Abraham Joshua Heschel – Julian E Zelizer

Always an avid consumer of current events, he followed the unfolding civil rights movement with intense interest. Along with his wife and daughter, he watched Walter Cronkite’s nightly CBS broadcast as the anchor reported on the struggles tearing apart the racially divided South, such as stories about the sit-ins that African American students conducted to protest segregated lunchtime counters at Woolworth.

Heschel had made his first public statement on race relations in 1958 when he decried “our timidity and hesitance to take a stand on behalf of the Negroes” before a gathering of colleagues.1 He saw painful similarities between the brutal condition of African Americans and the poverty that Jews experienced in Eastern Europe. He felt in the spirited prayer of the black church the polar opposite of the staid atmosphere in suburban Jewish synagogues.2 The courage that African Americans demonstrated in their fight for human rights inspired him. Heschel heard in the soaring rhetoric of Martin Luther King Jr. the same prophetic cries about social injustice that he studied.

The evolution of Heschel’s understanding of the biblical commandments had also brought him to a place where he had a deep appreciation for individuals who were willing to step forward to achieve social justice. Whereas the Hasidic rebbes of his childhood were mostly interested in ritualistic commandments such as wrapping the Jewish phylacteries (tefillin) around one’s arm and head for morning prayers or blowing the shofar (the ram’s horn) during the High Holidays, Heschel emphasized the deeds that one human being could do for another, especially for those who were struggling.

A person could find God and serve as God’s voice on earth by being good to other people.3 Heschel’s formal connection to the movement began in January 1963 when he addressed a major interfaith meeting of Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish groups on civil rights. By the time this gathering occurred, President John F. Kennedy was starting his third year in office, and the brewing tension over race relations was regularly on the front pages.

Frontispiece: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (fourth from right); Ralph Bunche, undersecretary of the United Nations; Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel; and Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth begin the march to the state capitol in Montgomery from Selma, Alabama, on March 21, 1965. AP Photo. Jewish Lives® is a registered trademark of the Leon D.

Black Foundation. Copyright © 2021 by Julian E. Zelizer. 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. Yale University Press books may be purchased in quantity for educational, business, or promotional use. For information, please e-mail [email protected] (U.S.

office) or [email protected] (U.K. office). Set in Janson type by Integrated Publishing Solutions. Library of Congress Control Number: 2021935606 ISBN 978-0-300-23321-6 (hardcover : alk. paper) A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. This paper meets the requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992 (Permanence of Paper). 1kitap1.com/en This book is dedicated to the late Nathan Zelizer and his son Gerald, my grandfather and father, who both taught me what it means to live a Jewish life and showed me the central role that rabbis play in our historic community.

1kitap1.com/en Justice, Justice, Shall You Pursue —Deuteronomy 1kitap1.com/en CONTENTS Acknowledgments Prologue: Heschel 1. Warsaw 2. Berlin 3. Cincinnati 4. New York City 5. Selma 6. Washington 7. Legacy Notes Index 1kitap1.com/en ACKNOWLEDGMENTS THIS BOOK HAS BEEN a labor of love. Coming from a family of rabbis, with a grandfather and father who were both part of the Jewish Theological Seminary and the Conservative movement in Heschel’s lifetime, I have found it fascinating to explore the world of American Jewish life. I would like to thank numerous people who made the book possible.

Most importantly, Steven Zipperstein has been an enthusiastic supporter from the start. He saw early on how my work on the 1960s, particularly the civil rights and anti-war movements, created a match to write this book. He has been an ideal series editor, reading numerous drafts of the manuscript, each time offering smart and specific comments so that it could improve. Thanks also to his coeditor Anita Shapira. Ileene Smith signed the book and Heather Gold provided editorial guidance.

Eva Skewes and Joyce Ippolito moved the manuscript through the production process. Lawrence Kenney did a terrific job copyediting. Zev Mishell, a student at Princeton, assisted me with the final proofreading. Samuel Freedman and Kevin Kruse were all extremely helpful as I developed the project. My friend Rabbi Elliot Cosgrove was supportive from the start and offered useful suggestions. Eric Alterman, Hasia Diner, Jaacob Dweck, Dov Weinryb Grohsgal, Jan Gross, Shai Held, Nicole Hemmer, Michael Kazin, and Daniel Rodgers read through drafts of chapters or the manuscript, providing insightful comments.

This is a short excerpt from the opening of “” by Unknown, quoted for review and introduction purposes. All rights belong to the copyright holders.

Book Information

• Unique ID: b47ee194625f5c8e
• File Extension: .pdf
• File Size: 11,878,887 bytes (11.329 MB)
• Title: –
• Author: Unknown
• ISBN: 9780300233216
• Pages: 266
• Language: English (en)

Reading & Word Statistics

• Estimated Reading Time: 485.62 minutes
• Total Words: 97,124
• Total Characters: 606,470
• Average Words per Page: 365.13
• Average Characters per Page: 2279.96

Most Frequent Words

heschel (1225), jewish (595), jews (378), new (371), abraham (260), york (255), one (249), war (231), god (215), heschel’s (211), university (207), american (204), judaism (203), world (196), rights (187), box (178), religious (169), press (167), life (165), vietnam (159), man (155), king (145), rabbi (143), movement (143), joshua (142), civil (140), like (138), file (137), time (136), spiritual (135), many (125), people (125), kaplan (124), religion (123), leaders (116), work (115), ajhp (111), rabbis (107), america (106), wrote (103), march (100), between (100), said (99), also (98), americans (98), social (94), against (94), israel (94), united (93), well (92), sabbath (88), president (86), political (85), see (85), book (84), warsaw (84), students (84), history (81), human (81), jts (81), prophets (79), moral (79), day (77), modern (77), radical (76), even (76), times (75), antiwar (75), family (74), synagogue (74), hebrew (74), community (73), city (72), tradition (70), young (70), national (68), orthodox (68), theological (67), conservative (67), seminary (66), way (66), writing (64), hasidic (64), felt (64), state (63), states (63), place (61), toward (61), came (61), great (61), much (60), two (59), took (59), culture (59), public (58), living (58), eastern (58), church (57), since (57), reform (57).

PDF Download