I and Thou

Buber’s identity as a Jewish intellectual was central to his work as an academic, and to the influence that he would hold before, during, and after the Second World War. Spending almost a whole decade at the start of his career translating and publishing specifically Jewish works, this endeavor—undertaken as an early career scholar—would inform his thinking and output for the rest of his life. During the time of the First World War, Buber assisted in the founding of the Jewish National Committee, whose stated goal was to improve the quality of life of Jews living and working in Europe.

In 1930, Buber was appointed to a prestigious position at the University in Frankfurt, but resigned only three years later (in 1933) when Adolf Hitler rose to power in Germany. Resigning in protest, the Nazi regime first banned him from lecturing or teaching, and he was quickly formally banned from academia in Germany in any capacity. In 1938, Buber escaped Germany and relocated to Jerusalem, where he was shortly appointed to a professorship at Hebrew University. Continuing the work he had begun years earlier (especially in the first edition of his work I and Thou), Buber would continue to do research and give lectures on existentialist philosophy and anthropology.

One of the reasons that Buber’s work rose to prominence—and continued to be influential even after his death—is the fact that he was uniquely positioned in the 20th century as a Jewish philosopher who specialized in existentialism, human interaction, anthropology, and individual relation to God and the world. Due to the tragedy of the Second World War and the Holocaust, Buber’s thought was immediately taken seriously as worthy of being heard and received in the work of academics in the second half of the 20th century. Although Buber would later be criticized for certain views he espoused concerning the place of Jews in the transformed political climate of the 20th century, as well as his take on Zionism, his thought was largely respected and received a hearing in many corners of contrasting political theory.

In the English-speaking world, Buber’s influence was seen in his acceptance and the spread of his ideas thanks to two figures in particular: Maurice Friedman and Walter Kaufmann. Friedman was Buber’s American translator and biographer, and was responsible for the widespread proliferation of Buber’s works and ideas throughout the English-speaking world, especially after the close of World War II. Kaufmann, for his part, contributed to Buber’s influence and popularity thanks to his work on Nietzsche and existentialism, and his insistence that Buber belonged in the conversation with the best of 19th and 20th-century existentialist and phenomenological philosophy. Considered his greatest work, I and Thou represents the best, most fundamental insights of Buber’s entire academic project, drawing together themes and insight from the primary areas of his research. Even though Buber’s influence has been eclipsed in the realm of Jewish philosophy by a number of scholars and academics in the years since he died—especially by Emmanuel Levinas—his name is still widely known and his work is in general circulation up to the present day.