A Note from Dr. Jacob Staub and Dr. Jeffrey Schein:
The Mordecai Kaplan Center for Jewish Peoplehood website and Evolve have overlapping readerships. Jacob Staub and Jeffrey Schein, directors of Evolve and the Kaplan Center respectively, have begun a tradition of sharing articles that will guide Evolve readers to the Kaplan Center and Kaplan Center folks to Evolve.
Other thought-provoking articles can be found on the Evolve website.
Sustaining Democracy Amid Cultural Pluralism: Mordecai Kaplan’s Vision
Rabbi Bill Plevan PhD explores what it takes to sustain a democratic polity
A Jewish Embrace of Democracy: Early Reconstructionist Judaism and America’s Promise
Rabbi Deborah Waxman looks back on the development of Reconstructionist Judaism and its relationship to Democracy.
When Things Fall Apart: Divine Absence and Presence
Rabbi Margie Jacobs explores images of Divine Absence and Presence from the Zohar and elsewhere as we approach Tisha B’Av
Kaplan’s ‘New Zionism’, Rabbi Jack Cohen and the State of Israel
Rabbi David Brusin’s Evolve article continues the conversation begun by Rabbi Toba Spitzer about Kaplan’s ‘New Zionism’
Evolving Roles of Rabbis
As we approach the 50th anniversary of graduates from the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, we celebrate the class of 2024 and take a look at the changing shape of the contemporary Reconstructionist rabbinate.
Living in the Shadow: The Massacre in York, 1190
Rabbi Elisheva Salamo, the Kaplan Center’s new Executive Director and the rabbi of the Jewish Community of York, reflects on the 12th century Massacre in York.
The Fifth Vessel of Jewish Ethics: Between a Person and Her Devices
Rabbi Jeffrey Schein’s 2020 suggestion that “developing an applied ethics to our behavior on the Internet is an urgent priority.”