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VER THE LAST 70 YEARS
the face of American Judaism
has slowly but surely been
changing in large part due to the influence
of a single great Jewish thinker and the
movement he created. ■ And yet, despite
the almost universal acceptance of many of
its tenets, Reconstructionism — Judaism's
fourth denomination — remains a mystery
to a majority of American Jews.
Although Reconstruction-
ism did not officially become
a denomination until the
late 1960s, it has existed as
a distinct ideology since
1934, when Mordecai M.
Kaplan published Judaism
as a Civilization: Toward a
Reconstruction of American
Jewish Life. In that land-
mark book Rabbi Kaplan,
an ordained Orthodox rabbi
who taught more than 50
years at the Conservative
movement's Jewish Theo-
logical Seminary, set forth
the basic principles that
have guided Reconstruc-
tionist thought ever since.
It was in Judaism as a
Civilization that Rabbi
Kaplan made his now-
famous definition of
Judaism as "the evolving
religious civilization of the
Jewish people." While this
hardly seems radical in
1991, in 1934 it was a
revolutionary approach to
Judaism.
"When Kaplan was
writing in the 1930s and
1940s, Judaism was thought
of very narrowly, in terms of
what you do in the syna-
gogue," explains Rabbi
Robert J. Gluck, executive
director of the Reconstruc-
tionist Rabbinical Associa-
tion in Philadelphia.
"Kaplan held that there was
more to it than that.
Judaism includes religious
expression, music, dance,
literature, foods, ethics —
it's a very rich culture.
"Kaplan really helped
spark the re-flowering of
Jewish culture with the idea
that the Jewish arts are an
aspect of Jewish culture
that is not only legitimate,
but as important as the
others."
Rabbi Kaplan was born in
Lithuania in 1881 and came
to America in 1889. After
graduating from the JTS
and earning a master's
degree from Columbia in
1902, he went on to an
associate position at New
York's Orthodox Kehilath
Jeshurun.
For many years Rabbi
Kaplan maintained a kind
of "dual citizenship," af-
filiated with both the Or-
thodox and Conservative
communities. Although he
had been ordained by
Russia's great Orthodox
Rabbi Isaac Reines, and
while he remained obser-
vant throughout his life, as
his beliefs and attitudes
about Judaism developed he
found himself unable to
preach and teach within the
framework of Orthodox
Judaism.
In 1910, Rabbi Kaplan left
Kehilath Jeshurun to
become a professor of
homiletics at the JTS rab-
binical school. Over the next
three decades, he began for-
mulating a vision of Juda-
ism that focused not on
God's covenant with the
Jews, but on the communal
obligations of Jews to each
other. In 1915 Rabbi
Kaplan, along with several
former members of Kehilath
Jeshurun, organized the
New York Jewish Center. It
was here that Rabbi Kaplan
first began experimenting
with his idea that Judaism
was more than just a
religion.
The Jewish Center pro-
vided facilities for worship,
study, drama, song, dance,
basketball, and calisthenics
— all of which, to Rabbi
Kaplan, were part of Jewish
life. The center was a great
success, but Rabbi Kaplan's
involvement with it ended
in 1922 when he found
himself no longer able to
work with the predomin-
antly Orthodox board.
Within a year, he and some
two dozen members of the
Jewish Center formed the
Society for the Advance-
ment of Judaism (SAJ),
where he remained as
leader until 1945.
In 1935 — one year after
the publication of Judaism
as a Civilization — Rabbi
Kaplan and some friends
began publishing the Recon-
structionist magazine. It was
through this magazine, and
through his continuing af-
filiation with JTS, that Rab-
bi Kaplan's ideas spread
throughout North American
Jewry.
Rabbi Kaplan never in-
tended to create a fourth
denomination; indeed, he
steadfastly resisted pressure
from his followers to
establish formal Reconstruc-
tionist institutions. Instead,
he perceived Reconstruc-
tionism as a state of mind,
or ideology, that would work
within and support the ex-
isting three denominations
rather than compete with
them.
With the exception of the
SAJ, the model for Recon-
structionist communities
was not the synagogue but
the havurah, or fellowship.
As the number of havurot
grew, and as some entire
congregations in addition to
the SAJ declared themselves
Reconstructionist, the need
for a more formal organiza-
tional structure became ap-
parent. In 1955, the Recon-
structionist Federation of
Congregations was created.
The leaders of the move-
ment, for the most part, still
resisted denominational-
ism; all congregations seek-
ing membership in the RFC
were required to remain af-
filiated with either the
Reform movement's Union
of American Hebrew Con-
gregations or the Conser-
vative movement's United
Synagogue.
In 1961 the RFC became
the Federation of Recon-
structionist Congregations
and Havurot, and the re-
quirement that members
belong to another movement
was dropped, signaling the
beginning of the move
toward denominationalism.
When, in the late 1960s,
Rabbi Kaplan retired from
JTS, the Reconstructionist
movement established its
own university, the Recon-
structionist Rabbinical Col-
lege. What was once a
"school of thought" had
finally incorporated itself
into Judaism's fourth
denomination.
The development of
Reconstructionism was not
without its disappointments
and controversies. Perhaps
the most dramatic was
when the Sabbath Prayer
Book, issued in 1945, was
denounced by Orthodox
Judaism for its omission of
all phrases referring to the
doctrine of "chosenness" or
to a personal, supernatural
God. At an emergency
meeting in June 1945, the
Union of Orthodox Rabbis
excommunicated Rabbi
Kaplan for "expressing
atheism, heresy and dis-
belief in the basic tenets of
Judaism" and burned a copy
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
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