BECK Leo (Baeck Leo)

(1873-1956)
Beck is widely recognized as a leading representative of Reform Judaism in the 20. The expert on the Bible and rabbinical scholar and mystical texts, he contrasted the 'classic' sound Jewish faith 'romantic', based on a sense of Christianity. Beck's objective attitude towards the Gospel as a document of Jewish history and his criticism of the Apostle Paul established his reputation as a major scholar of the New Testament.
Beck was born on May 23, 1873 in Lisse (Germany, now Leszno, Poland). He studied at the rabbi in Breslau (now Wroclaw, Poland) and Berlin. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Berlin (1895) and the title of rabbi in Berlin Graduate School for the Study of Judaism (1897). The first significant work of Beck Essence of Judaism (Das Wesen des Judentums, 1905) challenged the Essence of Christianity A. von Harnack (1900). In the image Harnack early Christianity - a liberal doctrine, which arose as a result of special, once received by revelation and in no way associated with Judaism. In Beck's interpretation of Judaism is presented as a dynamic, . developing doctrine, . perceived in its history a continuous revelation, . as a response to the divine imperative of rights' you have! ", . which revealed a man in the rabbinic interpretation of the Torah and in our own experience,
. The text Beck traced ethical rigor Jewish Rabbi 1. and Neo-Kantianism of the Marburg philosopher Hermann Cohen, a teacher Beck. In the new, greatly expanded edition presented the dialectic of religious life, moving from a meeting with the immanent God to take everlasting moral law. Other works Beck 1920 revealed Judaism as a 'religion of polarity', and is most clearly manifested in the essays and the commandment Sacrament. Others work - the Pharisees and of the 'romantic religion' (Christianity) - established his reputation as one of the great defenders of Judaism, . down a Christian theologians, . such as Karl Barth, . R. Bultman, . E. Brunner (but with P. Tillich, he was largely in agreement),
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Beck initially viewed his religion as 'a revelation from God', and its people - the people, the priest, who became his thanks to an alliance-treaty with God and called to be the world teaching about God. It feels more typical for the 19. faith in reason and inherited from G. Cohen's optimism. His last major work, this nation: the meaning of Jewish existence (Dieses Volk: Jdische Existenz, 1955-1957) was a step from the 'essence' to 'survival'. If the first book Beck determined people, through his faith, the latter is determined by the people's religion.

This part of the book written by people in the Theresienstadt concentration camp. When in 1933 Hitler came to power, Jews were second-class citizens. They knew the affairs of the administrative authority, General representation of Jews in Germany, and Beck was elected as its leader. Beck stubbornly defended the rights of Jews, helped them find refuge in Palestine and other countries. He refused to leave, not wanting to leave his flock, and even returned to Germany in August 1939, after a group of children took to London. Once in Theresienstadt in 1943, he continued his spiritual resistance in this 'exemplary' camp that the Nazis showed the Red Cross (over 150 thousand. Prisoners were sent there to die, or transported to Auschwitz, survived less than 9 thousand. people). Beck refused to take any position in the camp, seeing its mission in the work of spiritual teacher, a rabbi and teacher. When the camp was liberated, Beck kept the prisoners from the massacre of the guards.

Two subsequent decades, Beck has taught at the College of Jewish Association in Cincinnati (USA), continued to work in London and Jerusalem. There Leo Baeck College in London and the historic Leo Baeck Institute for the Study of Jewish life in Germany (New York, London and Jerusalem). Beck died in London on November 2, 1956.