Mordecai Menahem Kaplan (; June 11, 1881 – November 8, 1983) was an American Conservative rabbi, writer, Jewish educator, professor, theologian-philosopher, activist, and religious leader who founded the Reconstructionist movement of Judaism with his son-in-law, Rabbi Ira Eisenstein. He has been described as a "towering figure" in the recent history of Judaism for his influential work in adapting it to modern society, contending that Judaism should be a unifying and creative force by stressing the cultural and historical character of the religion as well as theological doctrine. the son of Haya () and Rabbi Israel Kaplan. Mordecai was brought over to New York in 1889, at the age of nine.

In 1902, he was ordained at JTSA.

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 careful reading. The view more popularly associated with Kaplan is strict naturalism, à la John Dewey, which has been criticized as using religious terminology to mask a nontheistic (if not outright atheistic) position—one JTS colleague in the 1950s, Will Herberg, went so far as to compare it to the position of Charles Maurras toward the Catholic Church. A second strand of Kaplanian theology 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. In 1973, he was one of the signers of the Humanist Manifesto II.

Awards

  • 1971: National Jewish Book Award in the Jewish Thought for The Religion of Ethical Nationhood

Bibliography

Kaplan was a prolific writer. His work Judaism as a Civilization was published in 1934 when Kaplan was 53. A full bibliography of over 400 items can be found in The American Judaism of Mordecai Kaplan, ed. by Emanuel S. Goldsmith, Mel Sculpt, and Robert Seltzer (1990).

  • The New Haggadah (1941)
  • The Sabbath Prayer Book (1945)
  • The Future of the American Jew (1948)
  • The Faith of America: Prayers, Readings, and Songs for the Celebration of American Holidays (1951)
  • Ha-emunah ve-hamusar (Faith and Ethics) (1954)
  • A New Zionism (1955)
  • Questions Jews Ask (1956)
  • Judaism Without Supernaturalism (1958)
  • A New Zionism: Second Enlarged Edition (1959)
  • 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)
  • Not So Random Thoughts: Witty and Profound Observations on Society, Religion, and Jewish Life
  • The Religion of Ethical Nationhood: Judaism's Contribution to World Peace (1970)
  • If not now, when?: Toward a reconstitution of the Jewish people; conversations between Mordecai M. Kaplan and Arthur A. Cohen (1973)

Articles

  • 'What Judaism Is Not,' The Menorah Journal, Vol. 1, No. 4, (October 1915),
  • 'What Is Judaism,' The Menorah Journal, Vol. 1, No. 5, (December 1915),
  • 'Isaiah 6:1–11,' Journal of Biblical Literature, Vol. 45, No. 3/4, (1926).
  • 'The Effect of Intercultural Contacts upon Judaism,' The Journal of Religion, (January 1934).
  • 'The Evolution of the Idea of God in Jewish Religion,' The Jewish Quarterly Review, Vol. 57, (1967).

See also

  • American philosophy
  • List of American philosophers

Notes

References

Further reading

  • Sculpt, Mel, (1993)'Judaism Faces the Twentieth Century- A Biography of Mordecai M. Kaplan, Wayne State University Press, Detroit,
  • Audio and Video Resources for Mordecai Kaplan at Reconstructionist Rabbinical College
  • Video: Rabbi Prof. David Hartman lectures about Mordecai Kaplan
  • Diaries of Mordecai Kaplan - manuscript
  • Letters of Mordecai Kaplan can be found in the Records of the Jewish Reconstructionist Foundation, held at the American Jewish Historical Society in New York, NY