What Is Judaism?

Mordecai M. Kaplan

1915

What is Judaism if not an ethical monotheism? The answer is that it is not an “ism” at all, despite the last syllable in its name. It is a living soul or consciousness; it is the soul or consciousness of the Jewish people. We are not interested in names, and we should not quibble about terms; it is reality that we are after. We want to know what is…

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Creator Bio

Mordecai M. Kaplan

1881–1983

Mordecai M. Kaplan, founder of the Reconstructionist branch of Judaism in the United States, was born in Lithuania and brought to America when he was nine years old. He studied at the Jewish Theological Seminary but was ordained privately in 1908 by Rabbi Isaac Jacob Reines and initially served Orthodox congregations in New York City. His radical views led him to break with Orthodoxy, and he created what became Reconstructionist Judaism, whose ideological foundation was the idea that Judaism was an all-embracing civilization and not just a religion in the conventional sense of the term. His conception of God was starkly naturalistic, rejecting the notion of a supernatural Being. Despite his views, he taught at the Jewish Theological Seminary from 1909 until his retirement in 1963.

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