In Memoriam: Maurice Friedman

Maurice Friedman, the American scholar and writer, who more than anyone else, brought the work of the great Israeli religious philosopher Martin Buber to the attention of the world, died on Sunday, September 24th.  He was 90 years old.

Dr. Friedman was a professor of philosophy, religious studies, literature and psychology--always stressing the relationship between those disciplines.  He would not speak of Religion and Literature as the title of a course, for example, but "Religious Attitudes in Literature."

Maury graduated from Harvard University magna cum laude in Economics in1943, earned a Master's from Ohio State in Literature in 1947  and his Doctorate from the University of Chicago in 1950. It was his mother who took an 8-hour bus trip when she was in Israel to give Martin Buber a copy of her son's thesis on Buber.  It later became the basis for Friedman's first book: Martin Buber:The Life of Dialogue..

In addition to several other universities and colleges, Professor Friedman taught at Sarah Lawrence College, and from 1967 to 1973  was Professor of Religion at Temple University, Philadelphia where he was the Director of both the Ph.D. Program in Religion and Literature and the Ph.D. Program in Religion and Psychology.  From 1954 to 1966 he was on the Philosophy faculty of the New School for Social Research, and he taught at San Diego State University from 1973 until his retirement.

 
He translated many of Buber's books from the German into English, and is the author of Encounter on the Narrow Ridge: A Life of Martin Buber; A  Dialogue with Hasidic Tales;  Problematic Rebel;

To Deny our Nothingness; The World's of Existentialism; The Hidden Human Image; The Human Way to name only a few of his 28 or more books.


His last book, soon to be published by Syracuse University Press, is My Friendship with Martin Buber: A Memoir is a great testimony to his life and relationship with Buber.

He is survived by his daughter Dvora, his son David and his wife Aleene.