Joseph Leon Blau
{{short description|American historian and philosopher}}
Joseph Leon Blau (May 6, 1909 – December 28, 1986) was an American scholar of Jewish history and philosophy.
Biography
Blau was born in Brooklyn, New York. He attended Columbia University, where he studied under Salo Wittmayer Baron. He earned his bachelor's degree in 1931, his master's in 1933, and his Ph.D. in 1944, all from Columbia. Blau taught at Columbia from 1944 to 1977 and was chair of its Department of Religion from 1968 to 1977.
Blau was one of the signers of A Secular Humanist Declaration in 1980. He was also one of the signers of the Humanist Manifesto.{{cite web|url=http://www.americanhumanist.org/Humanism/Humanist_Manifesto_II |title=Humanist Manifesto II |publisher=American Humanist Association |access-date=October 7, 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121020110719/http://www.americanhumanist.org/humanism/Humanist_Manifesto_II |archive-date=October 20, 2012 }} He was a foreign member of the British Academy.
He died in 1986 in Riverdale, New York.{{cite news |title=Joseph L. Blau |url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B0DE1DC1E3CF932A35752C0A961948260 |quote=Joseph L. Blau, professor emeritus of religion at Columbia University, died Sunday at his home in the Riverdale section of the Bronx. He was 77 years old. |work=New York Times |date=January 1, 1987 |access-date=2009-02-11 }}
Writings
His notable writings include Christian Interpretation of the Cabala in the Renaissance (1944); Men and Movements in American Philosophy (1952); The Story of Jewish Philosophy (1962), The Jews of the United States, 1790–1840 (co-edited with Salo Baron, 1963), Modern Varieties of Judaism (1966), and Judaism in America (1976).
References
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External links
- [https://findingaids.library.columbia.edu/ead/nnc-rb/ldpd_4079527 Finding Aid to the Joseph L. Blau papers, Columbia University]
- [http://columbia.thefreedictionary.com/Blau,+Joseph+Leon Columbia Encyclopedia entry]
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Category:American philosophy academics
Category:American religion academics
Category:20th-century American Jews
Category:Columbia College (New York) alumni
Category:Columbia University faculty
Category:Historians of Jews and Judaism
Category:Jewish American historians
Category:Corresponding fellows of the British Academy
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