Mordecai Kaplan

Rabbi Mordechai menahem Kaplan (1881- 1983) was ordained as a rabbi at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America (JTS) in 1902. He began his career as an Orthodox rabbi at Kehillath Jeshrun in New York. He helped to create the Young Israel movement with Rabbi Israel Friedlander.

In 1909 Kaplan joined the staff at JTS, where he had his greatest impact by teaching JTS students over a 50 year period. His central idea of understanding Judaism as a religious civilization was accepted within Conservative Judaism, but his naturalistic conception of God was not as accepted. His naturalistic conception of God and rejection of the concept of Israel as a Chosen People led to him being excommunicated by the Orthodox. In 1968 his followers induced him to formally leave Conservative Judaism, and set up the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College (RRC) in which his philosophy would be promoted as a separate religious denomination.

RRC homepage http://www.rrc.edu/

http://learn.jtsa.edu/topics/reading/bookexc/gillman_conservativej/chap5/part3.shtml

http://learn.jtsa.edu/topics/reading/bookexc/gillman_conservativej/chap5/part4.shtml

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