André Neher (22 October 1914 – 23 October 1988) was a French

Jew Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""T ...

ish

scholar A scholar is a person who pursues academic and intellectual activities, particularly academics who apply their intellectualism into expertise in an area of study. A scholar can also be an academic, who works as a professor, teacher, or researc ...

and philosopher.

Biography

Neher was born in

Obernai Obernai ( Alsatian: ''Owernah''; german: Oberehnheim) commune in the Bas-Rhin department in Alsace in north-eastern France. It lies on the eastern slopes of the Vosges mountains. Obernai is a rapidly growing city, its number of inhabitants hav ...

Bas-Rhin Bas-Rhin (; Alsatian: ''Unterelsàss'', ' or '; traditional german: links=no, Niederrhein; en, Lower Rhine) is a department in Alsace which is a part of the Grand Est super-region of France. The name means 'Lower Rhine', referring to its low ...

. He was a student at the Collège Freppel in Obernai, then at the Lycée Fustel de Coulange in Strasbourg. He became professor at the Collège Erckmann-Chatrian in

Phalsbourg Phalsbourg (; ; Lorraine Franconian: ''Phalsburch'') is a commune in the Moselle department in Grand Est in north-eastern France, with a population of about 5,000. It lies high on the west slopes of the Vosges, northwest of Strasbourg by rail. ...

, then at the Lycée Kléber in Strasbourg. During World War II, he lived in Brive-la-Gaillarde, where he was a member of Rabbi David Feuerwerker's community. After the War, he became a professor at the

University of Strasbourg The University of Strasbourg (french: Université de Strasbourg, Unistra) is a public research university located in Strasbourg, Alsace, France, with over 52,000 students and 3,300 researchers. The French university traces its history to the ea ...

in 1948. In 1974, at age 60, Neher moved with his wife, Renée Neher-Bernheim to

Jerusalem Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

L'Exil de la Parole

His masterpiece is ''The Exile of the Word'' (''L'Exil de la Parole. Du silence biblique au silence d'Auschwitz'', Ed.: Seuil, 1970), about the biblical silence, and God's silence after the

Shoah The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; ar ...

and the great world tragedies. Neher thinks that through the Bible's silence one can discover divine revelation; through the silence human freedom is possible. He draws on the image of a ''suspension bridge'' to describe human "ontological insecurity and pain" caused by this freedom, which is characterized by a "radical factor of uncertainty". For this reason it is necessary to concentrate our attention not on the ideas of redemption or salvation, but on "''being here in our life''".Sergio Quinzio, ''La Croce e il Nulla'', Adelphi ed., Milan 1984, p.33

Writings

* ' (1946; ''Transcendence and immanence'') * ' (1950; ''Amos, contribution to the study of the prophecy'') * ' (1955; ''Quality of Prophecy'') * ' (1951; ''Notes on Ecclesiastes'') * ' (1956; ''Moses and the Jewish vocation'') * ' (1958; ''The conflict of sacred and profane in the renaissance of Hebrew'') * ' (1960; ''Jeremiah'') * ' (1962; ''Biblical history of the people of Israel'') — with Renée Neher * ' (1962; ''The Jewish Existence'') * ' (1962; ''The Well of the Exile, dialectical theology of Maharal of Prague'') * ' (1969; ''From Hebrew to French'') — a manual for translating the Hebrew language into French * ' (1970; ''The Exile of the Word, from the silence of the Bible to the silence of Auschwitz'') * ' (1972; ''Within your gates, Jerusalem'') * ' (1979; ''They rebuilt their soul'') * ' (1984; ''Jerusalem, Lived Jerusalem And Message'') * ' (1974; ''David Gans, 1541-1613 : disciple of Maharal, assistant of Tycho Brahe and of Johannes Kepler'') ; English translation as ''Jewish thought and the scientific revolution of the sixteenth century : David Gans (1541-1613) and his times'' (1986) OUP. . * ' (1987; ''Faust and Maharal of Prague : myth and reality'') . * "At the methodological crossroad: The dispute with Eliezer Ashkenazi" in ''Rabbinic Theology and Jewish Intellectual History: The Great Rabbi Loew of Prague'' (2013)

Notes

External links

André Neher - Man is not Alone

"At the methodological crossroads: The dispute with Eliezer Ashkenazi"
{{DEFAULTSORT:Neher, Andre 1914 births 1988 deaths 20th-century French rabbis Tel Aviv University faculty Alsatian Jews Jewish philosophers People from Obernai Philosophers of Judaism Academic staff of the University of Strasbourg French Orthodox Jews Burials at the Jewish cemetery on the Mount of Olives

Biography

L'Exil de la Parole

Writings

See also

Notes

External links