Judaism As a Civilization

by Kaplan, Mordecai

• ISBN13: 9780827609181
• ISBN10: 0827609183
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2010-02-15
• Publisher: Jewish Pubn Society

Summary

Widely considered the genesis of the Reconstructionist Movement, Kaplan's Judaism as a Civilization represents a watershed moment in modern Judaism.

Author Biography

Mordecai Kaplan was born in Lithuania and immigrated with his family to the United States in 1889. He was ordained at the Jewish Theological Seminary (JTS) and received a master's degree from Columbia University. He first served as an associate rabbi of Kehillath Jeshurun, an Orthodox synagogue in New York, and later joined the faculty of JTS. Kaplan continued teaching and writing until his death in 1983, at the age of 102. Mel Scult, professor emeritus of Judaic studies at Brooklyn College, is the author of Judaism Faces the Twentieth Century: A Biography of Mordecai Kaplan and the editor of Communings of the Spirit: The Journals of Mordecai M. Kaplan, Volume l 1913-1934.

Table of Contents

Introduction to Judaism as a Civilization at 75	p. i
Kaplan's Judaism at Sixty: A Reappraisal	p. xi
Preface to the 1967 Edition	p. xxv
Preface to the 1957 Edition	p. xxvii
Preface to the 1934 Edition	p. xxix
Introduction to the 1981 Edition	p. xxxiii
Introductory
The Present Crisis in Judaism	p. 3
The Factors in the Crisis
The Factors of Disintegration
The Modern Political Order	p. 19
The Modern Economic Order	p. 28
The Modern Ideology	p. 36
The Factors of Conservation
Inherent Factor of Conservation	p. 47
Environmental Factors of Conservation	p. 70
The Decisive Factor
Needed: A Program of Reconstruction	p. 80
The Current Versions of Judaism
The Reformist Version of Judaism	p. 91
Critique of the Reformist Version of Judaism	p. 108
Conservative Judaism (Right Wing of Reformism)	p. 126
The Neo-Orthodox Version of Judaism	p. 133
Critique of Neo-Orthodoxy	p. 151
Conservative Judaism (Left Wing of Neo-Orthodoxy)	p. 160
The Proposed Version of Judaism
Judaism as a Civilization	p. 173
Constituent Elements of Judaism as a Civilization	p. 186
Implications of the Proposed Version of Judaism	p. 209
Israel. The Status and Organization of Jewry
The Nationhood of Israel	p. 227
Nationalism as a Cultural Concept	p. 242
Cultural Nationalism as the Call of the Spirit	p. 253
The Land of Israel	p. 264
Jewish Communal Organization	p. 280
God. The Development of the Jewish Religion
Introductory. The Need for Reorientation to the Problem of Religion	p. 303
The Place of Religion in Jewish Life	p. 311
The Folk Aspect of the Jewish Religion	p. 332
The Past Stages of the Jewish Religion	p. 350
The Functional Method of Interpretation	p. 385
Torah. Judaism as a Way of Life for the American Jew
Introductory. Torah as a Way of Life	p. 409
Jewish Milieu	p. 416
Jewish Folkways	p. 431
Jewish Ethics	p. 460
The Meaning of Jewish Education in America	p. 479
Conclusion
Creative Judaism-A Program	p. 511
Notes	p. 523
Index	p. 555
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