The Other Martin Buber: Recollections of His Contemporaries

by Haim Gordon (Editor)

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186 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1988

Reviews

[Elliot Ratzman · Rating 2 out of 5]

Buber, the philosopher of dialogical philosophy, of the “I-Thou” encounter, was apparently an appalling host. This collection of gossipy recollections of Buber and his wife in Israel is instructive primarily for the disconnect between the man and the philosophy. Buber apparently never offered any visitors anything to drink or eat. An advocate for Jewish-Arab coexistence, Buber wasn’t known for having many Arab interlocutors, although he lived in an Arab village when he first arrived in Palestine. He heralded the Kibbutz as a “realized utopia” but apparently spent little time on one. Buber had other good qualities: intellectual courage, cordiality, and a tireless work ethic. This volume is strictly for Buber enthusiasts—a lay person won’t learn much about his writings and thought. The portrait of a man with vanities, weaknesses and faults, however, is a nice counterbalance to the hagiographic treatment by his biographers (looking at you Maurice Friedman) and his Christian interlocutors.