Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel: A New Film Spotlights The Jewish Scholar's Civil Rights Activism

By Tom Hall,

Rob Sivak

Published April 27, 2021 at 1:10 PM EDT

Filmmaker Martin Doblmeier's documentary about the influential Jewish theologian airs on PBS on May 5th.

The Jewish theologian and Holocaust survivor was a spiritual mentor to MLK, Jr. and the 1960s civil rights leadership, and an advocate of interfaith dialogues.

Tom's next guests are featured in a new documentary about an extraordinary Jewish theologian and activist. Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel was a mentor, friend and colleague of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and one of the most influential religious scholars and public intellectuals of the 20^th century.

The new documentary, by filmmaker Martin Doblmeier, will air on PBS May 5.

Tomorrow afternoon, the Institute for Islamic, Christian and Jewish Studies here in Baltimore will host a virtual symposium to talk about Heschel’s influence and legacy.

To talk about that legacy now, Tom welcomes back to Midday the two speakers at that symposium, the Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Taylor Branch and Benjamin Sax, the Jewish Scholar at the ICJS.

Taylor Branch is a Pulitzer Prize-winning historian. Benjamin Sax is the Jewish Scholar at the Institute for Islamic, Christian and Jewish Studies.

Taylor Branch and Ben Sax join us on Zoom.