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In This Hour: Heschel's Writings in Nazi Germany and London Exile
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About In This Hour: Heschel's Writings In Nazi Germany
Product Description In This Hour offers the first English translations of selected German writings by Abraham Joshua Heschel from his tumultuous years in Nazi-ruled Germany and months in London exile, before he found refuge in the United States. Moreover, several of the works have never been published in any language. Composed during a time of intense crisis for European Jewry, these writings both argue for and exemplify a powerful vision of spiritually rich Jewish learning and its redemptive role in the past and the future of the Jewish people. The collection opens with the text of a speech in which Heschel laid out with passion his vision for Jewish education. Then it goes on to present his teachings: a set of essays about the rabbis of the Mishnaic period, whose struggles paralleled those of his own time; the biography of the medieval Jewish scholar and leader Don Yitzhak Abravanel; reflections on the power and meaning of repentance, written for the High Holidays in 1936; and a short story on Jewish exile, written for Hanukkah 1937. The collection closes with a set of four recently discovered meditations—on suffering, prayer, spirituality, and God—in which Heschel grapples with the horrors unfolding around him. Taken together, these essays and story fill a significant void in Heschel’s bibliography: his Nazi Germany and London exile years. These translations convey the spare elegance of Heschel’s prose, and the introduction and detailed notes make the volume accessible to readers of all knowledge levels. As Heschel teaches history, his voice is more than that of a historian: the old becomes new, and the struggles of one era shed light on another. Even as Heschel quotes ancient sources, his words address the issues of his own time and speak urgently to ours. Review "Up until now, readers of Heschel have known relatively little about these years of uncertainty and upheaval in his life. Now, thanks to the efforts of Susannah Heschel (in whose graceful introduction we learn that Heschel helped his older friend Martin Buber work on his conversational Hebrew before he departed Germany for Jerusalem), Helen Plotkin, and the translators, a new door has been opened. . . . [ In This Hour] brings to the attention of the contemporary reader of English some of the least attainable yet most accessible of what Heschel wrote in that period of his life. . . . These essays represent an act of consolation through history, contemporary comment through deflection, and an affirmation of the Jewish propensity for recovery. . . . [They also strengthen] the idea that Heschel’s politico-spiritual action of the 1960s is best understood in the context of these stirrings of spiritual resistance in the 1930s."—Michael Marmur, Jewish Review of Books (Michael Marmur Jewish Review of Books) "For readers already deeply familiar with Heschel's life and work, or curious about his approach to Jewish pedagogy, In This Hour usefully displays his early efforts to articulate a spiritual account of Jewish education, and the commentary by Helen Plotkin is consistently illuminating."—Carlin Romano, Moment Magazine (Carlin Romano Moment Magazine 2019-06-25) " In This Hour: Heschel's Writings in Nazi Germany and London Exile . . . is a collection of early writings by the great rabbinic figure and important Jewish thinker, written before he found refuge in the United States. The pieces—about Jewish education, the rabbis of the Mishnaic period, a biography of a medieval Jewish scholar, reflections before the holiday and reflections on issues like prayer and suffering—haven't been previously published in English. The foreword by Susannah Heschel and notes by scholar Helen Plotkin are particularly compelling."— Jewish News ( Jewish News) "The timing of the release of this volume was perfect since we are living at a time when civility and spirituality seem to have taken time off. We are exposed to important and deep learning here that is wonderfully written and drives us to
