In Part I of The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, who or what is the Golem?

A golem is a mystical being that some exceptionally holy
Jewish Rabbis can create from mud and can animate into a semblance of life with special
Jewish incantations. There are several legends of golem. The most famous one, and the
one relevant to The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, is the Prague
Golem.

The lengend, though with many versions, says
essentially that during the reign of Holy Roman Emperor Rudolph II of Austria, the
Emperor began a persecution of Jews during which Jews were either expelled from their
homelands or killed outright. Rabbi Loew created a golem in order to protect the Jews of
Prague and animated it with the Jewish word meaning "truth" written across its mud
forehead.

The golem however became increasingly violent as
it grew and turned to killing gentiles as furiously as the gentiles were killing Jews.
The Emperor begged the Rabbi to stop the Golem of Prague and in return the Emperor would
cease the persecution. The Rabbi agreed and erased the first letter of the word "truth,"
which then rendered the Jewish word "death" written across the Golem's forehead. It is
said that the Golem of Prague still sleeps in the attic of the Old New Synagogue awating
a time of further need and that Rabbi Loew also sleeps in the same attic near his Golem.
It is this Golem of Prague that Kornblum and Josef discover and smuggle to San
Frandisco, CA.