Gorakh Hill Station

Born in a family of eminent rabbis, Abraham's path in life was pre-determined. He received a Jewish upbringing and upheld Judaism as the way of life. He took up the noble profession of teaching and in the due course developed his own views on the actual meaning of spirituality and religion. He did an extensive study of the ancient Jewish scriptures 'Talmud' and 'Torah' and belonged to the reformed Jewish cult. Drawing roots from the traditional philosophies, the reformed Judaism was a modern take on the existing principles governing the Jewish faith. According to Herschel, the divine can be encountered only by serving the living. He also believed that a relation with the almighty can be established only by means of good deeds. As a part of the social cause, he actively demonstrated against the discrimination meted out to the blacks in America during the Civil War. Having suffered the wrath of wars, he strongly condemned the attack on Vietnam. He published many works on Jewish philosophy during his tenure at the ‘Jewish Theological Seminary’. The works catered to many aspects of Judaism like the ‘Kabbalah’ and ‘Halakhah’ (The Jewish Law). To know more about the life and works of Heschel read on

Childhood & Early Life

• Descending from a lineage of prominent Hasidic families of Europe, Abraham Joshua Heschel was born in the town of Warsaw, Poland, on 11th January 1907. He was one of the six children born to his parents Moshe Mordechai and Reizel Perlow. In 1916, the children lost their father Mordechai, who was suffering from Influenza.
• In tune with the family traditions, Joshua received education in a conventional Jewish institution, commonly known as ‘Yeshiva’, and later pursued his doctorate in formal Semicha (Rabbi Ordination), from the ‘University of Berlin’, in 1934. He further continued his theological studies at the ‘Hochschule für die Wissenschaft des Judentums’ (Higher Institute for Jewish Studies), an institution situated in Berlin.