From Obscurantism to Holiness
“Eastern Jewish” Thought in Buber, Heschel, and Levinas
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Abstract
In public perception, East European Jewish thought is surrounded by a mystical veil. The three thinkers Martin Buber, Joshua Heschel, and Emmanuel Levinas shared the East European Jewish experience, an education in existential philosophy in Germany, and the ordeal of witnessing the mass murder of Europe’s Jews. They are united by a universalistic ethic aimed at promoting direct human responsibility. More clearly than Buber and Heschel, we have Levinas to thank for an appreciation of what one could call “East European Jewry”.
(Special Issue, pp. 89–100)
Full text file (PDF, 476 kB)