Mordecai Kaplan

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Mordecai Menahem Kaplan (1881-1983), American Jewish theologian and educator, was the founder and leader of the Reconstructionist movement in American Judaism.

Mordecai Kaplan was born on June 11, 1881, in Swenziany, Lithuania, and emigrated to the United States in 1889. He took his bachelor of arts degree at the City College of New York in 1900 and his master of arts at Columbia University, New York City, in 1902, the same year he was ordained a rabbi by the Jewish Theological Seminary. In 1908 he married Lena Rubin.

Kaplan served in the rabbinate for a number of years. Most of his career, however, was devoted to education and theology. From 1910 until 1963, he taught at the Jewish Theological Seminary, becoming principal of its teachers' institute in 1909, dean in 1931, and dean emeritus in 1947. He also taught at the Graduate School for Jewish Social Work (1925-1937), Columbia University (1932-1944), and Hebrew University (1937-1939).

Reconstructionist Movement

Kaplan is best known for his role as founder and leader of the Reconstructionist movement in Judaism. In 1922 he founded the Society for the Advancement of Judaism. The society, especially through its journals, provided a forum for the dissemination of Kaplan's views. In 1940 the Jewish Reconstructionist Foundation was established and assumed responsibility for the publication of the Reconstructionist, whose editorial board Kaplan headed until 1959.

Mordecai Kaplan developed the philosophy of the Reconstructionist movement over many years. His first major work on the subject was Judaism as a Civilization: Toward a Reconstruction of American-Jewish Life (1934). Among his other important books are Judaism in Transition (1936); The Meaning of God in Modern Jewish Religion (1937); The Future of the American Jew (1948); A New Zionism (1955); Questions Jews Ask; Reconstructionist Answers (1956); Judaism without Supernaturalism: The Only Alternative to Orthodoxy and Secularism (1958); The Greater Judaism in the Making: A Study of the Modern Evolution of Judaism (1960); The Purpose and Meaning of Jewish Existence: A People in the Image of God (1964); and Not So Random Thoughts (1966). Kaplan was also coeditor of Sabbath Prayer Book (1945), which denied the literal accuracy of the biblical text. As such, the Union of Orthodox Rabbis of the United States and Canada declared his theories unacceptable.

Kaplan's philosophy contends that the survival of Judaism is dependent upon its "reconstruction," that is, its adaptation to the changing conditions of the modern world, especially to nationalism and naturalism. He viewed Judaism as an evolving civilization and the Jewish religion as its highest expression of the idea of the greatest good. In Kaplan's theology, the land of Israel is central to the continued development of Judaism as a civilization, and Zionism is the means to the spiritual unification of world Jewry. Kaplan was responsible for the revision of Jewish liturgy to meet the needs - as seen by the Reconstructionist philosophy - of contemporary Jewish life.

Kaplan retired in 1963. His last published work was The Religion of Ethical Nationhood: Judaism's Contribution to World Peace (1970). He died in New York City on Nov. 8, 1983.

Further Reading

For a bibliography of Kaplan's writings consult, Mordecai M.Kaplan Jubilee Volume (2 vols., 1953) Moshe Davis, ed; Mordecai Kaplan: An Evaluation (1952). Ira Eisenstein and Eugene Kohn, eds.; Encyclopedia of Judaica

Born in Lithuania, Kaplan was taken to the United States when he was nine years old. He studied at the Jewish Theological Seminary and, after graduating at the early age of 21, was appointed rabbi of the (Orthodox) Kehillath Jeshurun congregation in New York. Despite his personal standards of religious piety, standards which he maintained throughout his long life, Kaplan began to entertain doubts about Orthodox Jewish belief. These doubts were increased by his studies of the sociology of Durkheim, the biological sciences of Spencer and Darwin, the Bible criticism of Wellhausen, the psychology of religion of William James, and the writings of Freud and Marx. Kaplan left his pulpit and was appointed to head the newly formed Teachers' Training Institute at the Jewish Theological Seminary. There he remained for half a century, lecturing in homiletics, Midrash, and Jewish philosophy to several generations of rabbis. His radical views eventually led him to break with the normative Conservative thinking of the time and, in 1922, to found the Jewish Reconstructionist movement in order to create a platform for the discussion and dissemination of his teachings. The movement established its own press, which issued prayer books (one of which was formally burned by a group of Orthodox zealots), a new Haggadah, and the Reconstructionist Magazine.

Foremost in Kaplan's teaching was his concept of God, which represented a serious departure from classical Jewish belief. He wrote that "the traditional conception of God is challenged by history, anthropology, and psychology." Kaplan describes God as an impersonal "Power that makes for righteousness," as the force that "makes for salvation," or as a "cosmic process that makes for life's abundance or salvation." All supernaturalism is omitted and he argues that "supernatural religion is the astrology and alchemy stage of Religion."

The fact that Kaplan did not believe that the commandments were revealed or ordained by God does not necessarily mean that he discounted them as unimportant. He insists that the rituals---the mitsvot---have a very special place: they are what he calls the "sancta" of Judaism, conveying the greatest ideal and the spiritual concepts of the Jewish people. More than most teachers of his time, Kaplan emphasized the social values of organized religion. "To have a religion in common, people must have other things in common besides religion." In line with this approach, Kaplan developed the idea of the Synagogue as a center for communal activity which would house all the varied programs of an organized community.

In his Zionist philosophy, Kaplan reveals the influence of Aḥad Ha-Am. The Diaspora is not rejected, but Israel is the spiritual center of world Jewry. His approach to Israel-Diaspora relations may be illustrated by a wheel: its hub represents the Jewish community in Erets Israel, its spokes are the various Diaspora communities, while the rim which holds everything together is the culture of the Jewish people.

Kaplan wrote several important works, the most influential of which was Judaism as a Civilization (1934). The title itself proclaims one of his chief ideas. A "civilization" is a people's total way of life, comprising several elements that have gone through many stages of growth and development. In Judaism these include art, music, language, literature, and philosophy. Since Judaism, however, is a religious civilization, it is the Jewish religion which is focal and which, in a significant way, influences all other aspects of Jewish civilization.

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