Steven Schwarzschild

Steven S. Schwarzschild (1924–December 2, 1989) was a rabbi, philosopher, theologian, and editor. Born in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, he grew up in Berlin and escaped to the United States with his family in 1939. He received ordination at Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati in 1948. After returning to Berlin to serve as rabbi of the Berlin Jewish Community, he met Lily Rose, whom he later married. In 1950, he returned to the US and served in temples in Lynn, Massachusetts, and Fargo, North Dakota. He was a member of both Reform and Conservative rabbinic assemblies. In 1965, he was elected Professor of Philosophy and Judaic Studies at Washington University in St. Louis. He edited the journal *Judaism-A Quarterly Journal* from 1961 to 1969 and was the senior editor of *the Werke of Hermann Cohen*. His expertise was on Maimonides, Hermann Cohen, and Immanuel Kant. He was awarded an honorary degree by the Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion. Schwarzschild engaged in dialogue with theologians and philosophers such as John Howard Yoder, Thomas Merton, and others. He died on December 2, 1989, in Jewish Hospital after suffering an aneurysm. His dissertation focused on Nachman Krochmal and Hermann Cohen. He published articles on Jewish ethics, aesthetics, messianism, eschatology, halakha, rationalism, and the philosophies of Martin Buber, Hermann Cohen, Theodor W. Adorno, Karl Marx, Spinoza, Moses Mendelssohn, and Maimonides. He was also interested in the thought of rabbis Isaac Hutner, Joseph B. Soloveitchik, and Joel Teitelbaum. Schwarzschild espoused a form of neo-Kantianism, influenced by Hermann Cohen and Maimonides, emphasizing the role of halakha as a rational system of moral ideals. Politically, he expressed pacifist and democratic socialist views and critiqued Zionism. He advocated for radical peace, emphasizing its pursuit always, everywhere, and totally, as a religious command.