Throughout America’s Progressive Era (1890-1920), an influx of Jewish immigrants, bust-and-boom economics, and urbanization allowed Judaism to grow. As a result, different denominations began to take root and form. Mordecai Kaplan, best known as the “father of Reconstructionist Judaism,” set out to redefine Orthodox Judaism and start one of these denominations. Often, religion is viewed as a barrier to social change; as shown by Reconstructionist Judaism’s use of activism and ethics, however, religion can also convey progress.
Born in Lithuania in 1881, Kaplan immigrated to the United States at the age of eight. He grew up in an Orthodox Jewish community and, early in his religious career, he chose to follow the rules, expectations, and norms of strict Jewish law. The leader of various Orthodox movements, Kaplan actually didn’t question the exclusivity of Orthodox Jewish practices until age twenty. Then, after reconsidering the role of antisemitism, sexism, and racism in twentieth-century America, Kaplan shed an Orthodox life in favor of a rebellious one. In the diaries he kept from the early to mid-twentieth century, he began asking of Judaism: “What does it imply? How does it apply?” Thus, his questioning of one of the oldest monotheistic religions had officially begun.
Soon, Kaplan sought to define American Judaism’s new, fourth sect as an ever-evolving religion. Like evolution, Kaplan theorized, Reconstructionist Judaism never stopped changing, growing, and adapting to the environment of the modern world. He rejected supernaturalism, embraced “an ethical nationhood,” and adopted the idea of a simultaneously spiritual and natural world. Judaism, he argued, shouldn’t be disentangled from the challenges of everyday life. With Kaplan, Jewish women began to reach more prominent footholds in the Jewish community. Furthermore, Kaplan concluded that American Jews shouldn’t have to choose between their American and Jewish identities. As his new denomination took root, Kaplan published the Sabbath Prayerbook, Judaism as a Civilization (1934), The Meaning of God in Jewish Religion (1937), The Reconstructionist, and more.
Much of Kaplan’s work was met with backlash; the Orthodox community excommunicated him and burned his books, society condemned him, and the new sect struggled to reconcile with the horrors of World War II. Despite setbacks, however, Reconstructionist Judaism survived. Today, synagogues across America still practice Kaplan’s teachings. Congregation Bet Haverim, located in Atlanta, Georgia, continues Kaplan’s legacy of religion as activism. The congregation, founded to provide a space for LGBTQIA+ Jews, upholds inclusivity as a central value. In Congregation Bet Haverim’s siddur (prayer-book), for example, certain prayers are rewritten to include the feminism of many of the Jewish women in the Torah. As shown by Reconstructionist Judaism, activism and religion can go hand-in-hand.
Comments