Fackenheim, Emil L., 1916-2003 : Emil L. Fackenheim, Jewish theologian and philosopher, was born in Halle, Germany in 1916 to Julius and Meta Fackenheim. He passed away in Jerusalem Israel in 2003. He was ordained a rabbi upon completing his studies at Hochschule fur die Wissenschaft des Judentums in Berlin, 1935-1939. He also studied at the University of Halle between 1937 and 1938 but was arrested and detained at Sachsenhausen concentration camp from November 1938 to February 1939. He left Germany in May 1939 for England studied at the University of Aberdeen from May 1939 to June 1940. He came to Canada in 1941 and was interned as an enemy alien near Sherbrooke, Quebec. After the war he served as Rabbi of Anshe Shalom Congregation in Hamilton, Ontario and in 1945 received his Ph.D. in Philosophy from the University of Toronto. He was a member of the Philosophy Department of the University of Toronto from 1948 to 1983 and was named Professor Emeritus. He was visiting professor in the Institute of Contemporary Jewry, Hebrew University of Jerusalem until the time of his death.
He received many honours, among them a Guggenheim Fellowship 1957-1958, he was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 1972, and was the President's Medal of the University of Western Ontario in 1954 for the best scholarly article published in Canada. He received an L.L.D. from Laurentian University in 1971, a D.D. from St. Andrew's College, Saskatoon, in 1972 and a D. Hu.L. from Hebrew Union College in 1974. He was the Acquinas Lecturer at Marquette University in 1961, Efroymson Memorial Lecturer at Hebrew Union College in 1966, Malon Powell Lecturer at the University of Indiana in 1966, and Charles Demms Lecturer at New York University in 1968.
Dr. Fackenheim wrote seven books: Paths to Jewish Belief, 1960; Metaphysics and Historicity, 1961; The Religious Dimension in Hegel's Thought, 1968; Quest for Past and Future: Essays in Jewish Theology, 1968; God's Presence in History: Jewish Affirmations and Philosophical Reflections, 1970; Encounters Between Judaism and Modern Philosophy: A Preface to Future Jewish Thought, and To Mend the World: Foundations of Future Jewish Thought, 1982.
He was the author of about 200 articles and reviews mostly in the field of medieval Arabic and Jewish philosophy, modern German philosophy and Jewish religious thought, and was a frequent contributor to a number of learned journals including The Philosophical Quarterly, The Philosophical Review, The Review of Metaphysics, Commentary, Judaism, The Jewish Quarterly Review, Daedalus, and the University of Toronto Quarterly.
