Reinterpreted Civilization: Mordecai M. Kaplan and Judaism

Abstract

Mordecai M. Kaplan born in Lithuania in 1881. His family immigrated to the United States when he was a child, so completed his education there largely. Although Kaplan was attend some of the congregations of the American Orthodox Jewish sect occasionally, he grew up mostly in the Conservative community and worked as an educator in the institutions affiliated with this community for many years. Unlike the traditional definition, Kaplan's description of Judaism as a civilization and his idea of this civilization must be reinterpreted in every age constituted the core of his ideas. This basic presupposition shaped Kaplan's many ideas from Jewish identity to the idea of God, from Halaka to his ideas about Torah. Kaplan's association of Jewish identity with the civilization determined his positive attitude towards the modern State of Israel, likewise, in contrast to Rabbani Judaism's understanding of transcendental God, Kaplan believe in God as a force that provided salvation. Jewish heritage is the memory of civilization, but it must be reconstructed according to the current period and made meaningful to the people of that age. In this research, we will examine these ideas of Kaplan and then we will look at how these radical ideas turned into a sect called Recontructionist Judaism.