Mordecai Kaplan

Mordecai M. Kaplan ( Mordecai M. Mordecai Menahem Kaplan =; born June 11, 1881 in Švenčioniai, Russian Empire, now Lithuania, † November 8, 1983 in New York) was a rabbi, philosopher and founder of the Jewish Reconstructionist in the USA.

Life

Mordecai Kaplan, who lived in the U.S. since 1889, grew up in an Orthodox setting, studied and later taught but in the conservative Jewish Theological Seminary in New York ( teaching there from 1909 to 1963 ).

Under the influence of cultural Zionism, founded and led from 1917 to 1922, the Cultural Center of New York united community and developed in the 1930s, the concept of Reconstructionism. 1934 appeared the related main plant Judaism as a Civilization; of 1935 he published the journal The Reconstructionist.

The Reconstructionist should the disadvantages of Reform, Conservative and Orthodox Judaism eliminate and combine their advantages into a new, precisely reconstructed Judaism. Kaplan saw Judaism as an independent religious culture, although the origin owe from the religion, but within a constantly changing world must remain capable of renewal through continuous reinterpretation, ie reconstruction of their religious sources. The transcendental elements of the Jewish religion would have to radically brought into the world and be changed in an inner-worldly belief in progress ( Judaism without supernaturalism ).

That this ideology reflective prayer book Sabbath Prayer Book was occupied by the orthodoxy with a spell, and also chaplain trailer, such as the conservative rabbi and philosopher Milton Steinberg or the existentialist philosopher Will Herberg have Kaplan's evolutionism eventually rejected.

With its numerous approaches to the renewal of the Jewish religion of Reconstructionism was actually the fourth direction within Judaism. While this direction is rejected by representatives of the Jewish orthodoxy, some rekonstruktionistische communities are represented in the World Union for Progressive Judaism.

Works (selection)

  • Judaism as a Civilization, 1934
  • The Meaning of God in Modern Jewish Religion, 1937
  • The Future of the American Jew, 1948
  • Judaism without supernaturalism, 1958

Sources / Bibliography (selection )

  • Festschrift for the 70th birthday, ed. from the Jewish Theological Seminary, 1953
  • Encyclopedia of Judaism, etc. Gütersloh 1971
  • Julius H. Schoeps (ed.), New Dictionary of Judaism, Gütersloh / Munich 1992
  • Rabbi (United States)
  • Person ( Švenčioniai )
  • Born in 1881
  • Died in 1983
  • Man
  • University teachers ( Jewish Theological Seminary )
  • Person of Judaism (Lithuania )
Jewish Theological Seminary of America Existentialism Unilineal evolution Integrated Authority File
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