Mordecai Menahem Kaplan (born Mottel Kaplan; June 11, 1881 – November 8, 1983), was a Lithuanian-born American rabbi, writer, Jewish educator, professor, theologian, activist, and religious leader who founded the Reconstructionist branch of Judaism along with his son-in-law 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.
In 1902, he was ordained at the JTS. Although Kaplan’s conception of the nature of Judaism diverged from that of the seminary, he maintained a long association with the institution, teaching there for (over) 50 years; including becoming principal of its teachers’ institute in 1909, dean in 1931, and retiring in 1963. In 1903 he was appointed as administrator the religious school at Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun (KJ), a gradually modernizing Orthodox synagogue in New York's Yorkville district, consisting of newly affluent and acculturating East European Jews who had migrated north from the Lower East Side; and by April 1904 he was appointed as rabbi of the congregation.
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.
In 1902, he was ordained at the JTS. Although Kaplan’s conception of the nature of Judaism diverged from that of the seminary, he maintained a long association with the institution, teaching there for (over) 50 years; including becoming principal of its teachers’ institute in 1909, dean in 1931, and retiring in 1963. In 1903 he was appointed as administrator the religious school at Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun (KJ), a gradually modernizing Orthodox synagogue in New York's Yorkville district, consisting of newly affluent and acculturating East European Jews who had migrated north from the Lower East Side; and by April 1904 he was appointed as rabbi of the congregation.
His first major book, Judaism as a Civilization (1934), contained a detailed criticism of existing Jewish movements and a call for the “reconstruction” of Jewish life, leading him and his associates, the following year, to publish The Reconstructionist, a journal of Jewish affairs that has made considerable impact on the leadership of non Orthodox American Jewry.
According to Kaplan, Reform rightly recognized the evolving character of Judaism but ignored the social basis of Jewish identity and the organic culture of the people. At the other extreme, Neo Orthodoxy recognized that Judaism was a complete way of life and provided a substantial Jewish education for children (something noticeably lacking in Reform), but considered the Jewish religion to be timeless and static.
https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/mordecai-kaplan-founder-of-reconstructionist-judaism/
According to Kaplan, Reform rightly recognized the evolving character of Judaism but ignored the social basis of Jewish identity and the organic culture of the people. At the other extreme, Neo Orthodoxy recognized that Judaism was a complete way of life and provided a substantial Jewish education for children (something noticeably lacking in Reform), but considered the Jewish religion to be timeless and static.
https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/mordecai-kaplan-founder-of-reconstructionist-judaism/
According to Kaplan, religion is an answer to ultimate questions. The moment we become oblivious to ultimate questions, religion becomes irrelevant, and its crisis sets in. The primary task of religious thinking is to rediscover the questions to which religion is an answer, to develop a sensitivity to the ultimate questions which its ideas and acts are trying to answer.
"God is “the sum of animating, organizing forces and relationships which are forever making a cosmos out of chaos”
Kaplan argues that, "in the very process of human self-fulfillment, in the very striving after the achievement of salvation, we identify ourselves with God, and God functions in us” as life’s creative forces, tendencies, and potentialities. The entirety of Kaplan’s theology is commentary on the basic idea that God is the power that creates salvation.
- People achieve "salvation" through an integration of their beliefs and talents.
- Salvation will be achieved when society upholds the ideals of justice, peace, and freedom and allows each individual to reach their potential.
- Salvation is the central task of religion, and according to Kaplan God is the power through which salvation is possible
Because God is forever creating a cosmos out of chaos, Kaplan asserts that to believe in God is to believe that reality is constituted in such a way that salvation is achievable, i.e. that human beings are capable of achieving those things which are of greatest value to them.
God is acting through us and upon us to bring us into a truly ordered existence, i.e. God is acting through and on humanity to create its salvation: a reimagined Messianic Era.
God is acting through us and upon us to bring us into a truly ordered existence, i.e. God is acting through and on humanity to create its salvation: a reimagined Messianic Era.
Kaplan argues that, "in the very process of human self-fulfillment, in the very striving after the achievement of salvation, we identify ourselves with God, and God functions in us” as life’s creative forces, tendencies, and potentialities. The entirety of Kaplan’s theology is commentary on the basic idea that God is the power that creates salvation.
Mordecai Kaplan’s theology is rooted in a process of reevaluating religious concepts in order to render them intellectually tenable to modern people. [It] centers upon the idea of salvation and the role that God plays in humanity’s salvation. This focus is due to his understanding of Judaism’s role in the life of the Jewish people over the past 2,000 years, i.e. that Judaism was the way of salvation for the Jewish people. He departs from traditional understandings of salvation in denying the existence of a supernatural salvation. There will be neither a heaven of eternal bliss nor a new earth or world order ushered in by the Messiah. For Kaplan, salvation refers to a process of integration (or harmony), self-fulfillment, and orientation towards ideals which foster peace and justice.