Kaplan’s Legacy
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After reading join the dialogue. Count yourself among the tosafot (next generation of commentators). Send a comment as short as a sentence or as long as two paragraphs to Dr. Jeffrey Schein (jeffrey@kaplancenter.org) . He will collect your comments and help us expand the Talmudic process.
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Kaplan and Camp 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. Caitlin Hayes & Emmett Peoplehood: One Word, Many Experiences Caitlin Hayes, Kaplan Center…
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In this article Dr. Eric Caplan, the Vice-President and Academic Advisor of the Kaplan Center, explore the way in which we might “draw out” of an ancient text a value that can function for us as it did for our ancestors even if the language is changed. Mordecai Kaplan had called this process revaluation. Kaplan…
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From Rabbi Morris Allen: In a Haggadah text filled with awe and wonder, perhaps the most significant comment Marcia Falk adds to the traditional Haggadah is this:By far the most important symbol at the table is the community of participants. “Whether two people or thirty are in attendance, tonight we represent am yisra’el, the people…
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About the commentators: Rabbi Morris Allen is Rabbi Emeritus of Beth Jacob Congregation in Mendota Heights, MN and recently retired as the Senior Community Liaison for Rep. Angie Craig(MN-02) Ben Schein serves as Vice President of Data Curiosity at software company Domo, Inc. and lives in Saint Louis Park, Minnesota with his wife Robyn and…
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From Rabbi Morris Allen: In a Haggadah text filled with awe and wonder, perhaps the most significant comment Marcia Falk adds to the traditional Haggadah is this:By far the most important symbol at the table is the community of participants. “Whether two people or thirty are in attendance, tonight we represent am yisra’el, the people…
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This webinar with Dr. Marcia Falk, “Mah Nishtanta Ha-Haggadah Ha-Zot: an exploration of my new haggadah, Night of Beginnings” took place on March 13, 2022. Webinar Documents: Chat Log
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The Mordecai M. Kaplan Center for Jewish Peoplehood is proud to have underwritten the production costs of Marcia Falk’s new haggadah, Night of Beginnings. In the essay below—excerpted from the Introduction to that haggadah—Falk presents her goals in writing the haggadah and surveys its unique features. The intention of Night of Beginnings is to do…
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This webinar on Sasha Sagan’s book, For Small Creatures Such as We: Rituals for Finding Meaning in our Unlikely World, featuring Dr. Tzemah Yoreh, Rabbi Sandy Sasso, and Sarah Brammer-Shlay, took place on January 30, 2022. Webinar Documents: Chat Log
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by Sarah Brammer-Shlay One of the aspects of Reconstructionist Judaism that drew me into this movement was the way its vision centers on trusting the Jewish people, our people. Mordecai Kaplan stated, “There are dead cultures or civilizations. What renders them alive is an indigenous leadership which actively relates the culture or civilization to the…