Arnon Grunberg

Lifelong dream

A scholar

“In response, there is a whole scholarly arsenal wielded by Mr. Gelber and others showing that Kafka learned Hebrew (his exercise books with vocabulary still exist), took the Zionist project seriously and had even hoped to move here. In 1949, for example, Kafka’s last lover, Dora Diamant, in whose arms he is said to have died a quarter century earlier, wrote to Mr. Brod saying Kafka’s lifelong dream was “to make aliya and come to Israel,” using the Hebrew word for immigration to Israel,” writes Ethan Bronner in today’s Times in an article about the archives of Max Brod’s secretary.
Also in the article: “The last time a scholar was permitted into the apartment was in the 1980s. Later, Ms. Hoffe sold the manuscript for “The Trial” for $2 million. No one knows what remains.” A beautiful sentence: “The last time a scholar was permitted into the apartment was in the 1980s.”