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53 Martin Buber was born in Vienna, Austria, in 1878. Buber spent much of his childhood with a grandfather who was a scholar of the Jewish tradition and literature. As a young man, Buber studied in Vienna, Leipzig, Berlin, and Zurich and soon entered the Zionist Movement, as much for religious and cultural as for political reasons. In 1923 he published his now classic book, I and Thou. He lectured in Jewish religion and philosophy at the University of Frankfurt from 1924 to 1933. During that time, he worked together with Franz Rosenzweig on Jewish philosophy and spirituality as well as a groundbreaking translation of the Hebrew Bible into German. During the early years of Hitler’s rule, Buber stayed in Germany, laying the groundwork for Jewish renewal in a time of crisis. Buber left Germany in 1938 and settled in Jerusalem, where he was Professor of Social Philosophy at the Hebrew University. While writing and publishing major works in Jewish spirituality, Buber also sought common ground between Jews and Arabs in Palestine and later in Israel. At the same time, Buber traveled to Germany to begin a postwar dialogue between Jews and Germans. Buber died in 1965. My encounter with Martin Buber began prior to my hearing Richard Rubenstein or reading Elie Wiesel, in other words, before the Holocaust was named for me. My encounter with Buber marked me deeply then and continues to do so today. I entered Buber’s world as the Holocaust and Israel were being recognized as formative to Jewish life but before they had been named decisively in mine. Growing up in what was then a Jewish hinterland saved me from 2 Encountering the Bible Martin Buber 54฀฀฀•฀฀฀Encountering฀the฀Jewish฀Future knowing too much about what was normative in the centers of Jewish life like New York City and Los Angeles. This allowed me a relatively unformed inner Jewish space to explore my own Jewishness. Today it is difficult to appreciate this freedom and how little pressure there was to conform to an already established Jewish identity. Before Jewish identity was mobilized, and even militarized on behalf of the Holocaust and Israel, there was little sense of urgency. Young Jews of my generation went off in many directions , searching here and there for meaning. Most often the search began in Hebrew School, yet for many of us that atmosphere felt foreign and stifling. We explored spiritualities outside the Jewish world, Zen being the most popular. We did not have a sense of betraying Jewish history or leaving behind our Jewish responsibilities. This was the 1960s, when Jewish identity was in flux. What we had inherited wasn’t enough for us. We didn’t know where we were going. Did we have to have a destination? The world in general is very different now, and the Jewish world a very different place. When I reflect back, I ask whether the openness of Jewish identity in these years was a romanticized fantasy, a reality that didn’t exist, or one to which I now seek to escape. Although there is no return, I think that those days have something to say to the Jewish future. My encounter with Buber brings me back to those years. Each time I read Buber, I feel like I am returning to the beginning. He has become even more significant in my journey as a Jew and even more important now to the Jewish future than when I first encountered him. Buber traversed so many fields of study that he cannot be pigeonholed in any one of them. He was, among other things, a linguist, a researcher of Asian religions, a translator and interpreter of the Bible, a sociologist, a philosopher, and a theologian. His influences extend far beyond religion to philosophy, education , and psychology. It is hard to find a Jewish writer who has had more influence on thoughtful discourse in the world than has Buber. With him we are in the company of one of the great spiritual seekers in history. Since my first encounter with Buber, the Jewish world has changed precipitously , and in some ways so have I. Much of Buber is pre-Holocaust and pre-Israel, though he did live during and in the aftermath of both events. While Buber can be glimpsed only in fragments and through a historical lens, there is something peculiarly present about his writing. Buber’s voice allows us to encounter Jewish life from a different vantage point. If we...

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