Dr. Horace M. Kallen, Philosopher and Zionist, Dies at Age 91

Dr. Horace M. Kallen, philosopher, educator, staunch liberal and long-time Zionist died Saturday in Palm Beach, Fla. while on vacation. He was 91 years old. Dr. Kallen became a Zionist in 1902 when, as he was about to cast off his Jewish identity, a Harvard professor showed him how the Old Testament had affected the Puritan mind and traced the role of Hebraic tradition in the development of the American character.

Dr. Kallen, a pragmatist, pluralist philosopher and fiery teacher was one of the founders of the New School for Social Research, where he was named emeritus research professor of social philosophy in 1969. He continued to give occasional courses including one last fall.

Born in Berenstadt, Germany, the son of an Orthodox rabbi, he was taken to Boston at the age of five. Dr. Kallen graduated magna cum laude in 1903 from Harvard where he had been an assistant to George Santayana and the selected disciple of William James. He received a Ph.D. degree from Harvard but was rejected for a regular faculty appointment because he was not in the habit of speaking discreetly. After being dismissed from Princeton and the University of Wisconsin for his dissident social and philosophical views. Dr. Kallen found shelter in the broad tolerance of the New School at its founding in 1919. He was dean of its Graduate Faculty of Political and Social Science from 1944 to 1946.

In his Jewish activities. Dr. Kallen had been a member of the executive board of the American Association for Jewish Education, a member of the American Jewish Congress, a chairman of the academic council of YIVO. Among his numerous books was “Zionism and World Politics” in 1924.