Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel

Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel was one of the most significant Jewish theologians of the 20th century and one of America’s most prominent religious leaders. Born in Warsaw to a distinguished Hasidic family, he became a theologian, educator, political gadfly and philosopher who built a modern philosophy of religion on the basis of ancient Jewish tradition.

Following a traditional Jewish education in Warsaw, Heschel went to Berlin, where he studied at the university and at the Hochschule für die Wissenschaft des Judentums, where he also taught Talmud.

In 1937, Heschel went to Frankfurt am Main to teach at the noted Jüdisches Lehrhaus. But as Jewish persecution increased in severity, he was deported from Nazi Germany in October of 1938. He returned to Warsaw for a few months of teaching at the Institute of Judaistic Studies, but the Nazi invasion of his homeland soon forced him to London where he founded the Institute for Jewish Learning.

The United States had not yet entered World War II when Heschel arrived in Cincinnati, Ohio, where he joined the faculty of Hebrew Union College in 1940. Five years later he assumed a professorship in Jewish ethics and mysticism at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America in New York City. Heschel, who became an American citizen in 1945, married concert pianist Sylvia Straus in 1946, and together they had one daughter, Susannah, the Eli Black Professor of Jewish Studies at Dartmouth College. Heschel remained at the Jewish Theological Seminary until his death in New York City on December 23, 1972.

Abraham Heschel wished to construct a modern philosophy of religion based on ancient Jewish tradition and teachings. Seeped in traditional Jewish piety, he observed an inner depth of devotion that he sought to convey to twentieth-century Jewry around the globe. "The Jew is never alone in the face of God," he stated, "for the Torah is always with him."

Heschel's piety and his concern for the religious integrity of the individual fueled his significant involvement in the major social and political movements of his time. In the 1960s and early 1970s, he championed the civil rights movement and fought along side Martin Luther King Jr., and other prominent political and religious leaders, to end discrimination against black Americans. During this same period, Heschel frequently spoke out against the escalating war in Vietnam, one of the first American religious leaders to do so, and was among the founding members of the Clergy and Laymen Concerned about Vietnam. Beyond his political activities, Heschel also remained actively engaged with international religious movements, providing aid to the Jews of the Soviet Union and reaching out to Christian theologians and Vatican representatives, including Pope Paul VI, in an effort to improve relations between Christians and Jews.

In addition to his teachings, Heschel is well known for his writings. They include: his magnum opus, Man Is Not Alone: A Philosophy of Religion (1951), The Sabbath: Its Meaning for Modern Man (1951), Man's Quest for God: Studies in Prayer and Symbolism (1954), God in Search of Man (1955), The Prophets (1962), Who Is Man? (1965), and The Insecurity of Freedom: Essays on Human Existence (1966). In addition to his scholarly and philosophical writings, Heschel authored several works on Jewish life in Eastern Europe. Chief among them is The Earth Is the Lord's: The Inner World of the Jew in East Europe (1950).

The co-sponsors of this conference collectively bear witness to Rabbi Heschel’s professional life. The Leo Baeck Institute, which is devoted to the study and preservation of the legacy of German-speaking Jewry, represents the early phases of his career. Professor Heschel, who was of Ashkenazi heritage, gave his ground-breaking speech, "The Eastern European Era in Jewish History" for the first time at a conference of the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, which is dedicated to the scholarly study and documentation of the history and culture of Eastern European Jewry, on January 7, 1945. His impact on Jews in America was profound; many of the records of his experiences while in the United States as well as his body of works can be found in the archives and library of the American Jewish Historical Society, which is dedicated to documenting the remarkable contributions of the Jewish community to American life. Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati provided precious haven for Rabbi Heschel when he was forced to leave Europe in 1938, while The Jewish Theological Seminary of America in New York became his professional home for the rest of his life.