Reinhold Niebuhr

When Liberal Protestants Were Zionists

It is hard to imagine a liberal Christian theologian passionately defending Zionism today.  But Reinhold Niebuhr praised Zionism as a means to the establishment of "highest civilization." 

Milton Steinberg

A different sort of book launch took place yesterday at New York's Park Avenue Synagogue, a flagship of the Conservative movement. Being celebrated was the release of a long-lost novel left unfinished at the time of the author's death 60 years ago. The author was Milton Steinberg, who once served as the synagogue's rabbi and was among the most influential American Jews of the 20th century.   Steinberg's early thought was molded by three teachers. At City College, the philosopher Morris Raphael Cohen imbued in him a commitment to philosophical rationalism. Rabbi Jacob Kohn taught him that the life of the...