Abraham Joshua Heschel Reading Guide

TIMELINE January 11, 1907: Abraham Joshua Heschel is born in Warsaw. He is the youngest of six children. His father was Moshe Mordechai and his mother Reizel (Rivka) Perlow. His siblings are Sarah, Esther, Gittel, Devorah, and Jacob.

1916: Moshe Heschel, only 43 years of age, dies during the Influenza Pandemic. Heschel’s uncle, Rebbe Alter Israel Shimon Perlow, takes over Abraham’s rabbinic training.

January 11, 1920: Abraham celebrates his Bar Mitzvah.

1925: Heschel begins his studies at the Vilna Real Gymnasium in preparation for attending a university.

June 26, 1927: Heschel graduates from the Vilna Real Gymnasium.

Fall 1927: Heschel begins his doctoral work at the University of Berlin. He also studies at the Hochschule fur die Wissenschaft des Judentums (Academy for the Science of Judaism) and the Rabbiner-Seminar fur das Orthodoxe Judentum.

January 31, 1931: Heschel starts his dissertation on the Hebrew Prophets.

1933: Heschel publishes a collection of poems, The Ineffable Name of God: Man. 1933: Nazis force Jewish-owned stores to place yellow stars on their doors and there is a major book-burning right at the time that Heschel is trying to find a publisher for his dissertation.

1933: Under a pseudonym, Heschel publishes a poem in the Yiddish newspaper, Haynt, called “On This Day of Hate.”

July 1934: Heschel completes degree at the Hochschule.

December 1934: The Polish Academy of Sciences agrees to publish Heschel’s dissertation.

1935: Heschel publishes a biography of Maimonides.

December 11, 1935: The University of Berlin grants Heschel his doctoral degree.

March 1936: The Polish Academy publishes Die Prophetie.

March 1, 1937: Heschel starts as director of the Mittelstelle fur Judische Erwachsenen Bildung.

October 28, 1938: The Gestapo deports Heschel from his German home and place him in the Zbaszyn detention camp along the Polish border. Through family connections, Heschel is able to obtain a release after which he accepts a position at the Warsaw Institute of Jewish Study.

April 6, 1939: Heschel receives a letter from Julian Morgenstern, the head of the Hebrew Union College, offering him a position as Research Fellow.

September 1939: After the Nazis invade Poland, his sister Esther is killed in the bombing. His mother and sister Gittel are forced to flee from their home.

1940: While waiting to obtain a visa so that he can travel to the United States, Heschel lives with his brother Jacob in London. There, he establishes the Theodor Herzl Society.

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