Transcription

May 29, 45

Dear Professor Finkelstein:

I wish to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of May 24 and to accept herewith the invitation to join the faculty of The Jewish Theological Seminary.

In accepting this great task and high distinction I am fully aware of the responsibility it implies.

אֲנִי מִתְפַּלֵּל שֶׁלֹּא תֶאֱרַע תַּקָלָה עַל יָדִי

I pray that no mishap should occur on my account¹

I thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Cordially yours,

Abraham Heschel

1. This quote is taken from Mishnah Berakhot 4:2. Rabbi Neḥunya ben Hakana would say this blessing upon entering and leaving the study hall. ↩︎

This iconic image was taken at the March on Selma on March 21, 1965.  From far left: John Lewis, an unidentified nun, Ralph Abernathy, Martin Luther King, Jr., Ralph Bunche, Abraham Joshua Heschel, Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth.

After returning from Selma, Heschel wrote the following:

For many of us the march from Selma to Montgomery was about protest and prayer. Legs are not lips and walking is not kneeling. And yet our legs uttered songs. Even without words, our march was worship. I felt my legs were praying.

The last sentence became a rallying cry for many activists. It is sometimes misquoted as “praying with his feet.”

Additional Text

Jewish Voices from the Selma to Montgomery March

Twenty distinguished participants in Notre Dame’s international conference “The Theological Issues of Vatican II” were awarded honorary doctorates by the university, including Heschel (front row, third from left).

List of Participants

Heschel receiving his honorary degree from Notre Dame.

In his capacity as Harry Emerson Fosdick Visiting Professor at Union Theological Seminary, Heschel gave this speech in 1965 which he discussed the shared values of Judaism and Christianity and the profound need for dialogue.

Horizons are wider, dangers are greater . . . No religion is an island. We are all involved with one another. Spiritual betrayal on the part of one of us affects the faith of all of us. Views adopted in one community have an impact on other communities. Today religious isolationism is a myth.

Additional Text

Transcript of the speech

Originally broadcast on the television program Directions on ABC on November 21, 1971. The conversation was about faith and spirituality in the modern world.

On the evening of March 25, 1968, 10 days before he was assassinated, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. appeared at the 68th annual convention of the Rabbinical Assembly, where he was introduced by Abraham Joshua Heschel. The event took place at the Concord Hotel in Kiamesha Lake in the Sullivan County Catskills.

Heschel’s remarks start at the 3:30 mark.

Digitzed Audio at the JTS Library

JTS. Institutional Recordings, The Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary, New York, New York, R.G. 42, (Box 79, AV_0898). Digitization and cataloging funded by a grant from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC).

Additional Text:

Transcript of Heschel and King’s remarks

This march, organized by Clergy and Laymen Concerned About Vietnam, took place on February 6, 1968. In addition to Heschel and King who are at the center, others identified in the picture include Ralph Abernathy (next to King), Rabbi Maurice Eisendrath (with Torah), and Rabbi Everett Gendler (far right).

The Fall 1973 edition of Conservative Judaism was dedicated to the legacy of Abraham Joshua Heschel. The issue included articles by Arthur Green, Louis Finkelstein, Edward K. Kaplan, Judith Hershlag Muffs, and Fritz Rothschild, among others.

A student and colleague of Heschel’s, Fritz Alexander Rothschild (b. October 4, 1919; d. March 7, 2009) was the Joseph J. and Dora Abbell Professor of Philosophy at The Jewish Theological Seminary. Rothschild wrote Between God and Man: An Interpretation of Judaism, the first introduction to the thought and writings of Abraham Joshua Heschel.

He like Heschel was born in Europe and fled before the war. Rothschild escaped to Rhodesia (present day Zimbabwe) in 1938 and came to the United States in 1948. He was ordained at JTS in 1955 and received his doctorate under Heschel’s supervision in 1968. He was a longtime member of the JTS faculty.