On this day: Martin Buber is born

The Austrian-born thinker began his spiritual journey as an observant Jew under the tutelage of his Talmudic scholar grandfather. He became a philosopher as a young man, but continued to write about and address Hassidic values throughout his life.

While studying in Vienna he became involved in the fledgling Zionist movement, acting as a leading cultural Zionist and taking on the role of editor of the Zionist journal Die Welt in 1902. However his Zionist views were at odds with other leading figures in the movement, pushing for the creation of a “common homeland” for Jews and Arabs “in which both peoples will have the possibility of free development”.

His most famous work, I and Thou, an existentialist musing on belief and how man interacts with the world, was published in 1923. He later translated the bible into German with fellow academic Franz Rosenzweig.

By 1930 he was a lecturer of philosophy at the University of Frankfurt, but when Adolf Hitler’s came to power he resigned and emigrated to British Mandate Palestine.