Joseph Asher
Encyclopedia
Joseph Asher was an American rabbi
born in Germany, known for his advocacy of reconciliation
between the Jews
and the Germans
in the post-Holocaust era, and for his support for the Civil rights movement in the United States. He was senior rabbi at Congregation Emanu-El in San Francisco for 19 years.
, Germany. He changed his surname as early as 1947.
He was the sixth generation of rabbis in his family. His father, Jonah Ansbacher (1880–1967) was an Orthodox
rabbi who had received a doctorate from the University of Erlangen, writing a thesis on a 13th century Arab
cosmologist
. His father was ordained by Rabbi Solomon Breuer
and he was an ardent follower of Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch
, founder of the Torah im Derech Eretz
trend in Judaism. Joseph Asher left the Orthodox Judaism
of his ancestors and later became a Reform
rabbi.
in 1925, where Joseph attended the Staatliche Gymnasium
. When the Nazis took power in Germany in January 1933, he was one of only seven Jews in a student body of around 600, and the only Jew in his class. He endured three years of harassment including an antisemitic insult carved into the top of his desk, and other students singing popular songs calling for the murder of the Jews. In 1936, all Jewish students were expelled from the public schools, and his parents sent him to the Talmud Torah school in Hamburg
, led by Rabbi Joseph Carlebach
, where he graduated in spring, 1938. Among the frequent guest lecturers in his senior year was Martin Buber
.
Because of the severely deteriorating conditions for Jews in Germany, his family had obtained exit visas in 1933 to be used at the appropriate time. His family sent Joseph to London after his graduation in 1938 to begin rabbinical college. He attended Etz Chaim Yeshiva
in London and Jews' College
(now the London School of Jewish Studies). After the war, he finished his studies at Hebrew Union College in Cincinatti, Ohio. His semikhah described him as shalselet rabbanim, that is, a member of a chain of rabbis in a long family tradition.
, November 9, 1938, the Nazis began open war against the Jews, and his father's synagogue in Wiesbaden was vandalized and shut down. While heading to the railroad station in an attempt to escape, his father was arrested by the Gestapo
, confined to Buchenwald for ten weeks, and then released when he agreed to use his visa and leave Germany forever. His parents arrived as refugees in London in February 1939.
After the British defeat at Dunkirk
, a wave of xenophobia against German refugees swept across Great Britain, and all of them were arrested, including the Jews and other anti-Nazis. His father was interned on the Isle of Man
. Joseph was confined in an internment camp at Huyton
, and shortly thereafter loaded onto the troop ship HMT Dunera
, along with over 2,000 other anti-Nazi refugees. The ship sailed for Australia
on July 10, 1940. He described conditions on the 57-day voyage as "cruel and sadistic" as British guards frequently beat prisoners with rifle butts, and plundered their belongings. It was "the most horrendous experience of his life."
After the emaciated prisoners arrived in Sydney
, they were confined to internment camps until the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor
and the Philippines
in December 1941.
The prisoners were then allowed to enlist in the Australian Army
, where Joseph served as a chaplain. He met his wife Fae in Australia.
, New York; Sarasota
, Florida; and then in Tuscaloosa
, Alabama from 1956 to 1958. He served as rabbi of Temple Emmanuel in Greensboro
, North Carolina from 1958 to 1968, and at Congregation Emanu-El in San Francisco from 1967 until his retirement in 1986 as rabbi emeritus.
CBE
of the World Union for Progressive Judaism
. In 1947, she recommended him to Leo Baeck, the organization's president, as an emissary to visit various German cities to investigate the status of the Jews in the immediate postwar period. He spent six weeks assessing the needs of displaced persons, including a lengthy visit to Bergen-Belsen
.
Everywhere, he found nothing but devastation and despair. "The human eye cannot fathom such horrible sights as I had to see", he later wrote about that trip.
A 1955 trip to Germany led him to begin to consider a "re-orientation of the Jewish relationship with Germany". In 1961, motivated by the worldwide attention paid to the Adolf Eichmann
trial in Israel, he began openly speaking about the Holocaust and the future of the relationship between Germany and the Jews.
Asher visited Germany again at the invitation of the German government in 1964, to learn what the German educational system taught students about the Jews. He visited his alma mater gymnasium, as well as the Max Planck Institute, and met with the Commissioners of Education of the Federal Republic of Germany. He described his experiences in an article he wrote for Look magazine
, called "A Rabbi Asks: Isn't It Time We Forgave the Germans?"
Although many people criticized Rabbi Asher for this article, Berlin Mayor Willy Brandt
responded favorably, as did the Union of American Hebrew Congregations. In 1965, Rabbi Asher led a contingent of four German-speaking rabbis, who met with over 8000 German teachers in training, and helped the German school system develop its first curriculum for secondary schools covering the Holocaust.
He explained the thinking behind his work in Germany in an interview published in the Aufbau
on March 11, 1966: "A new generation is growing up that was not born when the horrible crime was committed and for which they cannot be held responsible. The only positive thing we can do is to acquaint them with the Jews, their teachings, customs, and history, which they have not had the opportunity to know."
As the years passed, he repeatedly visited Judaic studies programs in German universities, and late in life became a visiting professor at the Kirchliche Hochschule in Berlin. He served on an international committee of scholars to help design a memorial at the Wannsee Villa, where the Nazi leadership planned the Final Solution
in January 1942.
In 1980, he was appointed to the United States Holocaust Memorial Council chartered by the U.S. Congress to plan the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
. The museum opened in Washington, D.C., in 1993, three years after his death.
, North Carolina. On February 1, 1960, the Greensboro sit-ins
began, an effort to desegregate
the lunch counter at the local Woolworth's
store. He was one of only two local white clergymen who collaborated with black community leaders and black clergymen in support of racial tolerance and desegregation, including the sit-ins. This sit-in
movement spread throughout the southern states, leading in many communities to progress toward desegregation, and increasing political pressure on the federal government. The Civil Rights Act of 1964
made segregation of public accommodations illegal. As a rabbi in the deep South, he did not hesitate to speak out against racial discrimination in the workplace, even when the employers were Jewish.
Rabbi Asher was wary of militant extremism. In San Francisco, he refused to share a podium with radical minister Jim Jones
, who went on to mass suicide at Jonestown
.
, an organization that advocated Israeli territorial concessions in the period following the Yom Kippur War
. He also served on the advisory boards of Friends of Peace Now and the New Israel Fund
. His support for these organizations resulted in harsh criticism and accusations of anti-Zionism.
on May 29, 1990.
A festschrift
honoring Joseph Asher and his life's work was being edited by Moses Rischin
and his son Rabbi Raphael Asher at the time of his death, and was published in 1991. The book is entitled The Jewish Legacy and the German Conscience, and includes essays by 23 scholars, including Gunther Plaut
, David Ellenson
, David G. Dalin
, Immanuel Jakobovits, Jakob Josef Petuchowski
, Paul R. Mendes-Flohr
, and Gerhard Weinberg
. Elie Weisel wrote the afterword.
His successor at Congregation Emanu-El in San Francisco, Robert Kirschner, wrote that Rabbi Asher "embodied those attributes of German Jewry of which his generation was the last living witness: dignity, sobriety, erudition, and a singular elegance. Historian Fred Rosenbaum wrote that: "His deep learning, his continental manner, and above all his personal integrity afforded many congregants a sense of stability in a tumultuous world."
His son, Rabbi Raphael W. Asher, serves as senior rabbi at Congregation B'nai Tikvah in Walnut Creek
, California.
Congregation Emanu-El in San Francisco sponsors an annual Rabbi Asher Memorial Lecture, usually featuring a scholar who has continued Joseph Asher's life's work on Germany and the Jews.
Rabbi
In Judaism, a rabbi is a teacher of Torah. This title derives from the Hebrew word רבי , meaning "My Master" , which is the way a student would address a master of Torah...
born in Germany, known for his advocacy of reconciliation
Conflict resolution
Conflict resolution is conceptualized as the methods and processes involved in facilitating the peaceful ending of some social conflict. Often, committed group members attempt to resolve group conflicts by actively communicating information about their conflicting motives or ideologies to the rest...
between the Jews
Jews
The Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are a nation and ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...
and the Germans
Germans
The Germans are a Germanic ethnic group native to Central Europe. The English term Germans has referred to the German-speaking population of the Holy Roman Empire since the Late Middle Ages....
in the post-Holocaust era, and for his support for the Civil rights movement in the United States. He was senior rabbi at Congregation Emanu-El in San Francisco for 19 years.
Family
Joseph Asher was born Joseph Ansbacher on January 7, 1921, in Heilbronn-am-NeckarHeilbronn
Heilbronn is a city in northern Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is completely surrounded by Heilbronn County and with approximately 123.000 residents, it is the sixth-largest city in the state....
, Germany. He changed his surname as early as 1947.
He was the sixth generation of rabbis in his family. His father, Jonah Ansbacher (1880–1967) was an Orthodox
Orthodox Judaism
Orthodox Judaism , is the approach to Judaism which adheres to the traditional interpretation and application of the laws and ethics of the Torah as legislated in the Talmudic texts by the Sanhedrin and subsequently developed and applied by the later authorities known as the Gaonim, Rishonim, and...
rabbi who had received a doctorate from the University of Erlangen, writing a thesis on a 13th century Arab
Arab
Arab people, also known as Arabs , are a panethnicity primarily living in the Arab world, which is located in Western Asia and North Africa. They are identified as such on one or more of genealogical, linguistic, or cultural grounds, with tribal affiliations, and intra-tribal relationships playing...
cosmologist
Cosmology
Cosmology is the discipline that deals with the nature of the Universe as a whole. Cosmologists seek to understand the origin, evolution, structure, and ultimate fate of the Universe at large, as well as the natural laws that keep it in order...
. His father was ordained by Rabbi Solomon Breuer
Solomon Breuer
Shlomo Zalman Breuer was a Rabbi, initially in Pápa, Hungary and from the early 1890s in Frankfurt as a successor of his father-in-law Samson Raphael Hirsch....
and he was an ardent follower of Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch
Samson Raphael Hirsch
Samson Raphael Hirsch was a German rabbi best known as the intellectual founder of the Torah im Derech Eretz school of contemporary Orthodox Judaism...
, founder of the Torah im Derech Eretz
Torah im Derech Eretz
Torah im Derech Eretz is a philosophy of Orthodox Judaism articulated by Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch , which formalizes a relationship between traditionally observant Judaism and the modern world...
trend in Judaism. Joseph Asher left the Orthodox Judaism
Orthodox Judaism
Orthodox Judaism , is the approach to Judaism which adheres to the traditional interpretation and application of the laws and ethics of the Torah as legislated in the Talmudic texts by the Sanhedrin and subsequently developed and applied by the later authorities known as the Gaonim, Rishonim, and...
of his ancestors and later became a Reform
Reform Judaism
Reform Judaism refers to various beliefs, practices and organizations associated with the Reform Jewish movement in North America, the United Kingdom and elsewhere. In general, it maintains that Judaism and Jewish traditions should be modernized and should be compatible with participation in the...
rabbi.
Education
When his father received a rabbinic appointment, the Ansbacher family moved to WiesbadenWiesbaden
Wiesbaden is a city in southwest Germany and the capital of the federal state of Hesse. It has about 275,400 inhabitants, plus approximately 10,000 United States citizens...
in 1925, where Joseph attended the Staatliche Gymnasium
Gymnasium (school)
A gymnasium is a type of school providing secondary education in some parts of Europe, comparable to English grammar schools or sixth form colleges and U.S. college preparatory high schools. The word γυμνάσιον was used in Ancient Greece, meaning a locality for both physical and intellectual...
. When the Nazis took power in Germany in January 1933, he was one of only seven Jews in a student body of around 600, and the only Jew in his class. He endured three years of harassment including an antisemitic insult carved into the top of his desk, and other students singing popular songs calling for the murder of the Jews. In 1936, all Jewish students were expelled from the public schools, and his parents sent him to the Talmud Torah school in Hamburg
Hamburg
-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...
, led by Rabbi Joseph Carlebach
Joseph Carlebach
Dr. Joseph Hirsch Carlebach was an Orthodox rabbi and Jewish-German scholar and natural scientist ....
, where he graduated in spring, 1938. Among the frequent guest lecturers in his senior year was Martin Buber
Martin Buber
Martin Buber was an Austrian-born Jewish philosopher best known for his philosophy of dialogue, a form of religious existentialism centered on the distinction between the I-Thou relationship and the I-It relationship....
.
Because of the severely deteriorating conditions for Jews in Germany, his family had obtained exit visas in 1933 to be used at the appropriate time. His family sent Joseph to London after his graduation in 1938 to begin rabbinical college. He attended Etz Chaim Yeshiva
Etz Chaim Yeshiva (London)
Etz Chaim Yeshiva is an Ashkenazi Orthodox yeshiva in Golders Green, London, England. It is associated with the Union of Orthodox Hebrew Congregations.- History :...
in London and Jews' College
Jews' College
-Origins and Remit Today:Jews' College, now known as the London School of Jewish Studies , was opened in Finsbury Square, London as a rabbinical seminary in 1855 with the support of Chief Rabbi Nathan Adler and of Sir Moses Montefiore, who had conceived the idea for such a venture as early as...
(now the London School of Jewish Studies). After the war, he finished his studies at Hebrew Union College in Cincinatti, Ohio. His semikhah described him as shalselet rabbanim, that is, a member of a chain of rabbis in a long family tradition.
World War II
On KristallnachtKristallnacht
Kristallnacht, also referred to as the Night of Broken Glass, and also Reichskristallnacht, Pogromnacht, and Novemberpogrome, was a pogrom or series of attacks against Jews throughout Nazi Germany and parts of Austria on 9–10 November 1938.Jewish homes were ransacked, as were shops, towns and...
, November 9, 1938, the Nazis began open war against the Jews, and his father's synagogue in Wiesbaden was vandalized and shut down. While heading to the railroad station in an attempt to escape, his father was arrested by the Gestapo
Gestapo
The Gestapo was the official secret police of Nazi Germany. Beginning on 20 April 1934, it was under the administration of the SS leader Heinrich Himmler in his position as Chief of German Police...
, confined to Buchenwald for ten weeks, and then released when he agreed to use his visa and leave Germany forever. His parents arrived as refugees in London in February 1939.
After the British defeat at Dunkirk
Battle of Dunkirk
The Battle of Dunkirk was a battle in the Second World War between the Allies and Germany. A part of the Battle of France on the Western Front, the Battle of Dunkirk was the defence and evacuation of British and allied forces in Europe from 26 May–4 June 1940.After the Phoney War, the Battle of...
, a wave of xenophobia against German refugees swept across Great Britain, and all of them were arrested, including the Jews and other anti-Nazis. His father was interned on the Isle of Man
Isle of Man
The Isle of Man , otherwise known simply as Mann , is a self-governing British Crown Dependency, located in the Irish Sea between the islands of Great Britain and Ireland, within the British Isles. The head of state is Queen Elizabeth II, who holds the title of Lord of Mann. The Lord of Mann is...
. Joseph was confined in an internment camp at Huyton
Huyton
Huyton is a suburb of Liverpool within the Metropolitan Borough of Knowsley, with some parts belonging to the borough of Liverpool in Merseyside, England. It is part of the Liverpool Urban Area and has close associations with its neighbour, Roby, having both formerly been part of the Huyton with...
, and shortly thereafter loaded onto the troop ship HMT Dunera
HMT Dunera
His Majesty's Transport Dunera was a British passenger ship built as a troop transport in the late 1930s. She also operated as a passenger liner and as an educational cruise ship. Dunera saw extensive service throughout the Second World War....
, along with over 2,000 other anti-Nazi refugees. The ship sailed for Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
on July 10, 1940. He described conditions on the 57-day voyage as "cruel and sadistic" as British guards frequently beat prisoners with rifle butts, and plundered their belongings. It was "the most horrendous experience of his life."
After the emaciated prisoners arrived in Sydney
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
, they were confined to internment camps until the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor
Pearl Harbor
Pearl Harbor, known to Hawaiians as Puuloa, is a lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. Much of the harbor and surrounding lands is a United States Navy deep-water naval base. It is also the headquarters of the U.S. Pacific Fleet...
and the Philippines
Philippines
The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
in December 1941.
The prisoners were then allowed to enlist in the Australian Army
Australian Army
The Australian Army is Australia's military land force. It is part of the Australian Defence Force along with the Royal Australian Navy and the Royal Australian Air Force. While the Chief of Defence commands the Australian Defence Force , the Army is commanded by the Chief of Army...
, where Joseph served as a chaplain. He met his wife Fae in Australia.
Rabbinic career
Upon his discharge from military service, he served at the Melbourne Liberal Synagogue as assistant to Rabbi Hermann Sanger, who helped resettle Jewish refugees in Australia. Asher immigrated to the United States in 1947, and served at synagogues in OleanOlean, New York
Olean is a city in Cattaraugus County, New York, United States. Olean is the largest city in Cattaraugus County, and serves as the financial, business, transportation and entertainment center of the county. It is one of the principal cities of the Southern Tier region of New York.The city is...
, New York; Sarasota
Sarasota, Florida
Sarasota is a city located in Sarasota County on the southwestern coast of the U.S. state of Florida. It is south of the Tampa Bay Area and north of Fort Myers...
, Florida; and then in Tuscaloosa
Tuscaloosa, Alabama
Tuscaloosa is a city in and the seat of Tuscaloosa County in west central Alabama . Located on the Black Warrior River, it is the fifth-largest city in Alabama, with a population of 90,468 in 2010...
, Alabama from 1956 to 1958. He served as rabbi of Temple Emmanuel in Greensboro
Greensboro, North Carolina
Greensboro is a city in the U.S. state of North Carolina. It is the third-largest city by population in North Carolina and the largest city in Guilford County and the surrounding Piedmont Triad metropolitan region. According to the 2010 U.S...
, North Carolina from 1958 to 1968, and at Congregation Emanu-El in San Francisco from 1967 until his retirement in 1986 as rabbi emeritus.
German-Jewish relations after the Holocaust
In London, Joseph Asher had established a friendship with Lily MontaguLily Montagu
Lilian Helen "Lily" Montagu, CBE was the first woman to play a major role in Reform Judaism.She was the sixth of ten children born to Ellen Cohen Montagu and Samuel Montagu , a self-made millionaire by the age of thirty, Samuel Montagu was a wealthy banker and bullion broker, a member of the...
CBE
CBE
CBE and C.B.E. are abbreviations for "Commander of the Order of the British Empire", a grade in the Order of the British Empire.Other uses include:* Chemical and Biochemical Engineering...
of the World Union for Progressive Judaism
World Union for Progressive Judaism
The World Union for Progressive Judaism describes itself as the "international umbrella organization for the Reform, Liberal, Progressive and Reconstructionist movements." This overall Jewish religious movement is based in about 40 countries with more than 1,000 affiliated synagogues...
. In 1947, she recommended him to Leo Baeck, the organization's president, as an emissary to visit various German cities to investigate the status of the Jews in the immediate postwar period. He spent six weeks assessing the needs of displaced persons, including a lengthy visit to Bergen-Belsen
Bergen-Belsen
Bergen-Belsen may refer to:* Stalag XI-C Bergen-Belsen , a German World War II prisoner-of-war camp* Bergen-Belsen concentration camp , on the site of the prisoner-of-war camp...
.
Everywhere, he found nothing but devastation and despair. "The human eye cannot fathom such horrible sights as I had to see", he later wrote about that trip.
A 1955 trip to Germany led him to begin to consider a "re-orientation of the Jewish relationship with Germany". In 1961, motivated by the worldwide attention paid to the Adolf Eichmann
Adolf Eichmann
Adolf Otto Eichmann was a German Nazi and SS-Obersturmbannführer and one of the major organizers of the Holocaust...
trial in Israel, he began openly speaking about the Holocaust and the future of the relationship between Germany and the Jews.
Asher visited Germany again at the invitation of the German government in 1964, to learn what the German educational system taught students about the Jews. He visited his alma mater gymnasium, as well as the Max Planck Institute, and met with the Commissioners of Education of the Federal Republic of Germany. He described his experiences in an article he wrote for Look magazine
Look (American magazine)
Look was a bi-weekly, general-interest magazine published in Des Moines, Iowa from 1937 to 1971, with more of an emphasis on photographs than articles...
, called "A Rabbi Asks: Isn't It Time We Forgave the Germans?"
Although many people criticized Rabbi Asher for this article, Berlin Mayor Willy Brandt
Willy Brandt
Willy Brandt, born Herbert Ernst Karl Frahm , was a German politician, Mayor of West Berlin 1957–1966, Chancellor of West Germany 1969–1974, and leader of the Social Democratic Party of Germany 1964–1987....
responded favorably, as did the Union of American Hebrew Congregations. In 1965, Rabbi Asher led a contingent of four German-speaking rabbis, who met with over 8000 German teachers in training, and helped the German school system develop its first curriculum for secondary schools covering the Holocaust.
He explained the thinking behind his work in Germany in an interview published in the Aufbau
Aufbau
Aufbau is a journal for German-speaking Jews around the globe. It was founded in 1934 and is a member of Internationale Medienhilfe . Hannah Arendt, Albert Einstein, Thomas Mann, and Stefan Zweig wrote for the publication. Until 2004 it was published in New York...
on March 11, 1966: "A new generation is growing up that was not born when the horrible crime was committed and for which they cannot be held responsible. The only positive thing we can do is to acquaint them with the Jews, their teachings, customs, and history, which they have not had the opportunity to know."
As the years passed, he repeatedly visited Judaic studies programs in German universities, and late in life became a visiting professor at the Kirchliche Hochschule in Berlin. He served on an international committee of scholars to help design a memorial at the Wannsee Villa, where the Nazi leadership planned the Final Solution
Final Solution
The Final Solution was Nazi Germany's plan and execution of the systematic genocide of European Jews during World War II, resulting in the most deadly phase of the Holocaust...
in January 1942.
In 1980, he was appointed to the United States Holocaust Memorial Council chartered by the U.S. Congress to plan the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum is the United States' official memorial to the Holocaust. Adjacent to the National Mall in Washington, D.C., the USHMM provides for the documentation, study, and interpretation of Holocaust history...
. The museum opened in Washington, D.C., in 1993, three years after his death.
Civil rights movement
In 1958, he became rabbi of Temple Emanuel in GreensboroGreensboro, North Carolina
Greensboro is a city in the U.S. state of North Carolina. It is the third-largest city by population in North Carolina and the largest city in Guilford County and the surrounding Piedmont Triad metropolitan region. According to the 2010 U.S...
, North Carolina. On February 1, 1960, the Greensboro sit-ins
Greensboro sit-ins
The Greensboro sit-ins were a series of nonviolent protests which led to the Woolworth's department store chain reversing its policy of racial segregation in the Southern United States....
began, an effort to desegregate
Desegregation
Desegregation is the process of ending the separation of two groups usually referring to races. This is most commonly used in reference to the United States. Desegregation was long a focus of the American Civil Rights Movement, both before and after the United States Supreme Court's decision in...
the lunch counter at the local Woolworth's
F. W. Woolworth Company
The F. W. Woolworth Company was a retail company that was one of the original American five-and-dime stores. The first successful Woolworth store was opened on July 18, 1879 by Frank Winfield Woolworth in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, as "Woolworth's Great Five Cent Store"...
store. He was one of only two local white clergymen who collaborated with black community leaders and black clergymen in support of racial tolerance and desegregation, including the sit-ins. This sit-in
Sit-in
A sit-in or sit-down is a form of protest that involves occupying seats or sitting down on the floor of an establishment.-Process:In a sit-in, protesters remain until they are evicted, usually by force, or arrested, or until their requests have been met...
movement spread throughout the southern states, leading in many communities to progress toward desegregation, and increasing political pressure on the federal government. The Civil Rights Act of 1964
Civil Rights Act of 1964
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was a landmark piece of legislation in the United States that outlawed major forms of discrimination against African Americans and women, including racial segregation...
made segregation of public accommodations illegal. As a rabbi in the deep South, he did not hesitate to speak out against racial discrimination in the workplace, even when the employers were Jewish.
Rabbi Asher was wary of militant extremism. In San Francisco, he refused to share a podium with radical minister Jim Jones
Jim Jones
James Warren "Jim" Jones was the founder and leader of the Peoples Temple, which is best known for the November 18, 1978 mass suicide of 909 Temple members in Jonestown, Guyana along with the killings of five other people at a nearby airstrip.Jones was born in Indiana and started the Temple in...
, who went on to mass suicide at Jonestown
Jonestown
Jonestown was the informal name for the Peoples Temple Agricultural Project, an intentional community in northwestern Guyana formed by the Peoples Temple led by Jim Jones. It became internationally notorious when, on November 18, 1978, 918 people died in the settlement as well as in a nearby...
.
Israeli-Palestinian conflict
Rabbi Asher supported reconciliation between Israelis and Palestinians. He participated in BreiraBreira (organization)
Breira full name "Breira: A Project of Concern in Diaspora-Israel Relations" was an organizational founded to express a left-wing position on Israel in 1973 and it lasted until 1977.-History:...
, an organization that advocated Israeli territorial concessions in the period following the Yom Kippur War
Yom Kippur War
The Yom Kippur War, Ramadan War or October War , also known as the 1973 Arab-Israeli War and the Fourth Arab-Israeli War, was fought from October 6 to 25, 1973, between Israel and a coalition of Arab states led by Egypt and Syria...
. He also served on the advisory boards of Friends of Peace Now and the New Israel Fund
New Israel Fund
The New Israel Fund is a U.S. based non-profit organization established in 1979, and describes its objective as social justice and equality for all Israelis.-Ideology:...
. His support for these organizations resulted in harsh criticism and accusations of anti-Zionism.
Death and legacy
Rabbi Asher died of prostate cancerProstate cancer
Prostate cancer is a form of cancer that develops in the prostate, a gland in the male reproductive system. Most prostate cancers are slow growing; however, there are cases of aggressive prostate cancers. The cancer cells may metastasize from the prostate to other parts of the body, particularly...
on May 29, 1990.
A festschrift
Festschrift
In academia, a Festschrift , is a book honoring a respected person, especially an academic, and presented during his or her lifetime. The term, borrowed from German, could be translated as celebration publication or celebratory writing...
honoring Joseph Asher and his life's work was being edited by Moses Rischin
Moses Rischin
Moses Rischin is a United States Jewish historian, author, lecturer, editor, and Emeritus Professor of History at San Francisco State University. He coined the phrase New Mormon History in a 1969 article of the same name. Rischin is from New York City. His undergraduate studies were at Brooklyn...
and his son Rabbi Raphael Asher at the time of his death, and was published in 1991. The book is entitled The Jewish Legacy and the German Conscience, and includes essays by 23 scholars, including Gunther Plaut
Gunther Plaut
Wolf Gunther Plaut, CC, O.Ont is a Reform rabbi and author. Plaut was the rabbi of Holy Blossom Temple in Toronto for several decades and since 1978 is its Senior Scholar....
, David Ellenson
David Ellenson
David Ellenson is a rabbi who is known as a leader of the Reform movement in Judaism. He is the president of the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion , and the I.H. and Anna Grancell Professor of Jewish Religious Thought...
, David G. Dalin
David G. Dalin
David G. Dalin is an American Conservative rabbi and historian, is the author, co-author, or editor of ten books on American Jewish history and politics, and Jewish-Christian relations. He is currently a professor of history and politics at Ave Maria University, in Florida...
, Immanuel Jakobovits, Jakob Josef Petuchowski
Jakob Josef Petuchowski
Jakob Josef Petuchowski was an American research professor of Jewish Theology and Liturgy and professor of Judeo-Christian Studies at the Jewish Institute of Religion at Hebrew Union College Cincinnati, Ohio...
, Paul R. Mendes-Flohr
Paul R. Mendes-Flohr
Paul R. Mendes-Flohr is a leading scholar of modern Jewish thought. As an intellectual historian, Mendes-Flohr specializes in 19th and 20th Century Jewish thinkers, including Martin Buber, Franz Rosenzweig, Gershom Scholem and Leo Strauss.Holder of a PhD from Brandeis University, Mendes-Flohr...
, and Gerhard Weinberg
Gerhard Weinberg
Gerhard Ludwig Weinberg is a German-born American diplomatic and military historian noted for his studies in the history of World War II. Weinberg currently is the William Rand Kenan, Jr. Professor Emeritus of History at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He has been a member of the...
. Elie Weisel wrote the afterword.
His successor at Congregation Emanu-El in San Francisco, Robert Kirschner, wrote that Rabbi Asher "embodied those attributes of German Jewry of which his generation was the last living witness: dignity, sobriety, erudition, and a singular elegance. Historian Fred Rosenbaum wrote that: "His deep learning, his continental manner, and above all his personal integrity afforded many congregants a sense of stability in a tumultuous world."
His son, Rabbi Raphael W. Asher, serves as senior rabbi at Congregation B'nai Tikvah in Walnut Creek
Walnut Creek, California
Walnut Creek is an incorporated city located east of the city of Oakland. It lies in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area. While not as large as neighboring Concord, Walnut Creek serves as the business and entertainment hub for the neighboring cities within central Contra Costa...
, California.
Congregation Emanu-El in San Francisco sponsors an annual Rabbi Asher Memorial Lecture, usually featuring a scholar who has continued Joseph Asher's life's work on Germany and the Jews.