Fackenheim, Emil
FACKENHEIM, EMIL (1916–2003) is best known for his sustained commitment to refashion Judaism in the shadow of the Nazi holocaust. He was born in Halle, Germany, on June 22, 1916. In 1935 he moved to Berlin where he entered the rabbinical program at the Hochschule für die Wissenschaft des Judentums; he also began a degree in philosophy at the University of Halle. Fackenheim's academic career in Germany was interrupted by Kristallnacht and internment for several months in Sachsenhausen. In the spring of 1940 he fled to Aberdeen, Scotland, and matriculated in a degree program in philosophy at the university. A year later Fackenheim and other refugees were interred in camps and then dispersed throughout the British Empire.
Fackenheim traveled by ship to Canada, spent months in a camp in Sherbrooke, Ontario, and was eventually released, whereupon he went directly to the University of Toronto and was accepted into the doctoral program in philosophy. Fackenheim received his degree in 1945 with a dissertation on medieval Arabic philosophy and its classical antecedents. From 1943 to 1948 he served as rabbi for congregation Anshe Shalom in Hamilton, Ontario. Invited to teach philosophy at the University of Toronto in 1948, he remained there until 1983, when he retired as University Professor.
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