Will Herberg | |
|---|---|
 Herberg in 1939 | |
| Born | William Herberg (1901-06-30)June 30, 1901 Lyakhavichy,Minsk Governorate, Russian Empire |
| Died | March 26, 1977(1977-03-26) (aged 75) Morristown, New Jersey, U.S. |
| Occupation | Political activist, theologian, writer |
| Subject | Politics,theology,anti-communism |
| Spouse | Anna Thompson Herberg |
William Herberg (June 30, 1901 – March 26, 1977) was an American writer, intellectual, and scholar. Acommunist political activist during his early years, Herberg gained wider public recognition as asocial philosopher andsociologist of religion, as well as a Jewish theologian. He was aconservative thinker during the 1950s and a contributor to theNational Review magazine.
William Herberg, commonly known as "Will," was born on June 30, 1901, to aJewish family in theshtetl ofLyakhavichy,Belarus, located near the city ofMinsk in what was then part of theRussian Empire.[1] His father, Hyman Louis Herberg (1874–1938), and mother, the former Sarah Wolkow (1872–1942) were themselves born in the same provincial village.[1] Although no records remain to document the family's financial status, Herberg's biographer indicates that the family was not impoverished, with his father the recipient of agymnasium education and successful enough as an electrical contractor to pay for the family's emigration from theanti-semitic Tsarist regime to a new life in America in 1904.[1]
Arriving inNew York City, the Herberg family took up residence in a poor Jewish neighborhood inBrooklyn,New York.[1] The family's economic position deteriorated in America, however, and Will's parents were divorced about ten years after arriving in the United States, with Will and his younger brother raised by his mother, who earned money as a housekeeper and small-scale manufacturer of knit fabric belts.[2] The boys aided the family income by helping with belt-making, although a very high priority was placed by his mother on education, and great financial sacrifices were made to ensure that the two boys stayed on an academically oriented path.[2]
Will attendedpublic school in Brooklyn, entering the prestigiousBoys' High School in February 1915.[2] During his high school years, Herberg demonstrated great capacity as a student, studying mathematics,physics,German,Hebrew, andFrench, while writing poetry in his spare time.[2] Herberg graduated from Boys' High School in June 1918 and entered the tuition-freeCity College that same fall.[2]
While at City College, Herberg studied mathematics, English literature, and various physical sciences, developing a keen interest inpsychology and the writings ofSigmund Freud.[2] While his grades in these subjects were above average, he had difficulty with requirements in physical education and exhibited an antipathy to required courses inmilitary science.[3] Herberg was suspended from City College in the fall of 1920 due to frequent absences from military science class, accentuated by an altercation with the officer in charge of the course.[4] Herberg finished his career at City College having completed 94 of the 131.5 credits needed for graduation.[4]
Although he never earned a bachelor's degree at City College, Herberg later falsely claimed to have degrees fromColumbia University, including aPhD in 1932.[5] However, he later received three honorary doctorates, the first in 1956.[6]
The exact timetable of Will Herberg's radicalization is unclear; according to his brother, Ted Herberg, Will's difficulty with the military science officer, his subsequent dismissal from college, and the troubled financial situation of his family led him to the ideas ofrevolutionary socialism.[7] Be that as it may, by 1925 Herberg was a prominent member of theYoung Workers League (YWL) — youth section of theWorkers (Communist) Party — and a contributor to the group's weekly newspaper,The Young Worker.[4] In the fall of 1925, Herberg was elected a delegate by YWL District 2 (New York City) to the organization's 3rd National Convention, held in Chicago.[4]
The 3rd Convention of the YWL elected Herberg to the governing National Executive Committee, as part of which he served as director of "Agitprop" (Agitation and Propaganda).[4] Herberg was also named a member of a four-member editorial committee forThe Young Worker, taking over as chief editor of that publication for acting editorMax Shachtman effective with the issue of November 7, 1925.[4]
In 1925, Herberg married a YWL comrade, the former Anna Thompson, a resident ofBrownsville, Brooklyn.[4] The couple would become intellectually compatible throughout Herberg's long ideological journey from communist youth journalist toconservative political writer and prominent Jewish theologian.[4] The couple did not have children.[4] Anna suddenly passed away in mid-1959.[8]
Following the split of party leaderJay Lovestone and his co-thinkers in 1929, Herberg remained loyal to them, a decision earning his expulsion from the party on September 10, 1929.[9] Thereafter Herberg joined the so-calledLovestoneites, remaining with that organization until its termination at the end of 1940, serving as editor of the group's weekly newspaper,Workers Age.[10]
He later turned away fromMarxism and became areligiousconservative, founding the quarterlyJudaism withRobert Gordis andMilton R. Konvitz. During the 1960s, he was the religion editor of the conservative journalNational Review, and he also taught atDrew University.
Herberg's 1955 bookProtestant, Catholic, Jew: An Essay in American Religious Sociology created a sociological framework for the study of religion in the United States. Herberg demonstrated how immigration and American ethnic culture were reflected in religious movements and institutions.[11] It has been described as "one of the most influential books ever written about American religion."[12] During the 1950s, that book and the 1951 essayJudaism and Modern Man set out influential positions on Judaism and on the American religious tradition in general.
Herberg also wrote thatanti-Catholicism is theantisemitism of secular Jewish intellectuals.[13]
For some time, Herberg has mistakenly been credited with coining the phrase "cut-flower culture" to describe the spiritual rootlessness of modern European and American societies. Though he did refer to the concept in his 1951 book,Judaism and Modern Man, he credits the idea to another: "The attempt made in recent decades by secularist thinkers to disengage these religious values from their religious context, in the assurance that they could live a life on their own as a 'humanistic' ethic, has resulted inwhat one writer has called our 'cut-flower' culture [emphasis mine].[14]" The original author to whom Herberg referred to was Quaker Philosopher of Religion,D. Elton Trueblood, who coined the term "cut-flower civilization" in his 1944 book,The Predicament of Modern Man.[15]
In his September 7, 1965National Review article, "'Civil Rights' and Violence: Who Are the Guilty Ones?", Herberg wrote of his opposition or skepticism towards theCivil Rights Movement, feeling, like many of his colleagues atNational Review at the time, that the civil rights campaign was moving too quickly and broke up the fabric of American society in an overly socially disruptive manner, not friendly to proper social cohesion. They supported what is often termed theBooker T. Washington position of "gradual reform."
Herberg's final published work saw print in the middle of 1973.[16] From that time his health deteriorated steadily, culminating with the discovery of an inoperablebrain tumor.[17] Herberg died on March 26, 1977; he was 75 years old at the time of his death.[17]
Herberg's memorial service was held in the Great Hall ofDrew University inMadison, New Jersey, and was attended by a throng of rabbis, professors, and former students and political associates.[17] Herberg was buried inMorris Plains, New Jersey, next to the grave of his previously departed wife, Anna.[17]
Herberg was atraditionalist conservative and contributor to traditionalist publications such asRussell Kirk'sModern Age and toWilliam F. Buckley, Jr.'s conservative magazineNational Review, which published a special issue in August 1977 in Herberg's honor.[17]
{{cite web}}:Missing or empty|url= (help)