Abraham Joshua Heschel: Prophetic Witness »

This book is the first biography of Abraham Joshua Heschel, one of the outstanding Jewish thinkers of the twentieth century. It traces Heschel's life from his birth in Warsaw in 1907 to his emigration to the United States in 1940, describing his roots in Hasidic culture, his Polish and German experiences, and his relations with Martin Buber. A second volume will tell the story of Heschel's years in America until his death in 1972.

Publishers Weekly

In 1951, Christian theologian Reinhold Niebuhr predicted that Abraham Joshua Heschel would "become a commanding and authoritative voice not only in the Jewish community but in the religious life of America." This first volume of a two-volume biography follows Heschel from his birth in Warsaw in 1907 to his emigration from Europe to America in 1940. From his early childhood, Heschel combined a love of learning with an intense piety. The authors follow Heschel's childhood study and mastery of classic Jewish texts, showing how this learning established the foundation of Heschel's later life and work in America. Greatly affected by his Hasidic upbringing (his father and uncle were Hasidic rebbes, and Heschel was expected to become one as well but he chose a life of scholarship and social activism instead), Heschel wove into his life a sense of God's holiness as well as a sense of the biblical prophets' sense of justice. The cultural richness of European Jewry prior to the Holocaust also greatly influenced Heschel. Kaplan and Dresner contend that their portrait will present Heschel as a "unique blend, that of a university-educated East European Jew inspired by God." This volume narrates Heschel's encounter with Martin Buber, with whom he engaged in lifelong debate about Judaism and ethics, and chronicles Heschel's stints as a teacher of religious philosophy in Berlin, Warsaw and London. While the staid, workmanlike style of this biography often fails to capture Heschel's fire and intensity, the authors nevertheless provide the most complete portrait to date of this remarkable religious figure.

Contents
Introduction....................vii
The Heschel Dynasty....................xi
The Friedman Dynasty....................xii
The Perlow Dynasty....................xiii
Part One Warsaw: Childhood and Adolescence....................1
1 Heschel's First Home (1907-1914)....................4
2 Early Studies and Catastrophes (1914-1917)....................21
3 "The Blessings of Humiliation" and Triumphal Adolescence (1917-1924)....................37
4 Expanding the Self Through Literature (1924-1926)....................56
Part Two Vilna: The Jerusalem of Lithuania....................73
5 A Rebbe Among Revolutionaries (1925-1927)....................76
Part Three Berlin: Europe in Crisis....................97
6 A Student in Berlin (1927-1931)....................100
7 A Jewish Philosophical Mentor (1928-1931)....................121
8 Poetic Vision and Prophetic Sympathy (1928-1931)....................140
9 Paradigm Shift (1929-1931)....................153
10 God's Active Presence (1931-1932)....................162
11 A Year of Grief and Rage (1933)....................172
12 A Poet's Self-Portrait (Winter 1933-1934)....................182
13 Spiritual and Intellectual Biographies: Koigen and Maimonides (1934-1935)....................194
14 The German Jewish Renaissance (1934-1935)....................208
15 Alliance with Martin Buber (June-December 1935)....................218
16 Mission Defined (January-September 1936)....................229
Part Four Frankfurt, the War, and Exile....................241
17 Teaching in Times of Crisis (September 1936-December 1937)....................244
18A Prophetic Witness (December 1937-March 1938)....................256
19 "Out of the Depths" (March-October 1938)....................265
20 Struggling to Escape (November 1938-July 1939)....................276
21 Departure and Deliverance (1939-1940)....................288
22 Epilogue....................304
Notes....................309
References....................361
Permissions and Credits....................385
Acknowledgments....................387
Index....................389