Abraham Joshua Heschel

Abraham Joshua Heschel , 1907-72, American Jewish philosopher and theologian, b. Warsaw, Poland. He succeeded Martin Buber as director of the Central Organization for Jewish Adult Education in Frankfurt and then taught in Warsaw and London before going to the United States in 1940. He taught philosophy and rabbinics at the Hebrew Union College, Cincinnati, and in 1945 became professor of Jewish ethics and mysticism at the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York City, where he remained until his death. He developed an influential philosophy and theology that sought to renew the ability to grasp the reality of the relationship between God and humans, and of the holiness of life. He played a significant role in the civil-rights movement and in the Christian-Jewish dialogue. Heschel's major works are Man Is Not Alone: A Philosophy of Religion (1951), God in Search of Man: A Philosophy of Judaism (1955), The Prophets (1962), Who Is Man? (1965), Israel: An Echo of Eternity (1969), and A Passion for Truth (1973).

Bibliography: See M. Friedman, Abraham Joshua Heschel and Elie Wiesel (1987); D. J. Moore, The Human and the Holy: the Spirituality of Abraham Joshua Heschel (1989).

Heschel, Abraham Joshua (1907–72). US Jewish scholar. He was born in Poland, descended from Ḥasidic rabbis. A close associate of Martin Buber, he became a refugee from Nazi Germany, first in London, then in the USA. There he taught at the Hebrew Union College and the Jewish Theological Seminary. He wrote important studies on kabbalah and was a highly influential philosopher of religion. In Man is not Alone (1951) and God in Search of Man (1956), Heschel tried to define the existential question to which Judaism provides the answer. It lies in the true use of freedom. God longs for his creatures but will not coerce them. Judaism exhibits the response of love and devotion when the commands of God are accepted in that style. His strong emphasis on ethical behaviour as the demonstration of religion took him into the Civil Rights movement, and into dialogue with other religions, especially in the discussions which led to the revised attitude of Vatican II to Judaism.