l^l, Kaplan was especially inspiring in his course on Seminary if you did not have Rabbi Kaplan on your fAidrash. ' 'What does the text imply? How does it faculty." Rabbi Finkelstein asked him, "Do you apply?" he would ask. Thus, he introduced us to his observe ShabbatV' The man answered,' 'Of course not. functional method of interpretation which he used to How could I ?" " Do you observe Kashrut? "The man to I*reconstruc t traditional concepts. He would support his replied, "That is impossible. I have to entertain my saidl' ideas with references to Whitehead, Freud, Niebuhr, customers and take them to whatever restaurants I can Durkheim, Ahad Haam, Krochmal, Luzzatto, 't I find." "Do you pray every day?" "How can you ask Maimonides. Frequently we would be required to read such a question! I'm a very busy man and I have to get I and write an essay or term paper on one of these to my office as early as possible.'' Rabbi Finkelstein said thinkers, and woe betide the slacker who delayed! to him, "Is it not strange that a person who violates the Sabbath, the dietary laws, and does not pray, dares to On the title-page of Judaism As A Civilization, Kaplan criticize and complain of a meticulously observant )Js r, quotes a fAidrash on Psalms which he interprets to Jew?'' The man said "It is not strange at all. I am a c imply that God will transform the people of Israel Republican. I believe in high tariffs. However, when I JI "into a new being." On the occasion of his centennial, go abroad I would be a fool to pay any customs duties j we, his students, join with Jews everywhere in saluting that I could escape.'' the seminal thinker who has contributed so much to the !' spiritual rebirth of our people. Rabbi Finkelstein said that he believes that Rabbi Kaplan's social inventions like the Jewish Center will be permanent assets of the Jewish community. He added i My colleague mordecai kaplan that he thought Rabbi Kaplan made a great contribution in bringing women into Jewish pedagogy. j Louis Finkelstein, in conversation with Rabbi Finkelstein added that he believed Rabbi 1 Linda Shulsky Kaplan's great interest in ethics derived from Rabbi I Kaplan's father who was a Musarnik. Recently Rabbi I Finkelstein visited Rabbi Kaplan, who spoke a great , Rabbi Finkelstein, who headed the Jewish Theological deal on this occasion about his father, and himself Seminary of America from 1940 to 1972, began the suggested that he derived his interest in religious ethics interview with an expression of great admiration for from the example of his father. Professor Kaplan's achievements. He remarked that ij Professor Kaplan's popularity among the students was j due not only to his great distinction as a teacher, (for j the other members of the faculty were also great Kaplan, a teacher for our generation | teachers), Professor Kaplan however, was unique in the j fact that he was a practicing rabbi who understood the Richard Hirsh i problems of the American Conservative rabbi. I have never met Mordecai Kaplan; I have had neither : Rabbi Finkelstein and Rabbi Kaplan first met and the opportunity to study with him or to hear him became friends in 1911. Rabbi Kaplan was Rabbi preach; yet of all thinkers who have addressed the i Finkelstein's teacher and the relationship was always critical issues facing the Jewish people in the modern that of teacher and pupil. However, Rabbi Finkelstein era, none has had a greater influence on me than this said that he could not accept Professor Kaplan's man whom I know only through his writings. I was a philosophy of Judaism because Rabbi Finkelstein still senior in college when I first read Kaplan's magnum • adheres to the Thirteen Articles of Faith formulated by opus Judaism as a Civilization. Although by then some -Maimonides, but Professor Kaplan does not. However, forty years old, this book spoke to the very issues with "Rabbi Finkelstein added that the discovery of a new which I was struggling as I contemplated the rabbinate j philosophy is a great event even if you do not accept it. as a career. I found Kaplan's analyses insightful and his In Rabbi Finkelstein's opinion, Dr. Kaplan helped program inspiring, and I recognized in his work the keep many Jews loyal to Jewish practice, and that of boldest attempt to meet the challenges facing the course is of the utmost importance. Rabbi Finkelstein Jewish people. I eagerly worked my way through said that when he first met Rabbi Kaplan, the latter was Kaplan's other writings, finding his continued meticulously observant of Jewish practice. In this determination to rethink his ideas to be evidence of an connection Rabbi Finkelstein told an anecdote. He was open-ended methodology. In the years since I first read once riding in the subway many years ago, when a man Kaplan, having reread his work and having taught his tat down next to him and said, "I would support your ideas, I am more critical of many of his assumptions,