Radio program on Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel at APM's "Speaking of Faith"

Folks, American Public Media's (APM) radio program Speaking of Faith, hosted by Krista Tippet, had a fascinating retrospective on the late Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, aptly entitled The Spiritual Audacity of Abraham Joshua Heschel which I think it will be interesting to all of you. Rabbi Heschel, of course, was one of the greatest Jewish theologians and philosophers of the 20th century, as well as a noted human rights activist - the kind the Nobel Peace Prize committee usually ignores.

For us Catholics, Rabbi Heschel is important because of the impact he had on the drafting on the Second Vatical Council Declaration on the Relation of the Church to Non-Christian Religions, Nostra Aetate, from which I quote routinely.

Rabbi Gary Greenebaum, U.S. Director of Interreligious Affairs American Jewish Committee (AJC), wrote in 2008 that

The important chapter of his life for which Rabbi Heschel is least known, however, may be that in which his insights have had the most long-lasting and far-reaching effects... Rabbi Heschel was brought into the discussions with the Vatican by his former student Rabbi Marc Tanenbaum, who served as director of interreligious affairs for the American Jewish Committee. AJC had been involved with Vatican II from its inception, working to keep the possibility of change in the relationship between the Church and the Jews central to this historic opening up of Church doctrine. Heschel drafted the third official memorandum that AJC submitted to the Vatican on the relationship between Christianity and the Jews. Titled On Improving Catholic-Jewish Relations, this paper, instead of dwelling any longer on the past, presented the basis for a way forward.

As the work of Vatican II wore on, Rabbi Heschel and AJC remained deeply involved in the development of what would eventually become the groundbreaking statement Nostra Aetate.

Nostra Aetate, though concerned with relationships between the Roman Catholic Church and all other religions, is understood to have changed most deeply the relationship between the Church and the Jews. Even as this relationship continues to evolve and the understanding of the meaning of Nostra Aetate continues to unfold, the distinct imprint of Rabbi Heschel can still be felt.

Although Heschel's role in this most important chapter in Catholic-Jewish relations is not well-known, it may well be here that his great moral voice, his deep theological thought, and his true love of humanity will have had their most lasting effect.

I clipped the photo on this post, capturing a moment in the meeting between Rabbi Heschel and Agustin Cardinal Bea in 1963, from the AJC publication Wide Horizons: Abraham Joshua Heschel, AJC, and the Spirit of Nostra Aetate, by Gary Spruch, from which I also obtained the above quotation by Rabbi Greenebaum.

I'm embedding the radio program here, for your listening pleasure. Please, visit also the site dedicated to this program at APM for more background information, other clips, and an unedited version of this interview about Rabbi Heschel with Arnold Eisen, chancellor of Jewish Theological Seminary in New York.