Milton Steinberg, American Rabbi -- Thoughts on his Centenary

Rabbi Milton Steinberg died in 1950, but he continues to live on in the memory of those whom he touched and through his writings. His novel "As a Driven Leaf" published in 1939, and his "Basic Judaism" published in 1947 sell very well and attract new readers. His son, Jonathan Steinberg, examines the theological bases of this remarkable influence and follows Steinberg's theology from Kaplan's Reconstructionism and his initial rationalism through Neo-Orthodox Protestant theology as Steinberg struggled to find an adequate response to the Holocaust. Steinberg occupied a unique position in the American rabbinate: he was a congregational rabbi who combined pastoral duties and an intense God-centered devotional life on which he based liturgy and practice.