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My Father, Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, Was A Dreamer, Too

JL;DR SUMMARY Susannah Heschel reflects on her father, Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel's experiences with deportation from Nazi Germany and his subsequent life in the United States, drawing parallels to the contemporary issue of "Dreamers"—young immigrants brought illegally to the U.S. as children. A way out west there was a fella, fella I want to tell you about, fella by the name of Jeff Lebowski. At least, that was the handle his lovin' parents gave him, but he never had much use for it himself. This Lebowski, he called himself the Dude. Now, Dude, that's a name no one would self-apply where I come from. But then, there was a lot about the Dude that didn't make a whole lot of sense to me. And a lot about where he lived, likewise. But then again, maybe that's why I found the place s'durned innarestin'.

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Tags

Jewish LawHuman RightsImmigrationNazi GermanyRefugeesAbraham Joshua HeschelJewish ValuesDeportationDreamersDaca

Places mentioned

Frankfurt, Hesse, Germany
"My father, Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, was living in Frankfurt, Germany, in October 1938 in a rented room from a Jewish family in the leafy suburb of Eschersheim."
Berlin, Germany
"and had gone in 1927 to study in Berlin, which he viewed as the cultural and intellectual capital of the universe at that time."
Warsaw, Mazovia, Poland
"My father was born and raised in Warsaw, Poland, the child of great Hasidic rebbes,"
Israel
"Martin Buber, who left for Palestine, asked my father to come to Frankfurt in 1937 to replace him as director of the Jdisches Lehrhaus, the adult Jewish education center."
United States
"he was plucked as a brand from the fire, brought to America by Julian Morgenstern, president of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion."
Dartmouth, New Hampshire, United States
"Susannah Heschel is the Eli Black Professor of Jewish Studies at Dartmouth College."

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Retrieved 2026-02-25 05:31:35 UTC
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