Spiritual Radical: Abraham Joshua Heschel in America (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: Spiritual Radical: Abraham Joshua Heschel in America Noam Pianko (bio) Spiritual Radical: Abraham Joshua Heschel in America. By Edward K. Kaplan. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2007. 544 pp. Few figures have captured the popular imagination of American Jews like Abraham Joshua Heschel. The image of Heschel with his white hair, beard, and yarmulke standing next to Martin Luther King Jr. on the march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, stands as iconic demonstration of the Jewish commitment to civil rights and social justice. Rabbis and Jewish educators commonly cite Heschel's poetic descriptions of awe and wonder to emphasize Judaism's compatibility with spiritual seeking and mystical experiences. Heschel's partnership with leading American Protestant theologians, such as Reinhold Niebuhr, symbolizes the unique American synthesis between Judaism and Christianity. Spiritual Radical: Abraham Joshua Heschel in America provides a fascinating and much-needed account of this legendary figure's experiences in America that complicates his legacy. Edward Kaplan's well-documented biography affirms the exceptional qualities and contributions that make Heschel one of the most influential twentieth-century American religious thinkers. At the same time, Kaplan's critical investigation introduces readers to Heschel's personal limitations, existential struggles, and surprising sense of alienation from many of the Jewish movements and institutions that claim his teachings. Spiritual Radical (the sequel to an earlier volume, Abraham Joshua Heschel: Prophetic Witness ([1998], cowritten by Kaplan and Samuel Dresner, that chronicles Heschel's life in Europe) commences with Heschel's arrival in the United States at the age of 33. This transitional moment in Heschel's life sheds light on the psychological forces that shaped his future activism, scholarship, and religious thought. Heschel was one of eight "refugee professors" rescued by the president of Hebrew Union College (HUC) in Cincinnati at the start of World War II. Although Heschel remained grateful to HUC for the rest of his life, his observance and passion for Hasidic theology made for a difficult adjustment to the [End Page 239] Reform movement's seminary. Kaplan captures the mismatch poignantly by comparing the close bond Heschel formed with the school's black janitor with his difficulties engaging the rabbinical students (a number of whom taunted the European immigrant with derogatory nicknames.) Moreover, Heschel's raw emotions about the destruction of European Jewry—he lost both his mother and sister in the Holocaust—and his indignation about the limited response of American Jews, including that of his own colleagues at HUC, created enduring fault lines between Heschel and the community he hoped to inspire. In search of a better intellectual and spiritual fit, the promising young scholar moved to New York City in 1945 to join the faculty of the Jewish Theological Seminary. Despite the Seminary's commitment to halakhah (Jewish law), Heschel's religious vision and engaged scholarship clashed with his new colleagues' scholarly agendas. As a result, Heschel was marginalized through actions ranging from delayed tenure appointment to the ongoing rejection of his entreaties to move him from his cramped office to larger quarters. These slights, which Kaplan attributes partially to jealousy, increased as Heschel's reputation grew within Jewish and non-Jewish circles. Kaplan's portrait of Heschel's personality provides a two-sided picture of the various forces contributing to these enduring tensions. Heschel's interpersonal abilities distanced him from his colleagues and students. According to Kaplan, Heschel's "normal mode" of relating "was to guard his inner self, maintaining a distance from others" (90). This difficulty creating intimate relationships left Heschel with only a few close friendships (many of them with Christian clergy) and a small group of devoted disciples. A significant portion of Spiritual Radical chronicles Heschel's engagement with the pressing social issues that he championed during his lifetime. Comprehensive chapters trace Heschel's role fighting for civil rights, negotiating with the Vatican to improve the status of Jews and Judaism, and denouncing the Vietnam War. Yet, these efforts also created rifts between Heschel and the Jewish community. Kaplan explains that issues arose at times because of Heschel's diplomatic blunders and unwillingness to compromise on certain issues of moral or existential import. For instance, during delicate, top-secret discussions between the...