Articles
-
Kaplan, Zionism, and Us
by Rabbi Toba Spitzer In The Meaning of God in Modern Jewish Religion (published in 1937), in the chapter on Chanukah, Mordecai Kaplan reflected on Jewish survival in the face of competing cultures. He wrote: “Paradoxical as it may seem, if a nation wishes to survive, it must not make survival itself its supreme objective, […]
-
Memory on Trial & Kaplan’s Two Torahs
As we prepare for the momentous journey that will take us through November 4th, Kaplan Center Director Dr. Jeffrey Schein offers a perspective on our “aging” candidates.
-
On Civilization and Culture: Reading Mordecai Kaplan Through the Lens of Eliezer Schweid
by Dr. Deborah Waxman
-
A Reconstructed Vision of Living in Two Civilizations
By Dr. Jeffrey Schein. This position paper explores the well-known Kaplanian notion that Jews live in two civilizations, one Jewish and one North American.
-
The Issue of Free Speech: A Kaplan Sermon From 1920
KAPLAN in the period after the end of World War I , was concerned about the issue of free speech. Right now both in America and in Israel the matter of free speech is very much on people’s minds. With Israel at war should we allow ourselves the space to criticize the government in its […]
-
Kaplan’s Understanding of Naturalistic Prayer
Video of Dr. Mel Scult’s talk at West End Synagogue
-
Realism, Pluralism and Salvation – Reading Mordecai Kaplan in the 21st Century
An Invitation to Future Kaplanian Scholarship by Dr. Vered Sakal. For many years, most of the scholars who wrote about Kaplan were people who knew him personally. During the past few decades, however, more scholars are joining the conversation about Kaplan’s work…Being one of those “second generation” Kaplan scholars, I find this transition – from firsthand to secondhand knowledge – fascinating.
-
To Whom It May Concern: Mordecai Kaplan the Diarist
Soon the large canon of scholarship about Mordecai Kaplan will be expanded. Jenna Weissman Joselit, the Charles E. Smith Professor of Judaic Studies and Professor of History at George Washington University. She is currently at work on a biography of Mordecai M. Kaplan for the Jewish Lives series of Yale University Press. Our Kaplan Center […]
-
The True Spirit of Hanukkah
Mordecai Kaplan founded The Reconstructionist in 1935 to popularize his thought and to show its relevance to issues facing American Jews. Accordingly, each issue of the magazine opened with a series of editorials in which current events were analyzed from the standpoint of Reconstructionism. The editorial line was formulated collectively by the Editorial Board, which […]
