Buber’s identity as a Jewish intellectual was central to his work as an academic, and to the influence that he would hold before, during, and after the Second World War. Spending almost a whole decade at the start of his career translating and publishing specifically Jewish works, this endeavor—undertaken as an early career scholar—would inform his thinking and output for the rest of his life. During the time of the First World War, Buber assisted in the founding of the Jewish National Committee, whose stated goal was to improve the quality of life of Jews living and working in Europe.

In 1930, Buber was appointed to a prestigious position at the University in Frankfurt, but resigned only three years later (in 1933) when Adolf Hitler rose to power in Germany. Resigning in protest, the Nazi regime first banned him from lecturing or teaching, and he was quickly formally banned from academia in Germany in any capacity. In 1938, Buber escaped Germany and relocated to Jerusalem, where he was shortly appointed to a professorship at Hebrew University. Continuing the work he had begun years earlier (especially in the first edition of his work I and Thou), Buber would continue to do research and give lectures on existentialist philosophy and anthropology.