Avigdor Chaim Gold

Who was Avigdor Chaim Gold?

Avigdor Chaim Gold, also known as A.C. Gold, was a German-Israeli-Jewish philosopher, educator, and political humanist whose work centered on theological values of religious consciousness, inter-ethnic personal relations, and transnational community.

Gold's provocative and often poetic writing style highlights the major themes in his work: the retelling of Jewish-Hasidic saga, Biblical narratives, humanist deism, and metaphysical dialogue. As a humanist Zionist and avid student of famed Austrian-Jewish scholar Martin Buber, Gold was a staunch supporter of a bi-national solution in Palestine, instead of a two-state political Zionist solution. After the establishment of the Jewish state of Israel, Gold famously and satirically labeled his mentor Martin Buber as the "most dangerous man in Israel" given the Buberian belief in a regional federation of Palestine and Arab states. Like Buber, his influence extends across the humanities, particularly in the fields of social consciousness, critical philosophy, and religious existentialism.