Aleph Number:
CLOSED: Collection is closed pending processing with the exception of selected items in boxes 84-85.
The Rubenstein Library will not be able to provide access to other parts of the Heschel papers until we have finished the significant work of arranging, describing, and conserving the material. We do not have an inventory of the full collection that we can share at this time. We will announce the opening of the Heschel papers on our website.
All or portions of this collection may be housed off-site in Duke University's Library Service Center. Consequently, there may be a 24-hour delay in obtaining these materials.
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[Identification of item], Abraham Joshua Heschel papers, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University.
The Abraham Joshua Heschel papers were received by the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library as a purchase in May 2012.
Collection is unprocessed.
Encoded by Noah Huffman, September 2012
Accession(s) described in this finding aid: 2012-0105
Descriptive sources and standards used to create this inventory:
Abraham Joshua Heschel (1907-1972) was Polish-born American rabbi and one of the leading Jewish theologians and philosophers of the 20th century. Heschel taught at Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati and at the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York. He was also a highly visible public figure as a lecturer and activist for civil rights and the anti-war movement protesting U.S. involvement in Vietnam. He fam ously marched side by side with Martin Luther King, Jr. at Selma, and was a key figure in convincing King to embrace the antiwar movement. Heschel was also a co-founder of Clergy Concerned About Vietnam (later Clergy and Laity Concerned), which grew into a major vehicle for organized protest. Heschel served as a Jewish liaison with the Vatican during the Second Vatican Council, playing a crucial role in persuading the Vatican to eliminate anti-Jewish references from its liturgy. A close friend and associate of the Christian theologian Reinhold Niebuhr, Heschel was also an important conduit for dialogue between Jewish and Christian communities in the U.S. His theological works have exerted an enduring influence on observant Jews and on Jewish education, as well as on religious education generally, in the United States and throughout the world. Many of his important works have remained continually in print for decades.
Collection consists of manuscripts, correspondence, publications, documents, and clippings, pictures, and memorabilia spanning five decades and at least four languages. Included among the papers are working materials, notes and drafts for virtually all of Heschel's books, articles, and speeches, as well as his teaching notes and materials used in seminars at Hebrew Union College, Jewish Theological Seminary, and Union Theological Seminary. Heschel's published works, especially his numerous books, were characterized by his singular style of condensed, aphoristic, and lyrical prose. The manuscripts in the archive document the development of those texts, which were the result of intensive editorial work. The papers reflect Heschel's continuing and renewed attention to a range of ideas throughout his career, and it is evident that he reached back to notes and drafts from earlier times in order to develop his ideas in newer works. The editorial process of honing and sharpening left much material out of the publications, all of which is preserved in the archive in the form of unpublished manuscripts.
The archive also includes copious correspondence, including significant series of letters from friends and associates such as Martin Buber, Thomas Merton, Louis Finkelstein, Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy, Reinhold Niebuhr, Julian Morgenstern, Eduard Strauss, Fritz Kaufmann, Mordecai Kaplan, Roger Straus, and many others, including probably every important rabbi in the U.S. throughout the 1950s and 1960s. Printed documentation preserved in the collection surrounds the papers with a wealth of data on the contexts in which Heschel's thought and work developed. The collection presents a rich resource for research both into the life and work of Heschel, along with the movements he embraced, as well as the history of Jewish thought in America in the post-Holocaust era.
CLOSED: Collection is closed pending processing with the exception of selected materials in boxes 84-85.
The Rubenstein Library will not be able to provide access to other parts of the Heschel papers until we have finished the significant work of arranging, describing, and conserving the material. We do not have an inventory of the full collection that we can share at this time. We will announce the opening of the Heschel papers on our website.
[Closed pending processing]
Currently a small selection of materials from the Heschel papers are open for use.
Rare Polish edition of Heschel's "The Prophets" (text in German)
Travel document issued by the Nazi Reich
School matriculation book; also includes a few school-related documents
School ID issued by the Hochschule
Project file on Heschel's 1964 visit with Pope Paul VI includes reports, memorandum, notes and reflections (handwritten), and correspondence.
Polish translation of: Don Jizchak Abravanel. Translated from the German by: Ozjasz Tilleman.
Transliteration: Der Shem ha-meforash menṭsh : lider / Avrohom Heshl. Ṿarshe [Warsaw] : Indzl, 1933.
Project files include material on Jewish-Christian relations and race relations; includes correspondence, clippings.
Includes confidential draft of "On Improving Catholic-Jewish Relations, a Memorandum to His Eminence Agostino Cardinal Bea, President, the Secretariat for Christian Unity," submitted by Abraham Joshua Heschel, New York, May 22, 1962.
Letters from Sylvia Strauss (Heschel's wife)
Professional portraits (black and white; young and old); color photos of meeting with the Pope.
Wood block prints, some signed by Schor
Includes notes and writings (handwritten) on the subject of "peace"; project files (draft of statement, mailing list, meeting minutes, correspondence, clippings) related to Heschel's "statement on Vietnam."
Includes black-and-white photograph of Heschel with marchers, telegrams from civil rights leaders, planning documents relating to voting rights in Sunflower County, Mississippi, circa 1966, letters from Coretta Scott King (April 13, 1968; Jan 6, 1969; July 8, 1969); printed material regarding MLK Memorial Center and Foundation.