Rabbi Emil Fackenheim, 87; Jewish Philosopher Explored Holocaust

Rabbi Emil Fackenheim, 87, a leading Jewish philosopher who explored the essence of Judaism in the aftermath of the Holocaust, died Friday in Jerusalem of natural causes.

Born in Halle, Germany, Fackenheim came of age in the 1930s when the Nazis began limiting the civil rights of Jews, barring them from schools and professions. He was arrested by the Nazis on the night of Nov. 9, 1938 -- known as Kristallnacht, or the Night of Broken Glass -- a nationwide assault on Jewish businesses and synagogues, and was briefly held at the Sachsenhausen concentration camp.

Released in 1939, Fackenheim was ordained as a rabbi and fled to Britain, where he was held as an enemy alien at the outset of World War II and then sent to Canada. He earned a doctorate from the University of Toronto and taught there for 36 years as a professor of philosophy.

Fackenheim’s works argued that the Holocaust, in which Nazis killed more than 6 million Jews, must be understood as an imperative requiring Jews to carry on Jewish existence. Among his books were “God’s Presence in History” and “To Mend the World.” He retired and moved in Israel in 1984.