I really enjoyed a new biography of Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan (1881-1983) – the founder of Reconstructionism, bete-noir of American Orthodoxy, and the only person to have been formally put in Herem in North America. The author is Jenna Weissman Joselit, who has written several very readable books about the history, sociology and anthropology of American Jews.

Reconstructionism was Kaplan’s personal vision – or visions. Throughout his career (he lived to be 102!) he frequently changed and adapted his thoughts. He was notoriously difficult to pin down on what he believed, and on what he wanted others to believe. As a philosopher/theologian by nature, his ideas were also difficult for the average ‘Jew in the pew’ to understand; there were constant complaints that his speeches and sermons were difficult to understand. But – he was driven by his conviction that Judaism and Jewishness needed to be revitalized, ’reconstructed’ and redefined to meet the needs of twentieth-century American Jews. He saw, with great clarity, that Judaism as it was presented to the American Jewish masses failed to command their allegiance, and in general – bored them stiff!

His career started in Orthodoxy – he held several Orthodox semichot, and his first job was at Manhattan’s Kehilath Jeshurun. For decades, he held a professorship at JTS. Kaplan was not an easy personality, and his time at JTS was one of unending tensions with its leadership and with his fellow-faculty – especially Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel. His theology (he was a self-avowed, intense, theologian) was suspect and ill-defined. He did not believe in an objective Divine being; but couldn’t quite clearly explain in what he did believe. His main thrusts were to try and get his beloved Jews to THINK; and to inspire them with something called ‘Jewish

Peoplehood’. Framing vehicles for ‘Jewish Peoplehood’ occupied him for decades – was it the synagogue? The JCC? The University? A group within the Zionist movement? None of his ideas, unfortunately, worked – even his congregation, the ‘Society for the Advancement of Judaism’ (the SAJ) never really took off. His attempts at liturgical reform – his Haggadah, and even more so, his ‘Siddur’, not only failed but brought unforeseen controversy (the Herem).

But he never gave up. Until well into his eighties, he spoke, he wrote, he campaigned, he invented, he proposed. He felt that that every human endeavor and activity could be brought within the ambit of Jewish existence – ‘Judaism as a Civilization’. He recorded his travails and frustrations in over one hundred ledger-size volumes of diaries and journals, ably mined by Prof. Joselit.

So – does he have any real heirs?

In many ways – but not, repeat not, theologically – the modus operandi of Chabad embodies many of Kaplan’s strategies.

Kaplan considered legitimate every program that would bring ‘bodies’ into Jewish centers. So does Chabad.

He considered halachah flexible – sometimes very flexible! But every Chabad I know has an open car park on Shabbat morning. Some (not all) seem to have ‘two-tier’ halachic practices – one level for the Chabadniks themselves, another for their attendees (kashrut, shabbat, tznius – even acceptance of interfaith couples and their offspring). Like Kaplan, Chabad hates the idea of Jewish religious denominations. What programs attract people into Chabad-style ‘Judaism as a Civilisation’? Within a few miles radius of where I live, we have cookery, Israeli dancing, self-defence, BBQ-ing (the shul team competes, successfully, at non-Jewish BBQ contests) axe-throwing, film clubs, book clubs, politics, golden-age clubs, mum-and-tot circles, cigar circles, whiskey connoisseurship, golf, entrepeneurship…. plus plus plus. Many of these are, of course, praiseworthy. Some (axe-throwing?) less obviously so. All are trying to create large, community-based circles of affinity-connected Jews.

But Chabad also supplies one component which was always identified as missing from overly-cerebral Reconstructionism – warmth! Which is probably why there are currently over 1,000 Chabad centers in the USA (plus 200-300 campus centers) – and maybe 100 Reconstructionist synagogues and groups.

As I said, I am not a Reconstructionist (nor a Chabadnik). But Kaplan’s unceasing drive to reach Jews and bring them into the orbit of Jewish community (‘Peoplehood’, if you must) can only be admired. Professor Josselit’s short book is an illuminating portrait of an outstanding, creative mind. It is a great read!

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)