Martin Buber's World

Martin Buber (1878-1965) wrote in periods of political upheaval: in Europe at the turn of the century and after the trauma of WW I, during the Nazi dictatorship, and later in Palestine. Buber—a Zionist leader—was a proponent of a Jewish-Arab bi-national state. Settled in Jerusalem, he never ceased to work toward Arab-Jewish rapprochement. In Europe, Buber had sketched a vision of a “new society,” with a romantic suspicion of “institutions.” In his celebrated book I and Thou (1923), he argues that all “real life” is “relation,” dialogue with the “other.” In his Zionist politics, he abandoned his earlier utopianism for a politics of the possible. He also undertook a new translation of the Bible, concerned to preserve its Hebrew feel and cadence. Readings will include selections from his writings on philosophy, education, Bible translation, Hasidism, and politics.