Kaplan, Mordecai Menahem

(1881–1983)

   US rabbi and founder of Reconstructionist movement. Kaplan became associated with Conservative Judaism after an Orthodox upbringing. His radical philosophy of Judaism, Reconstructionism, was presented in his book Judaism as a Civilization (1934). Kaplan saw God as an impersonal power, which did not reveal itself to man. There was no salvation after death, but (and here faith came into Kaplan’s outlook) salvation was possible in this world through improvement of men and the social order. There was an impersonal power in nature - God - aiding man in fulfilling this legitimate aspiration. Judaism was an ‘evolving religious civilization’. The word ‘civilization’ expressed Kaplan’s belief that it was the Jewish people and its needs that were central, and not any revealed message; the Jewish religion existed for the Jewish people, not the other way round. Kaplan’s philosophy took away the comfort provided by the belief in salvation after death, and the certainty inherent in a belief that God had given a clear message to the world. Kaplan had influence in US Reform circles but most of his followers were within the Conservative movement.

   The Reconstructionist movement published a Sabbath Prayer Book in 1945 which made no mention of a chosen people, revelation of the Torah to Moses, or a personal Messiah. A cherem (‘ban’, excommunication order) was issued against it by the Orthodox authorities and an adverse opinion by the Conservative leaders Louis GINZBERG and Alexander Marx. Kaplan supported the Zionist Movement but wanted Diaspora communities to go on existing side by side with the Jewish state.