from Mel Scult’s Mordecai Kaplan Facebook page
Kaplan famously stated that religion in general and Judaism in particular was a matter of “belonging, believing and behaving.” In the late forties he was in Los Angeles working to raise money for the proposed “University of Judaism”. In a talk to about forty writers, musicians and artists he stated his formula in a slightly different way omitting the matter of behaving from the triad. For me the change is very significant to say the least. The entry in the diary is as follows:
April 9, 1947.
“In my talk I pointed out that the problem of having Jews accept themselves was a problem of believing, belonging and creating. The University of Judaism would train and equip leaders for these three objectives.”