Martin Buber

Martin Buber (1878-1965), Jewish religious philosopher, who developed a philosophy of encounter, or dialogue. Born in Vienna on February 8, 1878, Buber was educated at the universities of Vienna and Berlin. His first publications, the works that established his literary fame, are the free re-creation of Hasidic legends and tales collected in The Tales of Rabbi Nachman (1907; trans. 1956) and The Legend of the Baal-Shem (1908; trans. 1955). In 1916 Buber founded Der Jude, a periodical that he edited until 1924 and that became the leading organ of German-speaking Jewry under his guidance. His most widely known work, I and Thou (1922; trans. 1937), a concise poetic expression of his religious philosophy, and On Judaism (1923; trans. 1967), which established his intellectual leadership of the German-Jewish community, appeared in a collected edition in 1923.

Buber was professor of Jewish religion and ethics from 1923 to 1933, and then of the history of religions from 1933 to 1938 at Frankfurt University, Germany. In 1933, when Jews were excluded from all German schools following the coming to power of Adolf Hitler, Jewish educational leaders appointed Buber director of the Central Office for Jewish Adult Education in Germany. In 1938 he immigrated to Palestine (now Israel), and from 1938 until 1951 was professor of social philosophy at the Hebrew University, Jerusalem. In 1949 he founded and until 1953 directed the Israeli Institute for Adult Education, which trained teachers for work in the immigration camps. In 1958 he became editor in chief of the Israeli Encyclopedia of Education. He was also a leader of the Ichud (Hebrew, “Union”) Association, a group seeking a Jewish-Arab rapprochement, or reconciliation.

Buber is best known for his philosophy of dialogue, a religious existentialism centred on the distinction between direct, mutual relations (called by him the “I-Thou” relationship, or dialogue), in which each person confirms the other as of unique value, and indirect, utilitarian relations (designated the “I-It” relationship, or monologue), in which each person knows and uses others but does not really see or value them for themselves. Applying this distinction between “dialogue” and “monologue” to religion, Buber insisted that religion means talking to God, not about God. It is not monotheism, in Buber's view, but the dialogue between man and God that is the essence of biblical Judaism. Man becomes aware of being addressed by God in every encounter if he remains open to that address and ready to respond with his whole being. Buber's philosophy of dialogue has had a wide influence on thinkers of all faiths, including such great Protestant theologians as Karl Barth, Emil Brunner, Paul Tillich, and Reinhold Niebuhr.

Apart from Buber's philosophy of dialogue, and his lifelong work translating and interpreting the Old Testament (see Bible: The Old Testament), he is well known for his re-creation and interpretation of Hasidism, the popular mystical movement that swept East European Jewry in the 18th and 19th centuries. Almost single-handedly, he transformed Hasidism into one of the recognized great mystical movements of the world. Scarcely less important is his role as a Zionist, advocating a Jewish cultural renaissance as opposed to purely political goals. One of the most influential Zionist leaders after Theodor Herzl, he renewed the prophetic demand that Israel build a community of righteousness and peace through just means, particularly as regarded the relations of the Jews to the Arabs.

Buber was awarded the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade in 1953 and the Erasmus Prize by the Erasmus Foundation in Holland in 1963. He spent his last years as a consultant to kibbutz members, to whom he offered guidance with personal and communal problems. He died in Jerusalem on June 13, 1965.

Among Buber's works, in addition to those already cited, are Between Man and Man (1947), The Prophetic Faith (1950; trans. 1952), Good and Evil (1952; trans. 1953), and The Knowledge of Man (1966).