Richard Lowell Rubenstein (January 8, 1924 – May 16, 2021) was arabbi, theologian, educator, and writer, noted particularly for his path-breaking contributions to post-Holocaust theology and his sociopolitical analyses of surplus populations and bureaucracy. AConnecticut resident, he was married to art historian Betty Rogers Rubenstein (d. 2013).[1]

Rubenstein was born inNew York City on January 8, 1924. He began his undergraduate studies at theCity University of New York and completed them at theUniversity of Cincinnati. While in Cincinnati, Rubenstein also studied for therabbinate through the Reform-affiliatedHebrew Union College, whereAbraham Joshua Heschel was a faculty member at the time.^[2] After completing his B.A. at the University of Cincinnati, Rubenstein discontinued his studies at Hebrew Union College. Instead of continuing training in the Reform movement, he followed Heschel to theJewish Theological Seminary of America (JTSA), where he receivedrabbinical ordination into theConservative movement and a master's degree in 1952. Subsequently, he studied under the Christian theologianPaul Tillich atHarvard Divinity School, where he earned amaster’s degree in sacred theology and a doctoral degree in thehistory of religion in 1960.^[3][2] He was later awarded two honorary degrees: The first, aDoctorate of Hebrew Letters from JTSA, and the second, aDoctorate of Humane Letters, fromGrand Valley State University.

Following his ordination in 1952, Rubenstein was the rabbi of two Massachusetts congregations in succession, and then in 1956 became assistant director of the B'nai B'rith Hillel Foundation and chaplain to the Jewish students atHarvard University, Radcliffe, and Wellesley, where he served until 1958. From 1958 to 1970, he was the director of the B'nai B'rith Hillel Foundation and chaplain to the Jewish students at theUniversity of Pittsburgh,Carnegie-Mellon University, andDuquesne University.^[3] At the University of Pittsburgh, he also taught an upper division course on French Existentialism.

From 1970 to 1995, Rubenstein taught in religious studies atFlorida State University, where he held a professorial chair. He then became president and professor of Religion at theUniversity of Bridgeport, where he served from 1995 to 1999.^[4]

Rubenstein was also a newspaper columnist for aJapanese newspaper and authored several books on theHolocaust,theology, Jewish-Christian relations,ethics, and politics.

Rubenstein emerged in the 1960s as a significant writer on the meaning and impact of the Holocaust forJudaism. His first book,After Auschwitz, explored radical theological frontiers in Jewish thought. Rubenstein argued that the experience of the Holocaust shattered the traditional Judaic concept of God, especially as the God of thecovenant withAbraham, in which theGod ofIsrael is the God of history. Rubenstein argued that Jews could no longer advocate the notion of anomnipotent God at work in history or espouse the election of Israel as the chosen people. In the wake of the Holocaust, he believed that Jews have lost hope and there is no ultimate meaning to life.

[A]s children of the Earth, we are undeceived concerning our destiny. We have lost all hope, consolation and illusion.^[5]

InAfter Auschwitz, Rubenstein argued that the covenant had died. He did not mean he was now anatheist, nor that religion had to be discarded as irrelevant. However, he believed not in a transcendent God, but in God as the ground of being:

Terms like "ground" and "source" stand in contrast to the terms used for the transcendent biblical God of history who is known as a supreme king, a father, a creator, a judge, a maker. When he creates the world, he does so as do males, producing something external to himself. He remains essentially outside of and judges the creative processes he has initiated. As ground and source, God creates as does a mother, in and through her own very substance. As ground of being, God participates in all the joys and sorrows of the drama of creation which is, at the same time, the deepest expression of the divine life. God's unchanging unitary life and that of the cosmos' ever-changing, dynamic multiplicity ultimately reflect a single unitary reality.^[6]

Rubenstein explored what the nature and form of religious existence could possibly comprise afterAuschwitz (i.e., after the experience of the Holocaust). He suggested that perhaps the way forward was to choose some form ofpaganism.

When his work was released in 1966, it appeared at a time when a"death of God" movement was emerging in radical theological discussions amongProtestant theologians such asGabriel Vahanian,Paul Van Buren,William Hamilton, andThomas J. J. Altizer. Among those Protestants, the discussions centred on modernsecular unbelief, the collapse of the belief in any transcendent order to the universe, and their implications forChristianity. Theologians such as Altizer felt at the time that "as 'Death of God' theologians we have now been joined by a distinguished Jewish theologian, Dr Richard Rubenstein."^[7]

During the 1960s, the "Death of God" movement achieved considerable notoriety and was featured as the cover story of the April 8, 1966, edition ofTime magazine. However, as a movement of thought among theologians in Protestant circles, it had dissipated from its novelty by the turn of the 1970s.

Rubenstein was a defender of theUnification Church and served on its advisory council,^[3] as well as on the board of directors of the church-ownedThe Washington Times newspaper.^[8] In the 1990s, he served as president of theUniversity of Bridgeport, which was then affiliated with the church.^[9] Rubenstein said about the church's founderSun Myung Moon:

I especially appreciated Rev. Moon's commitment to the fight against Communism. From his own first-hand, personal experience and out of his religious convictions, he understood how tragic a political and social blight that movement had been. I had been in East and West Berlin the week the Berlin Wall was erected in August 1961 and had visited communist Poland in 1965. Unfortunately, many of my liberal academic colleagues did not understand the full nature of the threat as did Rev. Moon. I was impressed with the sophistication of Rev. Moon's anti-communism. He understood communism's evil, but he also stood ready to meet with communist leaders such as Mikhail Gorbachev and Kim Il Sung in the hope of changing or moderating their views.^[10]

Rubenstein undertook apsychoanalytic study ofPaul the Apostle in his bookMy Brother Paul, published in 1972. He continued with Holocaust themes in later writings which includeThe Cunning of History, published in 1975, where he explores how humanity's progression has allowed for the killing of the Jewish people to happen on a massive scale.^[11] Over time, Rubenstein would adjust some of his earlier views about God in light of theKabbalah.

• Rubenstein, Richard L. (1974).Power Struggle: An Autobiographical Confession. New York: Scribner.

• Rubenstein, Richard L. (1966).After Auschwitz: Radical Theology and Contemporary Judaism. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill.
• ——— (1970).Morality and Eros. New York: McGraw-Hill.
• ——— (1972).My Brother Paul. New York: Harper and Row.ISBN 978-0-060-67014-6.
• ——— (1975).The Cunning of History: Mass Death and the American Future. New York: Harper and Row.ISBN 978-0061320682.
• ——— (1983).Age of Triage: Fear and Hope in an Overcrowded World. Boston, MA: Beacon.ISBN 9780807043769.
• ——— (1985).The Religious Imagination: A Study in Psychoanalysis and Jewish Theology. Lanham, MD: University Press of America.
• ——— (1987).Dissolving Alliance: The United States and the Future of Europe. New York: Paragon.
• ———, ed. (1987).Spirit Matters: The Worldwide Impact of Religion on Contemporary Politics. New York: Paragon.
• ———;Roth, John K., eds. (1988).The Politics of Latin American Liberation Theology. Washington DC: Washington Institute Press.
• ———;Roth, John K. (1987).Approaches to Auschwitz: The Holocaust and Its Legacy (1st ed.). Atlanta: John Knox Press.
• ———;Roth, John K. (2003).Approaches to Auschwitz: The Holocaust and Its Legacy (2nd ed.). Louisville: Westminster, John Knox Press.
• ——— (2009).Jihad and Genocide: Religion, History, and Human Rights. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.ISBN 978-0-742-56203-5.

• Zachary Braiterman, " "Hitler's Accomplice"?: The Tragic Theology of Richard Rubenstein,"Modern Judaism, 17/1 (February 1997), pp. 75–89.
• Zachary Braiterman,(God) After Auschwitz (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1999).
• Jakob Jocz,The Jewish People and Jesus Christ After Auschwitz (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1981).
• Michael Morgan,Beyond Auschwitz: Post-Holocaust Thought in America (New York: Oxford University Press, 2001).
• Betty Rogers Rubenstein and Michael Berenbaum, eds.,What Kind of God? Essays in Honor of Richard L. Rubenstein (Lanham: University Press of America, 1995).

• God is dead
• Holocaust theology
• Jewish existentialism
• Sun Myung Moon
• The Washington Times
• Unification Church
• Unification Church of the United States
• University of Bridgeport

• Richard L. Rubenstein Papers at the American Jewish Archives (includes a biographical sketch)
• Short biography

• 1924 births
• 2021 deaths
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