Judaism as a Civilization: Toward a Reconstruction of American – Jewish Life

By Kaplan, Mordecai
Jewish Publication Society, 1994, Paperback, ISBN: 0827605293, $33.95

Mordecai Kaplan is regarded as one of the 20th century's foremost philosophers and interpreters of Jewish thought.

He is the creator, and for generations, the guiding spirit, of the Reconstructionist philosophy of Judaism.

Through his writings and teachings, he has helped to mold the structure of many American Jewish institutions, providing the American Jewish consciousness with a new vocabulary and a series of challenging value concepts. There are countless institutions that we now take for granted which were created by Mordecai Kaplan, including the synagogue center and the Bat Mitzvah.

Judaism as a Civilization remains one of the most original and thought-provoking contributions toward creating a comprehensive program for creative Jewish life. In this seminal work, Kaplan offers his now famous concept of Judaism as an evolving religious civilization. For Judaism to survive and grow, Jews must continue to reconstruct their heritage in response to changes in social, political, and cultural conditions, producing new literature and liturgy, adding and eliminating customs and traditions. All Jews - traditional and liberal, religious and secular - can play a part in that reconstruction.

Judaism as a Civilization is indeed a Jewish classic, worthy of its place in the succession of classic texts that have made the rabbinic tradition a way of life for the Jewish people. From the publisher