Rabbi Marc H. Tanenbaum - Humanitarian and Interfaith Leader
Rabbi Marc H. Tanenbaum spent the bulk of his life working for a better world. He was a humanitarian interfaith leader who was “a Jew and a Rabbi, but his congregation was humanity: every religion, every color, every country.” Eulogized as “a father of modern Christian-Jewish dialogue,” Rabbi Tanenbaum was an internationally respected voice in humanitarian and interreligious affairs in the late 20th century. The Rabbi Marc H. Tanenbaum Collection was donated to the American Jewish Archives in 1992 by his widow, Dr. Georgette Bennett. The collection holds a vast array of papers, newsclippings, photographs and audio-visual materials that document Rabbi Tanenbaum’s life and his work in many fields: interfaith relations, human rights, Middle East peace, Soviet Jewry, race relations, and refugee rescue from the 1950s to the 1990s.
Using this Collection:
Rabbi Marc H. Tanenbaum was a major architect of modern Jewish-Christian dialogue. Both nationally and internationally, he was one of the most widely respected representatives of the Jewish community on interreligious affairs in the late 20th century. Throughout his career, he forged close friendships with Christian leaders from a wide range of denominations including Pope John XXIII, Pope John Paul II, Billy Graham, Jerry Falwell and Archbishop Desmond Tutu. He worked to change nearly 2,000 years of mutual animosity, ignorance and suspicion by helping Jews and Christians understand each other better. Over the years, Tanenbaum found himself at the center of most major Jewish-Christian controversies and agreements. Read More...
