Martin Buber (Vienna, 1878–1965), Franz Rosenzweig (Kassel, 1886–1929), and Gershom Scholem (Berlin, 1897–1982) each reinvented themselves during their adolescence and early twenties, eventually becoming preeminent representatives of distinct pathways into and through Jewish life. Buber became a revolutionary, mystic, and biblical humanist; Rosenzweig emerged as a Diasporist, Hebraist, and educator/founder of the Frankfurt Lehrhaus; and Scholem evolved into a Zionist, pioneering scholar of Kabbalah, and spiritual anarchist-ironist.

While exploring their life stories, this session will also invite you to imagine how their struggles for self-determination might be useful to you today. All three repudiated the models of adulthood presented to them by their parents and instead opted for ways of believing, belonging, and behaving that continue to inform our choices today.

Avi Bernstein is a fan of the Lehrhaus, the one that once was (i.e. in Frankfurt, Germany 1920 - 1926), and the beautiful new one in Somerville, MA. He has served as the Executive Director of the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Brandeis and a Dean at Hebrew College. It is noteworthy that Buber, Rosenzweig, and Scholem all taught at the Frankfurt Lehrhaus, with Rosenzweig being its founder in 1920 and Buber its director from 1933 until his emigration from Germany in 1938. Avi is the author of papers on Hermann Cohen, Franz Rosenzweig, and Charles Taylor.