Haber, Joram G. 1955–2002

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Haber, Joram G. 1955–2002

(Joram Graf Haber)

PERSONAL: Born 1955; died of pancreatic cancer, February 28, 2002; married; wife's name Lina; children: three. Education: Columbia University, M.A.; Pace University, J.D.; City University of New York, Ph.D.

CAREER: Lawyer and educator; admitted to the State Bar of New York and the State Bar of New Jersey. Bergen Community College, Paramus, NJ, faculty member in department of philosophy and religion, 1989–2002; also taught at Hunter College, Dominican College, Rockland Community College, C.W. Post College, and the State University of New York at Purchase; attorney in private practice and for Jay M. Zerin, P.C. Producer and moderator for television series Ethics in the '90s and Legal Briefs.

MEMBER: American Society of Value Inquiry (president).

AWARDS, HONORS: National Endowment for the Humanities fellowship, 1990; Distinguished Faculty Scholar, Bergen Community College, 1996.

WRITINGS:

Forgiveness: A Philosophical Study, Rowman & Littlefleld (Savage, MD), 1991.

(Compiler) Doing and Being: Selected Readings in Moral Philosophy, Macmillan (New York, NY), 1993.

(Editor) Absolutism and Its Consequentialist Critics, Rowman & Littlefleld (Lanham, MD), 1994.

(Editor, with Steven M. Calm) Twentieth Century Ethical Theory, Prentice Hall (Englewood Cliffs, NJ), 1995.

Ethics for Today and Tomorrow, Jones & Bartlett (Sudbury, MA), 1997.

(Editor, with Mark S. Half on, and contributor) Norms and Values: Essays on the Work of Virginia Held, Rowman & Littlefleld (Lanham, MD), 1998.

Also contributor to Encyclopedia of the Philosophy of Law, 1999. Contributor to journals, including the Cambridge Quarterly of Health Care Ethics. Editor, ASVI Newsletter.

SIDELIGHTS: Both a practicing attorney and a professor of philosophy, Joram G. Haber was interested in a wide variety of philosophical issues, but was often most noted for his writings on ethics, a subject that easily applies to both his chosen vocations. He was also interested in bioethics, philosophy of law, Jewish philosophy, logic, and the philosophy of literature. At Bergen Community College, where he taught before his death from pancreatic cancer, he was also appreciated for organizing the school's Philosophy and Religion Lecture Series and for serving as an advisor and founder of the college's philosophy club. As a scholar, he edited and compiled several essay anthologies on philosophy, also penning his own books on the subject. His Forgiveness: A Philosophical Study, for example, brings up the interesting position that "forgiveness is a virtue only when wrongdoers sincerely regret the wrongs they have caused," as an obituary of the author explained on the Bergen Community College Web site.

Haber's last published work, the coedited collection Norms and Values: Essays on the Work of Virginia Held, contains pieces that are not so much about feminist philosopher Held as they are essays written in keeping with the spirit of her ideas. American Political Science Review critic Marion Smiley characterized it as "a very well put together collection of stimulating essays."