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Concept
Mordecai Kaplan
Summary
Mordecai Menahem Kaplan (June 11, 1881 – November 8, 1983) was a Lithuanian-born American rabbi, writer, Jewish educator, professor, theologian, philosopher, activist, and religious leader who founded the Reconstructionist branch of Judaism along with his son-in-law Ira Eisenstein. He has been described as a "towering figure" in the recent history of Judaism for his influential work in adapting it to modern society, contending that Judaism should be a unifying and creative force by stressing the cultural and historical character of the religion as well as theological doctrine.
Mordecai Menahem Kaplan was born Mottel Kaplan in Sventiany in the Russian Empire (present-day Švenčionys in Lithuania) on June 11, 1881, the son of Haya (née Anna) and Rabbi Israel Kaplan. His father, ordained by the leading Lithuanian Jewish luminaries, went to serve as a dayan in the court of Chief Rabbi Jacob Joseph in New York City in 1888. Mordecai was brought over to New York in 1889, at the age of nine.
Although affiliated with the most traditional Orthodox institutions and personalities in the Lower East Side, his father persisted in non-conformist openness to trends he had already exhibited in Russia: he hosted discussions in his home with maverick bible critic, Arnold Ehrlich, withdrew his son from the Etz Chaim yeshiva, enrolled him in public school, and later sent him to JTS to pursue studies to become a modern Orthodox rabbi. Although not the norm amongst first generation immigrants, who tended to be very conservative and traditional, his father was not alone in this kind of religious broad-mindedness. Kaplan's early education was strictly Orthodox, but by the time he reached secondary school, he had been attracted to heterodox opinions, particularly regarding the critical approach to the Bible. To counter this, his father hired a tutor to study Maimonides's Guide for the Perplexed with Mordecai.
In 1893, Kaplan began studying for ordination at the Jewish Theological Seminary (JTS), which at that time was Modern Orthodox institution founded to strengthen Orthodoxy and combat the hegemony of the Reform movement.
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