Irving Greenberg is a preeminent Jewish thinker, theologian, activist, president of the J.J. Greenberg Institute for the Advancement of Jewish Life, and senior scholar-in-residence at Hadar. He served as a founding president of CLAL: The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership, founding president of the Jewish Life Network/Steinhardt Foundation, activist/founder of the Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry, chair of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, and rabbi of the Riverdale Jewish Center. He is the author of multiple volumes, including The Triumph of Life: A Narrative Theology of Judaism (JPS, 2024) and For the Sake of Heaven and Earth: The New Encounter between Judaism and Christianity (JPS, 2004). Greenberg won the Jewish Book Council's 2024 Lifetime Achievement Award.

"A monumental work, and a must-read! Yitz Greenberg's two-volume set of essays chronicling fifty years of the Jewish condition and the human condition is a veritable Maimonidean Guide for the Perplexed for our troubled times. And more: it is a call to choose life, and thereby repair the Jewish condition and the human condition one good deed at a time."—Irwin Cotler, founder and international chair, Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights"Life Against Death encapsulates Rabbi Yitz Greenberg's moral clarity, theological daring, and relentless commitment to life even in the shadow of profound rupture. His voice is wise, demanding, and ever hopeful, and his humanity is felt deeply on every page."—Rabbi Sharon Brous, senior and founding rabbi of IKAR"When one of the most searching moral voices in modern Jewish thought reflects on the essays that have shaped generations of Jewish thinking through the lens of his lifetime, what emerges is a deeply humane theology—one forged in catastrophe, tested by power, and animated by responsibility and hope. At a moment when the Jewish future feels uncertain, Irving Greenberg offers not reassurance but courage: a clear-eyed insistence that renewal remains possible, and that choosing life is still our task."—Abigail Pogrebin, author of My Jewish Year"Yitz Greenberg has been my mentor, teacher, role model, and rabbi since we were teenagers in Boro Park, Jewish summer camp, and Brooklyn College. He is the wisest man I know. I read everything he writes and listen to everything he says. So should you."—Alan Dershowitz, Felix Frankfurter Professor of Law Emeritus, Harvard Law School"Rabbi Dr. Yitz Greenberg's Life Against Death is nothing less than a treasure of Jewish moral imagination—six decades of wisdom distilled into essays that challenge, uplift, and transform. My beloved teacher's voice rings with courage and compassion, reminding us that covenantal hope can triumph over even the deepest fractures of our age. This collection is a gift to all who seek a Judaism that celebrates life and tirelessly elevates the world."—Rabbi Shmuly Yanklowitz, Valley Beit Midrash, Phoenix

• AcknowledgementsIntroductionPart 1. The Holocaust1. Cloud of Smoke, Pillar of Fire: Judaism, Christianity, and Modernity after the Holocaust (1977)2. Voluntary Covenant (1982)3. Theology after the Shoah: The Transformation of the Core Paradigm (2006)Part 2. Jewish-Christian Relations 4. Covenantal Pluralism (2004)5. From Enemy to Partner: Toward the Realization of a Partnership Between Judaism and Christianity (2016)NotesBibliographySource AcknowledgementsIndex

Irving Greenberg is a preeminent Jewish thinker, theologian, activist, president of the J.J. Greenberg Institute for the Advancement of Jewish Life, and senior scholar-in-residence at Hadar. He served as a founding president of CLAL: The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership, founding president of the Jewish Life Network/Steinhardt Foundation, activist/founder of the Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry, chair of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, and rabbi of the Riverdale Jewish Center. He is the author of multiple volumes, including The Triumph of Life: A Narrative Theology of Judaism (JPS, 2024) and For the Sake of Heaven and Earth: The New Encounter between Judaism and Christianity (JPS, 2004). Greenberg won the Jewish Book Council's 2024 Lifetime Achievement Award.

"A monumental work, and a must-read! Yitz Greenberg's two-volume set of essays chronicling fifty years of the Jewish condition and the human condition is a veritable Maimonidean Guide for the Perplexed for our troubled times. And more: it is a call to choose life, and thereby repair the Jewish condition and the human condition one good deed at a time."—Irwin Cotler, founder and international chair, Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights"Life Against Death encapsulates Rabbi Yitz Greenberg's moral clarity, theological daring, and relentless commitment to life even in the shadow of profound rupture. His voice is wise, demanding, and ever hopeful, and his humanity is felt deeply on every page."—Rabbi Sharon Brous, senior and founding rabbi of IKAR"When one of the most searching moral voices in modern Jewish thought reflects on the essays that have shaped generations of Jewish thinking through the lens of his lifetime, what emerges is a deeply humane theology—one forged in catastrophe, tested by power, and animated by responsibility and hope. At a moment when the Jewish future feels uncertain, Irving Greenberg offers not reassurance but courage: a clear-eyed insistence that renewal remains possible, and that choosing life is still our task."—Abigail Pogrebin, author of My Jewish Year"Yitz Greenberg has been my mentor, teacher, role model, and rabbi since we were teenagers in Boro Park, Jewish summer camp, and Brooklyn College. He is the wisest man I know. I read everything he writes and listen to everything he says. So should you."—Alan Dershowitz, Felix Frankfurter Professor of Law Emeritus, Harvard Law School"Rabbi Dr. Yitz Greenberg's Life Against Death is nothing less than a treasure of Jewish moral imagination—six decades of wisdom distilled into essays that challenge, uplift, and transform. My beloved teacher's voice rings with courage and compassion, reminding us that covenantal hope can triumph over even the deepest fractures of our age. This collection is a gift to all who seek a Judaism that celebrates life and tirelessly elevates the world."—Rabbi Shmuly Yanklowitz, Valley Beit Midrash, Phoenix

• AcknowledgementsIntroductionPart 1. The Holocaust1. Cloud of Smoke, Pillar of Fire: Judaism, Christianity, and Modernity after the Holocaust (1977)2. Voluntary Covenant (1982)3. Theology after the Shoah: The Transformation of the Core Paradigm (2006)Part 2. Jewish-Christian Relations 4. Covenantal Pluralism (2004)5. From Enemy to Partner: Toward the Realization of a Partnership Between Judaism and Christianity (2016)NotesBibliographySource AcknowledgementsIndex