Nationality American Semicha 1950 Children 4 | Residence New York City Denomination Conservative Name Marc Tanenbaum | |
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Born October 13, 1925
Baltimore, Maryland ( 1925-10-13 ) Died July 3, 1992, Lenox Hill, New York City, New York, United States Education Jewish Theological Seminary of America Books A prophet for our time, Religious Values in an Age of Violence | ||
Rabbi Marc H. Tanenbaum (1925–1992) was a human rights and social justice activist who was known for building bridges with other faith communities to advance mutual understanding and cooperation and to eliminate entrenched stereotypes, particularly those rooted in religious teachings. He was an advocate during the Second Vatican Council (1962–1965) on behalf of what eventually emerged as Nostra aetate, a landmark document which overturned a long tradition of hostility toward Jews and Judaism—including the charge that the Jews were responsible for the death of Jesus—and affirmed the Jewish roots of Christianity. Nostra aetate established a new policy of outreach in dialogue to Jews and set Catholic-Jewish relations on a new course.
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Tanenbaum was dubbed "the human rights rabbi" for his work on behalf of Vietnamese boat people and Cambodian refugees. He helped organize humanitarian relief for victims of the Nigerian Civil War.
Biography
The son of poor Orthodox Jewish Ukrainian immigrants, Tanenbaum grew up in Baltimore. He excelled in school,graduating with a scholarship to attend Yeshiva University in New York City. He pursued both pre-medical and rabbinical studies. Upon graduating from Yeshiva University, he was accepted into medical school, but after only one day of classes, he realized that medicine was not the path for him.
Always interested in writing, both creative and journalistic, he found work at a weekly newsletter. A chance encounter with former classmate Harold M. Schulweis, who later became a distinguished rabbi and author, led to Tanenbaum's application for and admission to the Jewish Theological Seminary. At the seminary he pursued his interests in both Judaism and journalism, writing for The Eternal Light, a radio show produced by the seminary.
After ordination, Rabbi Tanenbaum knew he wanted to serve the Jewish community but not in what capacity. He worked in various positions as a writer and editor, and, for a time, was the religion writer for Time magazine. In 1952, he became director of the Synagogue Council of America, an organization formed to represent the combined voices of Orthodox, Conservative and Reform Judaism in the United States in the area of public policy and intergroup relations. At the Synagogue Council he forged contacts with Christian leaders, including televangelists and Greek Orthodox primates and befriended the late Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. He became involved in national public affairs, serving as the vice president of the White House Conference on Children and Youth, where he invited Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel to deliver a major paper. The intersection of religion and public policy had a particular appeal for Tanenbaum, and he saw it as a fertile field for interreligious cooperation. He believed that Jews needed to take an active role in public life in order to prevent marginalization and to counter anti-Semitism.
In 1983, Rabbi Tanenbaum became director of International Affairs of the American Jewish Committee where he focused on issues of human rights and humanitarian work.
During his career as director of first Interreligious and then International Affairs at the AJC, Marc Tanenbaum won public recognition. Newsweek magazine dubbed him as "the American Jewish community's foremost apostle to the gentiles." New York Magazine called him "the foremost Jewish ecumenical leader in the world today." In a poll of newspaper editors ranking the ten most respected and influential religious leaders in America, Rabbi Tanenbaum came in fourth.
He served on the boards of various institutions, including the American Jewish World Service, the International Rescue Committee, the Overseas Development Council, the United Nations Association, the National Peace Academy, the A. Philip Randolph Institute, and Covenant House. He was founder and Chairman of the National Interreligious Task Force on Soviet Jewry, which, under the directorship of Ann Gillen, vigorously pursued the cause of oppressed Jews and Christians in the Soviet Union. He was awarded fifteen honorary degrees, and was honored by the International Council of Christians and Jews and the New York Board of Rabbis.
Tanenbaum was known for his weekly radio broadcasts, which addressed current events with commentary. He also wrote editorials and articles directed to the Jewish community, upholding the value of interreligious dialogue.
Tanenbaum’s first marriage in 1955 to Helga Weiss ended in divorce in 1977. They had two daughters, Adina and Susan, and a son, Michael. He was married in 1982 to Dr. Georgette Bennett, an author, broadcast journalist, criminologist and business consultant.
He died of heart failure in 1992 at the age of 66, seven weeks before the birth of his son, Joshua-Marc Tanenbaum. In 1993 Dr. Bennett launched the Rabbi Marc H. Tanenbaum Foundation, which operates today as the Tanenbaum Center for Interreligious Understanding.