Martin Buber

Lore & Background

Born in Vienna to an Orthodox Jewish family, Buber was a direct descendant of the 16th-century rabbi Meir Katzenellenbogen. After his parents' divorce, he was raised by his grandfather Solomon Buber, a scholar of Midrash and Rabbinic Literature. He broke with Jewish custom to pursue secular studies in philosophy, influenced by Kant, Kierkegaard, and Nietzsche. He joined the Zionist movement in 1898 and met his future wife, Paula Winkler, in 1899.

In 1923, he wrote Ich und Du (I and Thou), and in 1925 began translating the Hebrew Bible into German. He left Germany in 1938 and settled in Jerusalem, becoming a professor at Hebrew University. He died in Jerusalem on 13 June 1965.

Reader's Guide

Buber's philosophy centers on the distinction between I–Thou and I–It relationships. He was a cultural Zionist who supported a binational solution in Palestine and later a regional federation of Israel and Arab states. His work includes retellings of Hasidic and Chinese tales, Biblical commentary, and metaphysical dialogue. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature ten times and the Nobel Peace Prize seven times.

Did You Know?

• He resigned his professorship in protest after Adolf Hitler came to power in 1933.
• Buber's wife Paula Winkler converted to Judaism in 1907.