Yossele

In Medieval Europe a common accusation against Jews was that they kidnapped and murdered Christian children to use their blood in their rituals, particularly the preparation of unleavened bread at Passover. At the end of the sixteenth century in Prague (in several ways a tolerant and accepting city for Jews) this practice had arisen again, and the chief rabbi of the community, Rabbi L#xF6;v, created a golem to defend his people. A golem is unsentient and has no will of his own: only G-d can create a thinking, choosing spirit. We have imagined that something goes wrong with the complex creation process, and the creature becomes self-aware. His name was Yossele, a diminutive of Joseph.