Historian and Jewish theologian Ernst Ehrlich passed away more than a week ago. I didn’t blog about his death until now, because I didn’t know about it until now. In fact, I didn’t know anything about Ehrlich until now.
Which is too bad. It seems like he was a remarkable man. From the AP:
The Berlin-born Ehrlich studied at Higher Institute for Jewish Studies, Rabbi Leo Baeck’s rabbinical seminary, until the Nazis closed it in 1942. He was made to perform forced labor until he was able to find shelter with a Berlin couple and was then smuggled the following year into Switzerland.
He obtained his doctorate at Basel and later he taught at universities in Switzerland and Germany. From 1961 to 1994, he was European director of the Independent Order of B’nai B’rith, founded in New York in 1843.
At the Second Vatican Council in 1965, he was the adviser to German Cardinal Augustin Bea in preparing “Nostra Aetate,” a key document on Roman Catholic-Jewish relations.
And here’s a more detailed obit from the Times of London.
