Abraham Joshua Heschel
Born in 1907
Religion
Abraham Joshua Heschel was a prominent 20th century rabbi and philosopher.
Born into a Hasidic family in Poland, he was descended from several important European rabbinic dynasties.
Heschel received a traditional yeshiva education and rabbinical ordination as a youth.
He later studied at the University of Berlin, earning a doctorate, and at the Hochschule für die Wissenschaft des Judentums, where he received a second, liberal rabbinic ordination.
This diverse educational background in both traditional Judaism and modern scholarship shaped Heschel's unique approach to Jewish thought and philosophy.
His work bridged traditional Jewish mysticism with modern philosophical ideas.