Freedom 250

What does it mean to live in a free society? If “freedom isn’t free,” what price does it demand of us, if any?

“Indifference to evil is more insidious than evil itself. It is a silent justification affording evil acceptability in society.” (Heschel, 1963)

Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel spoke from his personal experience when he made this statement about life in a free society.

Heschel escaped Nazi Germany and the fate of his mother and sisters in the Holocaust. He understood that catastrophic cruelty does not occur in a vacuum. It is built up gradually, in small steps, by the quiet compliance of ordinary citizens who choose to look away from injustice. He delivered this warning in Chicago in 1963, standing alongside Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., to shock a comfortable religious establishment out of its neutrality during the civil rights movement.

Heschel famously argued that in a free society, “some are guilty, but all are responsible.” When we choose to remain silent in the face of injustice, whatever our justifications, we aren’t being impartial; we are giving permission that helps make the unthinkable acceptable. He dismissed the idea of innocent bystanders in the face of injustice.

We live in a world overflowing with crises, with near-instantaneous reporting of events from every imaginable viewpoint. It’s understandable to express a kind of moral fatigue from the continual exposure to tragedies. It is tempting to retreat into our private lives and assume systemic problems are someone else’s job to fix, especially if those around us would be distressed by our speaking out. But Heschel’s legacy reminds us that neutrality is a mirage. To ignore suffering is to vote for the status quo and add on to that step-by-step march toward catastrophic cruelty.

Authentic living in a free society means refusing to accommodate cruelty, keeping our capacity for outrage alive, and recognizing that we are all ultimately responsible for one another.

Have a reflective Independence Day.

Inspiration and References

This post was inspired by a lecture on how to think like a philosopher and what it means to be human by the distinguished philosopher Professor Cornell West (West, n.d.). When the reference to Rabbi Heschel came up, I was motivated to seek the context of the quotation I presented above. Pages that collected some of his ideas and references to his history and works were helpful (Rosenberg, n.d.).

References

1. Heschel, A. (1963). Heschel, "religion and race," speech text. In Voices of Democracy. https://voicesofdemocracy.umd.edu/heschel-religion-and-race-speech-text/
2. West, C. Cornel West Teaches Philosophy. https://www.masterclass.com/classes/cornel-west-teaches-philosophy/
3. Rosenberg, D. Heschel | voices on sefaria. Retrieved July 4, 2026, from https://voices.sefaria.org/sheets/393398.5?lang=bi

AI Disclosure

AI-assisted search was used to turn up primary sources in the research into the context of Rabbi Heschel’s comments, and was also used in spelling and grammar checking, as it is integrated into the grammar-checker tool I use.