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
/Talk?