Mordecai Kaplan
Encyclopedia
Mordecai Menahem Kaplan was a rabbi
, essayist and Jewish educator and the co-founder of Reconstructionist Judaism
along with his son-in-law Ira Eisenstein
.
, Lithuania
, to Rabbi Israel and Haya (Anna) Kaplan. In 1889, he immigrated to the United States with his mother and sisters to join his father in New York City who was working with the Chief Rabbi Jacob Joseph
. He attended Etz Chaim Yeshiva
in Manhattan
for a short period. In 1895 Kaplan attended the City College of New York
. From 1893 to 1902 he also studied at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America
. After graduating from CCNY in 1900 he went to Columbia University
studying philosophy, sociology and education receiving a Masters Degree and a Doctorate. Majoring in philosophy he wrote his Masters thesis on the ethical philosophy of Henry Sidgwick
. His lecturers included the philosopher of ethical culture Felix Adler and the sociologist Franklin Giddings
.
In July 1908 he married Lena Rubin. He received Semikhah from Rabbi Isaac Jacob Reines
while on his honeymoon. Kaplan began his career as an Orthodox
rabbi at Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun
, a synagogue
in New York. He helped to create the Young Israel
movement of Modern Orthodox Judaism
with Rabbi Israel Friedlander
, was a leader in creating the Jewish community center concept, and helped found the Society for the Advancement of Judaism
.
From 1934 until 1970 Kaplan wrote a series of books in which he expressed his Reconstructionist ideology, which centred around the "concept of Judaism as a civilization". He was a prolific writer, keeping a journal throughout most of his life.
After the death of his wife in 1958, he married Rivka Rieger, an Israeli artist.
He died in New York City in 1983 at the age of 102. He was survived by Rivka and his daughters Dr. Judith Eisenstein, Hadassah Musher, Dr. Naomi Wenner and Selma Jaffe-Goldman.
(who became the rabbi of the Jewish Center in 1922) in the Orthodox Jewish press.
He then became involved in the Society for the Advancement of Judaism
, where on March 18, 1922, he held the first public celebration of a Bat Mitzvah in America, for his daughter Judith. This led to considerable criticism of Kaplan in the Orthodox Jewish press.
Kaplan's central idea of understanding Judaism as a religious civilization was an easily accepted position within Conservative Judaism
, but his naturalistic conception of God
was not as acceptable. Even at JTS, as The Forward writes, "he was an outsider, and often privately considered leaving the institution. In 1941, the faculty illustrated its distaste with Kaplan by penning a unanimous letter to the professor of homiletics, expressing complete disgust with Kaplan's The New Haggadah for the Passover Seder. Four years later, seminary professors Alexander Marx
, Louis Ginzberg
and Saul Lieberman
went public with their rebuke by writing a letter to the Hebrew newspaper Hadoar, lambasting Kaplan's prayer book and his entire career as a rabbi." In 1945 the Union of Orthodox Rabbis
"formally assembled to excommunicate from Judaism
what it deemed to be the community's most heretical voice: Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan, the man who eventually would become the founder of Reconstructionist Judaism
. Kaplan, a critic of both Orthodox and Reform Judaism, believed that Jewish practice should be reconciled with modern thought, a philosophy reflected in his Sabbath Prayer Book..." Due to Kaplan's evolving position on Jewish theology
and the liturgy, he was also condemned as a heretic by members of Young Israel
. His name is no longer mentioned in official publications as being one of the movement's founders. His followers attempted to induce him to formally leave Conservative Judaism, but he stayed with JTS until he retired in 1963. Finally, in 1968, his closest disciple and son-in-law Ira Eisenstein
founded a separate school, the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College
(RRC), in which Kaplan's philosophy, Reconstructionist Judaism, would be promoted as a separate religious denomination.
his efforts toward that end culminated in the establishment of the American Jewish University, then known as the University of Judaism
. His vision continues to find expression in the graduate, undergraduate, rabbinical, and continuing education programs of the University.
held that in light of the advances in philosophy
, science
, and history
, it would be impossible for modern Jews to continue to adhere to many of Judaism's traditional theological claims. Kaplan's naturalistic theology has been seen as a variant of John Dewey
's philosophy. Dewey's naturalism combined atheism with religious terminology in order to construct a religiously satisfying philosophy for those who had lost faith in traditional religion. Kaplan was also influenced by Émile Durkheim
's argument that our experience of the sacred is a function of social solidarity
. Matthew Arnold
and Hermann Cohen
were among his other influences.
In agreement with prominent medieval Jewish thinkers including Maimonides
, Kaplan affirmed that God is not personal, and that all anthropomorphic
descriptions of God are, at best, imperfect metaphors. Kaplan's theology went beyond this to claim that God is the sum of all natural processes that allow man to become self-fulfilled:
Not all of Kaplan's writings on the subject were consistent; his position evolved somewhat over the years, and two distinct theologies can be discerned with a careful reading. The view more popularly associated with Kaplan is strict naturalism
, à la Dewey
, which has been criticized as using religious terminology to mask a non-theistic (if not outright atheistic
) position. A second strand of Kaplanian theology exists, which makes clear that God has ontological reality, a real and absolute existence independent of human beliefs, while rejecting classical theism
and any belief in miracles.
Rabbi
In Judaism, a rabbi is a teacher of Torah. This title derives from the Hebrew word רבי , meaning "My Master" , which is the way a student would address a master of Torah...
, essayist and Jewish educator and the co-founder of Reconstructionist Judaism
Reconstructionist Judaism
Reconstructionist Judaism is a modern American-based Jewish movement based on the ideas of Mordecai Kaplan . The movement views Judaism as a progressively evolving civilization. It originated as a branch of Conservative Judaism, before it splintered...
along with his son-in-law Ira Eisenstein
Ira Eisenstein
Rabbi Ira Eisenstein founded Reconstructionist Judaism, along with Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan, his teacher and, later, father-in-law through his marriage to Judith Kaplan, over a period of time spanning from the late 1920s to the 1940s...
.
Life and work
Kaplan was born in ŠvenčionysŠvencionys
Švenčionys is a city located north of Vilnius in Lithuania. It is the capital of the Švenčionys district municipality. As of 2005, it had population of 5,658 of which about one-third is part of the Polish minority in Lithuania.- Name :...
, Lithuania
Lithuania
Lithuania , officially the Republic of Lithuania is a country in Northern Europe, the biggest of the three Baltic states. It is situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, whereby to the west lie Sweden and Denmark...
, to Rabbi Israel and Haya (Anna) Kaplan. In 1889, he immigrated to the United States with his mother and sisters to join his father in New York City who was working with the Chief Rabbi Jacob Joseph
Jacob Joseph
Jacob Joseph served as chief rabbi of New York City's Association of American Orthodox Hebrew Congregations, a federation of Eastern European Jewish synagogues...
. He attended Etz Chaim Yeshiva
Etz Chaim Yeshiva (Manhattan)
Etz Chaim Yeshiva was founded in 1886 on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, New York. It was founded as a cheder-style elementary school and, over time, became the basis of Yeshiva College and Yeshiva University....
in Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
for a short period. In 1895 Kaplan attended the City College of New York
City College of New York
The City College of the City University of New York is a senior college of the City University of New York , in New York City. It is also the oldest of the City University's twenty-three institutions of higher learning...
. From 1893 to 1902 he also studied at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America
Jewish Theological Seminary of America
The Jewish Theological Seminary of America is one of the academic and spiritual centers of Conservative Judaism, and a major center for academic scholarship in Jewish studies.JTS operates five schools: Albert A...
. After graduating from CCNY in 1900 he went to Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
studying philosophy, sociology and education receiving a Masters Degree and a Doctorate. Majoring in philosophy he wrote his Masters thesis on the ethical philosophy of Henry Sidgwick
Henry Sidgwick
Henry Sidgwick was an English utilitarian philosopher and economist. He was one of the founders and first president of the Society for Psychical Research, a member of the Metaphysical Society, and promoted the higher education of women...
. His lecturers included the philosopher of ethical culture Felix Adler and the sociologist Franklin Giddings
Franklin Henry Giddings
Franklin Henry Giddings, Ph.D., LL.D. was an American sociologist and economist, born at Sherman, Connecticut. He graduated from Union College . For ten years, he wrote items for the Springfield, Massachusetts Republican and the Daily Union...
.
In July 1908 he married Lena Rubin. He received Semikhah from Rabbi Isaac Jacob Reines
Yitzchak Yaacov Reines
Yitzchak Yaacov Reines יצחק יעקב ריינס , was a Lithuanian Orthodox rabbi and the founder of the Mizrachi Religious Zionist Movement.-Life:...
while on his honeymoon. Kaplan began his career as an Orthodox
Orthodox Judaism
Orthodox Judaism , is the approach to Judaism which adheres to the traditional interpretation and application of the laws and ethics of the Torah as legislated in the Talmudic texts by the Sanhedrin and subsequently developed and applied by the later authorities known as the Gaonim, Rishonim, and...
rabbi at Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun
Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun
Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun is a Modern Orthodox synagogue, located on East 85th Street on the Upper East Side of the New York City borough of Manhattan. The synagogue was founded in 1872...
, a synagogue
Synagogue
A synagogue is a Jewish house of prayer. This use of the Greek term synagogue originates in the Septuagint where it sometimes translates the Hebrew word for assembly, kahal...
in New York. He helped to create the Young Israel
Young Israel
The National Council of Young Israel or Young Israel , is a synagogue-based Orthodox Judaism organization in the United States with a network of affiliated "Young Israel" synagogues...
movement of Modern Orthodox Judaism
Modern Orthodox Judaism
Modern Orthodox Judaism is a movement within Orthodox Judaism that attempts to synthesize Jewish values and the observance of Jewish law, with the secular, modern world....
with Rabbi Israel Friedlander
Israel Friedlander
Israel Friedlander, also spelled Friedlaender was a rabbi, educator, translator, and biblical scholar...
, was a leader in creating the Jewish community center concept, and helped found the Society for the Advancement of Judaism
Society for the Advancement of Judaism
The Society for the Advancement of Judaism is a synagogue and Jewish organization in New York City, on Manhattan's Upper West Side. Founded in 1922 by Rabbi Mordecai M...
.
From 1934 until 1970 Kaplan wrote a series of books in which he expressed his Reconstructionist ideology, which centred around the "concept of Judaism as a civilization". He was a prolific writer, keeping a journal throughout most of his life.
After the death of his wife in 1958, he married Rivka Rieger, an Israeli artist.
He died in New York City in 1983 at the age of 102. He was survived by Rivka and his daughters Dr. Judith Eisenstein, Hadassah Musher, Dr. Naomi Wenner and Selma Jaffe-Goldman.
Relationship with Orthodox Judaism
Kaplan was the first rabbi hired by the new Jewish Center in Manhattan when it was founded in 1918. He proved too progressive in his religious and political views and resigned in 1921. He was the subject of a number of polemical articles published by Rabbi Leo JungLeo Jung
Rabbi Leo Jung was one of the major architects of American Orthodox Judaism.-Background and education:...
(who became the rabbi of the Jewish Center in 1922) in the Orthodox Jewish press.
He then became involved in the Society for the Advancement of Judaism
Society for the Advancement of Judaism
The Society for the Advancement of Judaism is a synagogue and Jewish organization in New York City, on Manhattan's Upper West Side. Founded in 1922 by Rabbi Mordecai M...
, where on March 18, 1922, he held the first public celebration of a Bat Mitzvah in America, for his daughter Judith. This led to considerable criticism of Kaplan in the Orthodox Jewish press.
Kaplan's central idea of understanding Judaism as a religious civilization was an easily accepted position within Conservative Judaism
Conservative Judaism
Conservative Judaism is a modern stream of Judaism that arose out of intellectual currents in Germany in the mid-19th century and took institutional form in the United States in the early 1900s.Conservative Judaism has its roots in the school of thought known as Positive-Historical Judaism,...
, but his naturalistic conception of God
God
God is the English name given to a singular being in theistic and deistic religions who is either the sole deity in monotheism, or a single deity in polytheism....
was not as acceptable. Even at JTS, as The Forward writes, "he was an outsider, and often privately considered leaving the institution. In 1941, the faculty illustrated its distaste with Kaplan by penning a unanimous letter to the professor of homiletics, expressing complete disgust with Kaplan's The New Haggadah for the Passover Seder. Four years later, seminary professors Alexander Marx
Alexander Marx
Alexander Marx was an American historian, bibliographer and librarian.-Biography:Born in Elberfeld, Germany, the son of George Marx, a banker, and Gertrud Simon-Marx, a published poet. Alexander Marx grew up in Königsberg . He spent a year in a Prussian artillery regiment where he excelled in...
, Louis Ginzberg
Louis Ginzberg
Rabbi Louis Ginzberg was a Talmudist and leading figure in the Conservative Movement of Judaism of the twentieth century. He was born on November 28, 1873, in Kovno, Lithuania; he died on November 11, 1953, in New York City.-Biographical background:...
and Saul Lieberman
Saul Lieberman
Saul Lieberman , also known as Rabbi Shaul Lieberman or The Gra"sh , was a rabbi and a scholar of Talmud...
went public with their rebuke by writing a letter to the Hebrew newspaper Hadoar, lambasting Kaplan's prayer book and his entire career as a rabbi." In 1945 the Union of Orthodox Rabbis
Union of Orthodox Rabbis
The Union of Orthodox Rabbis of the United States and Canada also known as the Agudath Harabonim , and sometimes as the UOR, was established in 1901 in the United States and is among the oldest organizations of Orthodox rabbis which could be described as having a Haredi worldview...
"formally assembled to excommunicate from Judaism
Judaism
Judaism ) is the "religion, philosophy, and way of life" of the Jewish people...
what it deemed to be the community's most heretical voice: Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan, the man who eventually would become the founder of Reconstructionist Judaism
Reconstructionist Judaism
Reconstructionist Judaism is a modern American-based Jewish movement based on the ideas of Mordecai Kaplan . The movement views Judaism as a progressively evolving civilization. It originated as a branch of Conservative Judaism, before it splintered...
. Kaplan, a critic of both Orthodox and Reform Judaism, believed that Jewish practice should be reconciled with modern thought, a philosophy reflected in his Sabbath Prayer Book..." Due to Kaplan's evolving position on Jewish theology
Jewish philosophy
Jewish philosophy , includes all philosophy carried out by Jews, or, in relation to the religion of Judaism. Jewish philosophy, until modern Enlightenment and Emancipation, was pre-occupied with attempts to reconcile coherent new ideas into the tradition of Rabbinic Judaism; thus organizing...
and the liturgy, he was also condemned as a heretic by members of Young Israel
Young Israel
The National Council of Young Israel or Young Israel , is a synagogue-based Orthodox Judaism organization in the United States with a network of affiliated "Young Israel" synagogues...
. His name is no longer mentioned in official publications as being one of the movement's founders. His followers attempted to induce him to formally leave Conservative Judaism, but he stayed with JTS until he retired in 1963. Finally, in 1968, his closest disciple and son-in-law Ira Eisenstein
Ira Eisenstein
Rabbi Ira Eisenstein founded Reconstructionist Judaism, along with Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan, his teacher and, later, father-in-law through his marriage to Judith Kaplan, over a period of time spanning from the late 1920s to the 1940s...
founded a separate school, the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College
Reconstructionist Rabbinical College
The Reconstructionist Rabbinical College , is located in Wyncote, Pennsylvania, about 10 miles north of central Philadelphia. RRC is the only seminary affiliated with Reconstructionist Judaism. It is accredited by the Commission on Higher Education of the Middle States Association of Colleges and...
(RRC), in which Kaplan's philosophy, Reconstructionist Judaism, would be promoted as a separate religious denomination.
University establishment
Kaplan wrote a seminal essay "On the Need for a University of Judaism," in which he called for a University setting that could present Judaism as a deep culture and developing civilization. His proposal included programs on dramatic and fine arts to stimulate Jewish artistic creativity, a college to train Jews to live fully in American and Jewish culture as contributing citizens, a school to train Jewish educators, and a rabbinical seminary to train creative and visionary rabbis. In 1947, with the participation of Rabbi Simon GreenbergSimon Greenberg
Dr. Simon Greenberg, was a Russian born American Conservative rabbi and scholar. Greenberg was part of the senior management of many Jewish organizations in America. He helped to found a number of institutions, including the American Jewish University, of which he was the first President...
his efforts toward that end culminated in the establishment of the American Jewish University, then known as the University of Judaism
University of Judaism
The American Jewish University, formerly the separate institutions University of Judaism and Brandeis-Bardin Institute, is a Jewish, non-denominational educational institution in Los Angeles, California....
. His vision continues to find expression in the graduate, undergraduate, rabbinical, and continuing education programs of the University.
Kaplan's theology
Kaplan's theologyTheology
Theology is the systematic and rational study of religion and its influences and of the nature of religious truths, or the learned profession acquired by completing specialized training in religious studies, usually at a university or school of divinity or seminary.-Definition:Augustine of Hippo...
held that in light of the advances in philosophy
Philosophy
Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...
, science
Science
Science is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe...
, and history
History
History is the discovery, collection, organization, and presentation of information about past events. History can also mean the period of time after writing was invented. Scholars who write about history are called historians...
, it would be impossible for modern Jews to continue to adhere to many of Judaism's traditional theological claims. Kaplan's naturalistic theology has been seen as a variant of John Dewey
John Dewey
John Dewey was an American philosopher, psychologist and educational reformer whose ideas have been influential in education and social reform. Dewey was an important early developer of the philosophy of pragmatism and one of the founders of functional psychology...
's philosophy. Dewey's naturalism combined atheism with religious terminology in order to construct a religiously satisfying philosophy for those who had lost faith in traditional religion. Kaplan was also influenced by Émile Durkheim
Émile Durkheim
David Émile Durkheim was a French sociologist. He formally established the academic discipline and, with Karl Marx and Max Weber, is commonly cited as the principal architect of modern social science and father of sociology.Much of Durkheim's work was concerned with how societies could maintain...
's argument that our experience of the sacred is a function of social solidarity
Solidarity
Solidarity is a Polish trade union federation that emerged on August 31, 1980 at the Gdańsk Shipyard under the leadership of Lech Wałęsa. It was the first non-communist party-controlled trade union in a Warsaw Pact country. Solidarity reached 9.5 million members before its September 1981 congress...
. Matthew Arnold
Matthew Arnold
Matthew Arnold was a British poet and cultural critic who worked as an inspector of schools. He was the son of Thomas Arnold, the famed headmaster of Rugby School, and brother to both Tom Arnold, literary professor, and William Delafield Arnold, novelist and colonial administrator...
and Hermann Cohen
Hermann Cohen
Hermann Cohen was a German-Jewish philosopher, one of the founders of the Marburg School of Neo-Kantianism, and he is often held to be "probably the most important Jewish philosopher of the nineteenth century".-Life:...
were among his other influences.
In agreement with prominent medieval Jewish thinkers including Maimonides
Maimonides
Moses ben-Maimon, called Maimonides and also known as Mūsā ibn Maymūn in Arabic, or Rambam , was a preeminent medieval Jewish philosopher and one of the greatest Torah scholars and physicians of the Middle Ages...
, Kaplan affirmed that God is not personal, and that all anthropomorphic
Anthropomorphism
Anthropomorphism is any attribution of human characteristics to animals, non-living things, phenomena, material states, objects or abstract concepts, such as organizations, governments, spirits or deities. The term was coined in the mid 1700s...
descriptions of God are, at best, imperfect metaphors. Kaplan's theology went beyond this to claim that God is the sum of all natural processes that allow man to become self-fulfilled:
To believe in God means to accept life on the assumption that it harbors conditions in the outer world and drives in the human spirit which together impel man to transcend himself. To believe in God means to take for granted that it is man's destiny to rise above the brute and to eliminate all forms of violence and exploitation from human society. In brief, God is the Power in the cosmos that gives human life the direction that enables the human being to reflect the image of God.
Not all of Kaplan's writings on the subject were consistent; his position evolved somewhat over the years, and two distinct theologies can be discerned with a careful reading. The view more popularly associated with Kaplan is strict naturalism
Humanistic naturalism
Humanistic naturalism is the branch of philosophical naturalism wherein human beings are best able to control and understand the world through use of the scientific method. Concepts of spirituality, intuition, and metaphysics are not pursued because they are unfalsifiable, and therefore can never...
, à la Dewey
John Dewey
John Dewey was an American philosopher, psychologist and educational reformer whose ideas have been influential in education and social reform. Dewey was an important early developer of the philosophy of pragmatism and one of the founders of functional psychology...
, which has been criticized as using religious terminology to mask a non-theistic (if not outright atheistic
Atheism
Atheism is, in a broad sense, the rejection of belief in the existence of deities. In a narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there are no deities...
) position. A second strand of Kaplanian theology exists, which makes clear that God has ontological reality, a real and absolute existence independent of human beliefs, while rejecting classical theism
Theism
Theism, in the broadest sense, is the belief that at least one deity exists.In a more specific sense, theism refers to a doctrine concerning the nature of a monotheistic God and God's relationship to the universe....
and any belief in miracles.
Books
- Judaism as a Civilization (1934)
- Judaism in Transition (1936)
- The Meaning of God in Modern Jewish Religion (1937)
- The Future of the American Jew (1948)
- Questions Jews Ask (1956)
- Judaism Without Supernaturalism (1958)
- The New Zionism (1959)
- The Greater Judaism in the Making (1960)
- The Purpose and Meaning of Jewish Existence (1964)
- The Religion of Ethical Nationhood (1970)
- If Not Now, When? (1973)
Articles
- 'What Judaism is Not,' The Menorah Journal, Vol. 1, No. 4, (October 1915), http://www.gutenberg.org/files/22300/22300-h/meno-4.html#Page_208
- 'What is Judaism,' The Menorah Journal, Vol. 1, No. 5, (December 1915), http://www.gutenberg.org/files/22300/22300-h/meno-5.html#Page_309
- 'Isaiah 6:1–11,' Journal of Biblical LiteratureJournal of Biblical LiteratureThe Journal of Biblical Literature is one of three theological journals published by the Society of Biblical Literature .First published in 1881, JBL is the flagship journal of the field...
, Vol. 45, No. 3/4, (1926). - 'The Effect of Intercultural Contacts upon Judaism,' The Journal of ReligionThe Journal of ReligionThe Journal of Religion is an academic journal published by the University of Chicago Press founded in 1882 as The American Journal of Theology. The journal "embraces all areas of theology as well as other types of religious studies ."...
, (January 1934). - 'The Evolution of the Idea of God in Jewish Religion,' The Jewish Quarterly Review, Vol. 57, (1967).
External links
- Jewish Reconstructionist Federation
- Reconstructionist Rabbinical College
- Audio and Video Resources for Mordecai Kaplan at RRC
- University Synagogue Orange County US
- Introduction to Reconstructionist Judaism
- Video: Rabbi Prof. David Hartman lectures about Mordecai Kaplan
- Reading list
- FAQ
- Role of women in liberal Judaism
- Diaries of Mordecai Kaplan - manuscript