Throughout this website we offer many resources about Mordecai Kaplan’s influential writings and philosophy and how Kaplan’s legacy continues to be woven through contemporary thought and practice.
What’s New ? מה חדש
It is often observed that for Mordecai Kaplan democracy was the religion of America.
The Kaplan Center appreciates our grant from A More Perfect Union: Jewish Partnership for Democracy. This grant allows us to embark on a “religious” journey from this February through next October. Each month we will select and distribute to our friends and partners a passage from Mordecai Kaplan or one of his students and collaborators.
This month features an excerpt from Kaplan’s “Salvation through Labor,” a prayer for the Sabbath before Labor Day, adapted from the writings of A.D. Gordon (1945).
In the day that is to come, you will be given, O man, a new spirit, and be stirred by new feelings, by a new hunger, not a hunger for bread nor a thirst for riches, but a hunger and thirst for work.
And you will take pleasure in all the work that you do.
You will give heed to do all your work as part of Nature, as part of the work of the universe and its expansiveness.
And when you pause for a moment to straighten your back, and to take a deep breath, it is not only air that you will inhale; you will breathe in also a subtle something that will fructify your feeling and thinking, and add life and light to your spirit.
You will have moments when your whole being seems to dissolve into the Infinite.
VOTE
Webinars and More
Explore our upcoming webinars for 5875 (2024-25)
Revaluating the Unetanah Tokef:
What Kind of Tzedaka Softens the Harsh Degree? with author Amy Schiller and Rabbi Mordechai Liebling
September 17, 2024
Tribute Honoring Mel Scult’s 90th birthday
Sunday, December 8, 2024
1pm Eastern Standard Time
Kaplanian Scholarship
Looking to deepen your knowledge of Mordecai Kaplan’s life and philosophy?
- Meet a great companion guide in the form of Mel Scult’s annotated bibliography keep on home page
- Read scholarly articles about Kaplan
- Watch video reminiscences about Kaplan’s life
- Learn about Kaplan on One Foot: Mel Scult’s Eight Core Principles of Kaplan’s Philosophy
- Watch Mel Scult’s talk about Kaplan’s Understanding of Naturalistic Prayer
- Read Dr. Jeffrey Schein’s article on democracy, “Memory on Trial”
Kaplanian Voices
Our Kaplanian voices series seeks to sensitize us to the unique ways many of us experience the very notion of Peoplehood in 2023. Below are excerpts from conversation between Rabbis Jeffrey Eisenstat, founding director of our movement’s Camp Havaya, and former camp counselors about their initial exposures to the philosophies of Mordecai Kaplan a decade ago and its present meaning to them as young adult Jews in their thirties.
Visit the Ira Eisenstein portal where you will find….
- Introductions by Rabbi Richard Hirsh to Ira Eisenstein’s books Creative Judaism and What We Mean by Religion with digital copies of those currently out-of-print volumes now available on our website
- Explore the full set of resources related to teaching Mordecai Kaplan through Ira Eisenstein’s writings with these resources
- Reflections about Ira Eisenstein as theologian and wise leader by Rabbis Dennis Sasso and Jeffrey Schein
- A recording of Rabbi Eisenstein’s contributions that was hosted by the SAJ:Judaism that Stands For All as part of its centenary celebration