumed the position of Humanities Curator of the ...

Join The Community Library for a conversation with Peter Mann, Writer-In-Residence at the Hemingway House and author of "The Torqued Man": a brilliant debut novel, at once teasing literary thriller and a darkly comic blend of history and invention, set in wartime Berlin and propelled by two very different but equally mesmerizing voices: a German spy handler and his Irish secret agent, neither of whom are quite what they seem. Named one of the Best Books of 2022 by The New Yorker. Mann will be in conversation with the Library's executive director, Jenny Emery Davidson. A book signing will follow. Berlin—September, 1945. Two manuscripts are found in rubble, each one narrating conflicting versions of the life of an Irish spy during the war. One of them is the journal of a German military intelligence officer and an anti-Nazi cowed into silence named Adrian de Groot, charting his relationship with his agent, friend, and sometimes lover, an Irishman named Frank Pike. In De Groot’s narrative, Pike is a charismatic IRA fighter sprung from prison in Spain to assist with the planned German invasion of Britain, but who never gets the chance to consummate his deal with the devil. Meanwhile, the other ...