In his magisterial new biography of Abraham Joshua Heschel, Dr. Edward K. Kaplan tells the engrossing, behind-the-scenes story of the life, philosophy, struggles, yearnings, writings, and activism of one of the 20th century’s most outstanding Jewish thinkers. Following this extraordinary figure through his Hasidic childhood in Warsaw to his pursuit of a doctorate in Berlin to his escape from the Nazis to the United States, and into his courageous activism as a voice for nonviolent social action—Heschel marched with Martin Luther King Jr., expressed strong opposition to the Vietnam War, and helped reverse long-standing antisemitic Catholic Church doctrine on Jews—Kaplan paints a timely portrait of a remarkable religious leader.

Dr. Eitan Fishbane, Associate Professor of Jewish Thought, JTS, served as moderator.