Born in Warsaw, Abraham Heschel earned a doctorate in philosophy at the University of Berlin, and taught in Berlin and Frankfurt. After being deported by the Nazis to Poland in 1938, he taught in Warsaw and London. In 1940 he came to the United States, invited by Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati, Ohio. From 1945 until his death, he was professor of Jewish ethics and mysticism at the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York City. Heschel's life and thought have been widely acclaimed. Thomas Merton, for example, described him as "the greatest religious writer in America." New editions of his writings are constantly being published. His best-known works include The Earth Is the Lord's (1950), Man's Quest for God: Studies in Prayer and Symbolism (1954), God in Search of Man: A Philosophy of Judaism (1956), and The Prophets (1962). In Heschel, Hasidism and Halakha, Samuel Dresner, a former student and lifelong friend of Heschel's, gives a personal insight into his life and views into the Hasidic movement and the important concept of halakha.