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.
