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Milton Steinberg (November 25, 1903 – March 20, 1950) was an American
rabbi A rabbi () is a spiritual leader or religious teacher in Judaism. One becomes a rabbi by being ordained by another rabbi – known as '' semikha'' – following a course of study of Jewish history and texts such as the Talmud. The basic form o ...
,
philosopher A philosopher is a person who practices or investigates philosophy. The term ''philosopher'' comes from the grc, φιλόσοφος, , translit=philosophos, meaning 'lover of wisdom'. The coining of the term has been attributed to the Greek th ...
,
theologian Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the ...
and author.


Life

Born in
Rochester, New York Rochester () is a City (New York), city in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York, the county seat, seat of Monroe County, New York, Monroe County, and the fourth-most populous in the state after New York City, Buffalo, New York, Buffalo, ...
, he was raised with the combination of his grandparents' traditional Jewish piety and his father's modernist
socialism Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes th ...
. He graduated as valedictorian of his class at
DeWitt Clinton High School , motto_translation = Without Work Nothing Is Accomplished , image = DeWitt Clinton High School front entrance IMG 7441 HLG.jpg , seal_image = File:Clinton News.JPG , seal_size = 124px , ...
and then majored in Classics at
City College of New York The City College of the City University of New York (also known as the City College of New York, or simply City College or CCNY) is a public university within the City University of New York (CUNY) system in New York City. Founded in 1847, Cit ...
which he graduated from
summa cum laude Latin honors are a system of Latin phrases used in some colleges and universities to indicate the level of distinction with which an academic degree has been earned. The system is primarily used in the United States. It is also used in some Sou ...
in 1924. Steinberg received his doctorate in philosophy from
Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
in 1928 and then entered the
Jewish Theological Seminary of America The Jewish Theological Seminary (JTS) is a Conservative Jewish education organization in New York City, New York. It is one of the academic and spiritual centers of Conservative Judaism and a major center for academic scholarship in Jewish studie ...
where he was ordained. In seminary, he was strongly influenced by Rabbi
Mordecai Kaplan Mordecai Menahem Kaplan (born Mottel Kaplan; June 11, 1881 – November 8, 1983), was a Lithuanian-born American rabbi, writer, Jewish educator, professor, theologian, philosopher, activist, and religious leader who founded the Reconstructionist ...
(1881–1983), the founder of
Reconstructionist Judaism Reconstructionist Judaism is a Jewish movement that views Judaism as a progressively evolving civilization rather than a religion, based on concepts developed by Mordecai Kaplan (1881–1983). The movement originated as a semi-organized stream w ...
. After five years in a pulpit in Indiana, he was invited by the Seminary to assume the pulpit of Manhattan's
Park Avenue Synagogue The Park Avenue Synagogue ( he, אגודת ישרים, ''Agudat Yesharim'', The Association of the Righteous) is a Conservative Jewish congregation located at 50 East 87th Street on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, New York City. Founded in 1882 ...
, then a small congregation with a
Reform Reform ( lat, reformo) means the improvement or amendment of what is wrong, corrupt, unsatisfactory, etc. The use of the word in this way emerges in the late 18th century and is believed to originate from Christopher Wyvill's Association movement ...
orientation. In his sixteen years at the congregation, he grew it from 120 to 750 families. In 1943 he had a near fatal heart attack. While a disciple of Kaplan who considered himself a Reconstructionist, Steinberg was critical of Kaplan's dismissal of
metaphysics Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that studies the fundamental nature of reality, the first principles of being, identity and change, space and time, causality, necessity, and possibility. It includes questions about the nature of conscio ...
. Steinberg's works included '' Basic Judaism'', '' The Making of the Modern Jew''
A Partisan Guide to the Jewish Problem
and ''
As A Driven Leaf ''As a Driven Leaf'' is a 1939 novel by Milton Steinberg based on the life of Elisha ben Abuyah. Steinberg's novel wrestles with the 2nd century Jewish struggle to reconcile Rabbinic Judaism both culturally and philosophically with Greek Helle ...
'', a historical novel revolving around the
talmud The Talmud (; he, , Talmūḏ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law ('' halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the ce ...
ic characters Elisha ben Abuyah and
Rabbi Akiva Akiva ben Yosef (Mishnaic Hebrew: ''ʿĂqīvāʾ ben Yōsēf''; – 28 September 135 CE), also known as Rabbi Akiva (), was a leading Jewish scholar and sage, a '' tanna'' of the latter part of the first century and the beginning of the second c ...
. In his final years, he began writing a series of theological essays. This project, which he had hoped would conclude in a book of theology, was cut short by his death at age 46. An unfinished second novel, ''The Prophet's Wife'', about the
Tanakh The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
'' Hosea In the Hebrew Bible, Hosea ( or ; he, הוֹשֵׁעַ – ''Hōšēaʿ'', 'Salvation'; gr, Ὡσηέ – ''Hōsēé''), son of Beeri, was an 8th-century BCE prophet in Israel and the nominal primary author of the Book of Hosea. He is t ...
and
Gomer Gomer ( he, ''Gōmer'', ; el, Γαμὲρ, translit=Gamér) was the eldest son of Japheth (and of the Japhetic line), and father of Ashkenaz, Riphath, and Togarmah, according to the "Table of Nations" in the Hebrew Bible ( Genesis 10). The ...
, was published in March 2010.


Publications


Non-fiction

* ''The Making of the Modern Jew'' (1934) * ''A Partisan Guide to the Jewish Problem'' (1945)
''Basic Judaism''
(1947) * ''A Believing Jew'' (1951) * ''Anatomy of Faith'' (1960)


Novels

* ''
As a Driven Leaf ''As a Driven Leaf'' is a 1939 novel by Milton Steinberg based on the life of Elisha ben Abuyah. Steinberg's novel wrestles with the 2nd century Jewish struggle to reconcile Rabbinic Judaism both culturally and philosophically with Greek Helle ...
'' (1939) * ''The Prophet's Wife'' (2010)


See also

*
Process theology Process theology is a type of theology developed from Alfred North Whitehead's (1861–1947) process philosophy, most notably by Charles Hartshorne (1897–2000), John B. Cobb (b. 1925) and Eugene H. Peters (1929-1983). Process theology and p ...


References

*Noveck, Simon, "Milton Steinberg" in Kessner, Carole S., ''The "Other" New York Jewish Intellectuals'', New York University Press, 1994. *


External links


Steinberg and Zionism

Milton Steinberg Papers
at the American Jewish Historical Society, New York and Boston, Massachusetts {{DEFAULTSORT:Steinberg, Milton 1903 births 1950 deaths 20th-century American rabbis American Conservative rabbis American Reconstructionist rabbis American Reform rabbis City College of New York alumni Jewish American writers Jewish novelists Jewish philosophers American Jewish theologians Jewish Theological Seminary of America semikhah recipients Rabbis from New York City Religious leaders from Rochester, New York Philosophers of Judaism Process theologians 20th-century novelists DeWitt Clinton High School alumni Columbia University alumni