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back when i was converting under an orthodox rabbi, i used to think of Reconstructionist Judaism as Reform 2: The Sequel. Many years later, I have come to tell you that this could not be further from the truth! (a thread)
In the first place, Reconstructionist Judaism started as an offshoot of the Conservative movement, not Reform.
It began when Mordecai Kaplan (1881–1983) began speaking with his son-in-law Rabbi Ira Eisenstein (1906-2001), to develop the concept of Jewish life as being rooted in change rather than fixity
Eisenstein and Kaplan would work closely over the coming years, but Kaplan's ideas subsequently became center stage in the development of a new approach to Jewish life: Judaism as Civilization
Kaplan was a BADASS who built the Reconstructionist movement from the ground. Every other Jewish movement up until now had been created out of these vast political and economic forces, with no clear authority or figurehead
to break off from those movements with such a clear vision of the future, and to spend the rest of his life creating that future, is Kaplan's unique place in Jewish history
that's kind of a cult of personality take. obviously he had others he corresponded with and who influenced him. Kaplan doesn't stand alone in his contributions to Reconstructionist Judaism, but his place in its history cannot be denied
In 1922, Kaplan and some followers founded the Society for the Advancement of Judaism (SAJ), a progressive wing of Jewish intellectual leadership to develop new ideas about Jewish life. Kaplan was the president of SAJ until 1945, when Eisenstein took over
In 1935, Kaplan published Judaism as Civilization: Towards a Reconstruction of American Jewish Life, which is regarded by many, including Kaplan, as the beginning of the Reconstructionist movement.
This text argued, among other things, that the material conditions of modernity required drastic changes in the organization of Jewish life, both internally and in how it relates to the rest of the world.
In the early chapters, Kaplan argues that the decline in the belief in G?D as a force of soteriology, a saving force, has shaken the Jewish community to its core. This belief was the cause of previous Jewish unity, and its absence has left the world population of Jews in crisis.
Kaplan also argued that economic, social, and political factors play into the dissolution of Jewish life.
For example, the emancipation of the Jews in France by Napoleon Bonaparte on September 28, 1791, which set off a series of emancipations across Europe, dissolved the Jewish ghetto and the separate institutions of Jewish law and practice.
The resulting freedoms allowed Jews to integrate more fully into so-called secular society, and Jewish identity was seen as a hindrance to this process.
Economic factors such as poverty and class dynamics also affect Jewish identity. For example, a working class Jew who is working 40 or more hours a week, including on Fridays and Saturday, may get very little out of traditional Jewish life offered by mainstream Jewish movements.
“the economic life requires Jews to cooperate with non-Jews to an immeasurably larger extent than was formerly the case, and in the course of this cooperation the Jews inevitably assimilate the customs and manners of non-Jews.” (Judaism as Civilization p. 29)
Kaplan had a rigorous and interesting analysis of capitalism, which is among the most compelling of his contributions that I have learned about!
“Accumulation becomes a good in itself, and the struggle to accumulate increasingly gives men the sense of satisfaction and fulfillment that they formerly found in other ways of life. [...]
The few Jewish institutions, like the synagogue, that are still active, are sustained exclusively by men engaged in this acquisitive process; namely, the middle-class capitalists and the professionals. [...]
But even among these the struggle for economic power is the primary concern of their lives, and all Jewish spiritual interests are totally neglected. [...]
Thus, among the more favored members of society, economic interests have eclipsed all others, and have in large measure become ends in themselves.” (p. 30)
He further argued that the alienation of capitalism for the working class became spiritual and community alienation: “At the present time, those who hold to the traditions or have achieved some reinterpretation of them, belong almost wholly to the middle class. [...]
Since the mass of industrial workers are preoccupied with measures of self-protection against the forces of capitalism, [...]
the only ones who have been able to turn their thoughts to the perpetuation of Jewish life are those who have escaped from the more relentless phases of the economic struggle. [...]
