Rabi Mordecai Kaplan and the Genesis of Reconstructionism

Professor Amy Shevitz 12/13/2010 RS 378 Final Project Rabbi Mordecai Menachem Kaplan: Life and Ideology Mordecai Menachem Kaplan, sometimes referred to as the prophet of Jewish re revolutionaryal, spent his lifetime probing for ways to help the modern Jew relate meaningfully to the Jewish tradition. His different standpoint regarding Judaism and his exit to modernize Judaic practices, to adapt them to contemporary times, led Rabbi Kaplan to foster the Reconstructionist theology of Judaism. The boastful rabbi was a productive diarist, teacher, and published several books regarding his philosophy. His undertaking to revolutionize Judaism influenced generations of Jews until today. The digest of his religious philosophy on Jewish religious matters will help us describe the doctrine that Kaplan initiated that is still period and prevalently influential. Mordecai Kaplan was born in Lithuania in 1881 in a meek town called Svencionys. He received a Jewish Orthodox education in Vilnius until the age of eight when his family fled for atomic number 63 and then to the United States. As a young adolescent living on the Lower East Side of overbold York, Kaplan resumed his studies of traditional Judaism.

However as time went on, the young Mordecai could not prevent his need to voice his disenchantment about the Orthodox view and gradually became interested to a more liberal approach to Judaism. He graduated from New York City College and was official rabbi by the Jewish Theological Seminary from the Conservative Branch of Judaism. He went on with his formal studies by obtaining a Masters Degree from Columbia University. He then served as an accord rabbi of Kehillat Jeshurun in an Orthodox synagogue in New York. passim his career as a rabbi, Kaplan was very influenced by the new of wave of sociology and recent development of science. Rabbi Kaplan quickly observed the development gap between Orthodoxy and the modern Jew in America. He understood, unyielding before his... If you want to get a full essay, erect it on our website: Ordercustompaper.com

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