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 The Future of the American Jew
On Democracy and Education
What the democratic peoples then lacked and still lack, is a clear recognition of power as that around the use of which any educational system, that is to help them live, must be built. A democratic system of education should train the young to regard all power which the individual possesses and acquires as misused, unless, it is somehow shared with all mankind. That is to be taken literally, and not merely as a pious wish.
VOTE
Webinars and More
View our June 9 webinar
Explore our upcoming webinars for 5875 (2024-25)
Learn about the Mel Scult Teen Prize
Join us in thanking our Talmud page supporters
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 move to kaplanian scholarship
- Watch video reminiscences about Kaplan’s life move to Kaplanian scholarship page
- 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