Spiritual Radical: Abraham Joshua Heschel in America, 1940-1972

545 Pages·2007·1.28 MB·English

by  Edward K. Kaplan

Spiritual Radical
E D WA R D K . K A P L A N
Yale University Press / New Haven & London
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Spiritual Radical
Abraham Joshua Heschel
in America, 1940–1972
Published with assistance from the
Mary Cady Tew Memorial Fund.
Copyright © 2007 by Yale University.
All rights reserved. This book may not be
reproduced, in whole or in part, including
illustrations, in any form (beyond that copying
permitted by Sections 107 and 108 of the U.S.
Copyright Law and except by reviewers for the
public press), without written permission from
the publishers.
Set in Bodoni type by Binghamton
Valley Composition. Printed in the United States of America by
Sheridan Books, Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Kaplan, Edward K., 1942–
Spiritual radical : Abraham Joshua Heschel in
America, 1940–1972 / Edward
K. Kaplan.—1st ed.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-300-11540-6 (alk. paper)
1. Heschel, Abraham Joshua, 1907–1972.
2. Rabbis—United States—Biography.
3. Jewish scholars—United States—Biography.
I. Title.
BM755.H34K375 2007
296.3'092—dc22
[B] 2007002775
A catalogue record for this book is available from
the British Library.
The paper in this book meets the guidelines for
permanence and durability of the Committee on
Production Guidelines for Book Longevity of
the Council on Library Resources.
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
To my wife, Janna

Contents
Introduction ix
Part One • Cincinnati: The War Years 1
1 First Year in America (1940–1941) 4
2 Hebrew Union College (1941–1943) 19
3 Institutional Struggles and World War (1942–1944) 35
4 Architecture of a New Theology (1944–1945) 51
Part Two • Rescuing the American Soul 67
5 First Years in New York (1945–1949) 70
6 Books of Spiritual Rescue (1948–1951) 97
7 Theological Revolution (1950–1952) 115
8 Critique of American Judaism (1952–1954) 137
9 A Jewish Summa Theologica (1952–1956) 157
Part Three • Spiritual Radical 175
10 Building Bridges (1956–1959) 178
11 A Prophetic Witness (1960–1963) 197
12 We Shall Overcome (1963–1966) 214
Part Four • Apostle to the Gentiles 235
13 Confronting the Church (1961–1964) 238
14 Vulnerable Prophet (1964–1965) 258
15 Interfaith Triumphs (1963–1966) 277
Part Five • Final Years 295
16 Vietnam and Israel (1965–1967) 298
17 Dismay and Exaltation (1968–1969) 319
18 Stronger Than Death (1969–1971) 338
19 Summation of a Life (1972) 358
20 A Pluralistic Legacy 376
Notes 387
References 467
Permissions and Credits 497
Acknowledgments 499
Index 503
viii CONTENTS
Introduction
Abraham Joshua Heschel (1907–1972) became a prophetic voice for
Christians and Jews during three momentous decades in the United States. In
the 1940s he countered the horrors of war and genocide with vivid essays on
prayer, faith, and holiness. In the 1950s he became a public intellectual, pub-
lishing books of constructive Jewish theology while launching a critique of re-
ligious and ethical life. And in the turbulent 1960s Heschel was a widely
publicized activist in civil rights, interfaith dialogue, and opposition to the
Vietnam War.
This volume is the sequel to Abraham Joshua Heschel: Prophetic Witness,
written in collaboration with the late Samuel H. Dresner, which traced Hesch-
el’s European journey from Hasidism to modernity. Born in Warsaw, Heschel
was reared in a devout Jewish community and went on to earn a Ph.D. in phi-
losophy from the University of Berlin. He experienced firsthand the rise of
ix