In Life Against Death, Volume 1, Rabbi Irving Greenberg curates, introduces, and reflects on the most important essays written over the course of his lifetime on the United States and Israel, from 1965 to 2025. These influential works recognized as classic in his oeuvre identify turning points in Jewish life, along with policies key to successful Jewish living in the modern world.
Greenberg begins by reflecting on the universal struggle of life against death in the world. Judaism and the Jewish people are meant to serve as an avant-garde in repairing the world by overcoming the enemies of life, including oppression and war. In Part 1, "America," he champions an enrichment of Jewish life and an embrace of pluralism as necessary responses to Jews' acceptance in open society and endangerment from totalitarianism. In Part 2, "Israel," he offers vision and guidance on the religious significance of the State of Israel, on interactions of Israel and American Jewry, and on a new ethic of power that relinquishes purity for the opportunity to create real life in the real world.
New introductions to each essay narrate behind-the-scenes stories and breakthroughs formative to its contents, as well as Greenberg's hindsight: evolving thoughts, recognitions of past errors, comparisons of his predictions versus realities, and insights on relevance of the core principles in our changed times.
Two essays have never been published before: "The Religious Significance of the State of Israel," given as a conference paper in 1970, and "Israel and World Jewry After October 7," written in 2025 as a needed response to the fundamental transformation of Israel's image and world status.
Readers will get to know Greenberg as a thought leader, an activist, a man, and a Jew.