Synopses & Reviews
Review
"Intelligently organized.... An excellent introduction to Reconstructionism."
Synopsis
Mordecai M. Kaplan was born in a small Lithuanian town on the outskirts of Vilna on a Friday evening in June of 1881. Kaplan was raised in a predominately Jewish atmosphere, which is shown by the fact that he knew his day of birth only by the Jewish calendar until he went to the New York Public Library as a young man to look up the corresponding date. His family was extremely traditional, and his father, Israel Kaplan, was a learned man.Kaplan's concept of Judaism as an evolving religious civilization was widely influential in 20th-century American Jewish life, and his founding of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College created a new denomination. This book contains a biographical essay and excerpts from all of his major works.
About the Author
EMANUEL S. GOLDSMITH is Associate Professor of Yiddish and Jewish Studies at Queens College, CUNY. MEL SCULT is Professor of Judaic Studies at Brooklyn College, CUNY and author of the forthcoming Mordecai M. Kaplan: Prophet of Renewal, 1881-1934.