Mordecai M. Kaplan

Based on the original edition first published in 1934, Judaism as a Civilization: Toward a Reconstruction of American-Jewish Life is a work on Judaism and American Jewish life by Rabbi Mordecai M. Kaplan, the founder of Reconstructionist Judaism. The book is Kaplan's most notable work and has influenced a number of American Jewish thinkers. Kaplan's work centers around the concept that Judaism ought not to be defined as the religion of the Jews, but the sum of Jewish religion, culture, language, literature and social organization.

Throughout history, Judaism has been under attack by other religions, attacks which strengthened the identification of the group as a whole. Modern challenges, however, are coming from different directions, and are producing different results. Jewish identification is declining at the same time as more and more Jewish groups to identify with are rising. Rather than being a disaster, Kaplan argues that the multiplicity of threads in Jewish life today represents the process of a radical transformation “nothing less than metamorphosis”. It is in this way that Judaism is creating its own future, the greater Judaism in the making.

“... This classic work is widely considered the genesis of the Reconstructionist Movement, and remains one of the most original and stimulating contributions to modern Jewish thought.”- International Journal of Jewish Education ResearchJudaism as a Civilization is widely considered the genesis of the Reconstructionist Movement, representing a watershed moment in modern Judaism. In this classic book, Mordecai Kaplan introduced a new way of looking at Judaism: as an evolving religious civilization. His approach required innovation in liturgy and ritual, elimination of obsolete customs, and adjustment in light of prevailing social, political, and cultural conditions. Kaplan felt that all Jews-traditional and liberal, religious and secular-could play a part in this; “reconstruction.”; Judaism as a Civilization, first published in 1934, remains one of the most original and thought-provoking contributions to modern Jewish thought.

This text provides selections from the diary of Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan, founder of Reconstructionism in America. It has been edited by Mel Scult, a professor of Judaic studies and history, whose previous work includes ""The American Judaism of Mordecai Kaplan"" and ""Judaism Faces the Twentieth Century: A Biography of Mordecai Kaplan"". The selections contained in this particular volume cover Mordecai Kaplan's writings between the years 1913 and 1934.

The classic text that focuses on the talmudic perspective of the Jewish path to holiness. Bilingual edition (Hebrew and English).

In this book, Kaplan enlarges on his notion of functional reinterpretation and then actually applies it to the entire ritual cycle of the Jewish year-a rarity in modern Jewish thought. This work continues to function as a central text for the Reconstructionist movement, whose influence continues to grow in American Jewry.