TAUBES, JAKOB. Jakob Taubes was born in Vienna on February 25, 1923. In 1937, as a result of the appointment of his father, Zwi Taubes, as chief rabbi to Zürich, he moved to Switzerland and survived the Nazi persecution. In 1943 he became a rabbi. In 1947 he completed his studies in philosophy at Zürich and published Abendländische Eschatologie (Western Eschatology).

In 1948 he moved to the United States, where he married Susan Anima Feldman. He obtained a post at the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York, where he worked with Louis Finkelstein, S. Libermann, and Lewis L. Strauss. In 1949 he met Gershom Scholem (1897–1982). However, his association with Scholem was not successful: personal and theoretical reasons led to a quick breakdown in their relations.

He returned to the United States in 1953 and after being awarded a Rockefeller scholarship he spent the next two years at Harvard University. In the...