RECONSTRUCTIONISM in AMERICAN JEWISH LIFE by CHARLES S

RECONSTRUCTIONISM IN AMERICAN JEWISH LIFE by CHARLES S. LIEBMAN NATURE OF RECONSTRUCTIONISM • ITS HISTORY AND INSTITUTIONS • ITS CONSTITUENCY • AS IDEOLOGY OF AMERICAN JUDAISM • FOLK AND ELITE RELIGION IN AMERICAN JUDAISM INTRODUCTION JLHE RECONSTRUCTIONIST MOVEMENT deserves more serious and systematic study than it has been given. It has recently laid claim to the status of denomination, the fourth in American Judaism, along with Orthodoxy, Conservatism, and Reform. Its founder, Mordecai M. Kaplan, probably is the most creative Jewish thinker to concern himself with a program for American Judaism. He is one of the few intellectuals in Jewish life who have given serious consideration to Jewish tradition, American philosophical thought, and the experiences of the American Jew, and confronted each with the other. Reconstructionism is the only religious party in Jewish life whose origins are entirely American and whose leading personalities view Judaism from the perspective of the exclusively American Jewish experience. The Reconstructionist has been Note. This study would not have been possible without the cooperation of many Reconstructionists, friends of Reconstructionism, and former Reconstructionists. All consented to lengthy interviews, and I am most grateful to them. I am espe- cially indebted to Rabbi Ira Eisenstein, president of the Reconstructionist Founda- tion, who consented to seven interviews and innumerable telephone conversations, supplied me with all the information and material I requested, tolerated me through the many additional hours I spent searching for material in his office, and responded critically to an earlier version of this study. Rabbi Jack Cohen read the same version. He, too, pointed to several statements which, in his view, were unfair to Reconstructionism. Finally, I am grateful to Dr. Mordecai M. Kaplan for granting me a number of interviews. 4 / AMERICAN JEWISH YEAR BOOK, 1970 published since 1935. There are very few serious writers in American Jewish life outside the Orthodox camp who have not at some time con- tributed to the magazine. Through its symposia, lectures, and discussion groups, Reconstructionism has provided one of the few platforms bring- ing together Jewish personalities of Conservative, Reform, Zionist, and secular Jewish orientations. In 1968 the Reconstructionist movement opened a rabbinical training school, the most ambitious non-Orthodox effort of its kind since Rabbi Stephen S. Wise founded the Jewish Insti- tute of Religion in 1922. The significance of Reconstructionism and the importance of studying the movement extend beyond its accomplishments. This article will suggest that an understanding of Reconstructionism is basic to an understanding of American Judaism for three reasons: (1) Reconstructionism is really a second-generation American Jewish phenomenon. It made its appearance during the 1920's and 1930's, when many children of East European immigrants were fleeing from Judaism. Little that was new, exciting, or creative, was taking place in the Jewish community. Reconstructionism was the exception. Besides, Kaplan and his early followers were honest, self-conscious, and articulate about the condition of American Judaism. The literature of Reconstruc- tionism opens the door to an understanding of American Judaism in that period. (2) Understanding Kaplan's special role in the Jewish Theological Seminary and the Conservative rabbinate illuminates the conditions prevailing in the Conservative movement roughly between 1920 and 1950. In this period Reconstructionism attracted a significant proportion of the most talented and idealistic students at the Jewish Theological Seminary, who now constitute an important segment of Jewish leadership in America. Perhaps Reconstructionism was only a stage through which they passed, but it was important in their lives. One cannot understand them unless one understands Kaplan's special appeal for them. (3) An understanding of the sociological problematics of Recon- structionism leads us to the core problematic of American Judaism— the nature of Jewish identity. We will suggest that the attitudes of most American Jews are closer to Reconstructionism than to Orthodoxy, Conservatism, or Reform, and that Reconstructionism comes closer than any other movement or school of thought to articulating the meaning of Judaism for American Jews. This raises the question why Recon- structionism today is numerically and institutionally insignificant. Its RECONSTRUCTIONISM IN AMERICAN JEWISH LIFE / 5 core institution, the Reconstructionist Foundation, commands the sup- port of fewer individuals than does any one of a dozen hasidic rebbes. There are a number of synagogues in the United States each of which has a larger paid membership than the Reconstructionist Foundation. The annual dinner of a fair-sized elementary yeshivah attracts a larger crowd than the annual Reconstructionist dinner. The disparity between the acceptance of Reconstructionist ideas and the failure of the organized movement is striking. Exploring the reasons for this disparity helps shed light on the nature of American Judaism, and on the relationship between the ideologies and institutions of American Jews. Limitation of space does not permit a thorough analysis of Recon- structionism. Here we will briefly review its history and major ideas. A more specialized social and intellectual history remains to be written, one that will trace the impact of pragmatism, positivism, and Marxism on Jewish intellectuals, and the intellectuals' responses, in the first decades of this century. Such a history would help us to understand American Orthodoxy in that period, as well as the evolution of Con- servatism, Reform, Zionism, Jewish education, and the Jewish community center. Neither does this article touch on the organized Jewish community's reaction to a new movement, its receptivity or lack of receptivity to Reconstructionist attempts to gain recognition and acceptance within the institutional framework of American Judaism. Reconstructionism might also be considered, within the categories of religious sociology, as the germination and growth of a religious movement, with the attendant problems of relationship to a mother church, leadership and succession, routinization of charisma, and deviance. This essay is divided into five parts. The first three deal with ideology and programs, institutions, and constituency. The last two, "Reconstruc- tionism as the Ideology of American Judaism" and "Folk and Elite Religion in American Judaism," attempting to view American Judaism from a new perspective, present evidence for Reconstructionism's ideo- logical success, and seek to explain its institutional failure—i.e., to show why, when so many American Jews are reconstructionists, so few are Reconstructionists. The first three sections are helpful for understanding the last two. 6 / AMERICAN JEWISH YEAR BOOK, 1970 THE NATURE OF RE CON STRU CT ION IS M Ideology, Beliefs, and Definitions Among themselves, Reconstructionists are not in complete agreement on matters of ideology and belief. All do agree that Mordecai Kaplan is the founder of Reconstructionism and that his writings provide the major outline of the Reconstructionist ideology and program. Our discussion will center around the ideas of Kaplan.1 Kaplan's critics have accused him of being a sociologist rather than a theologian, but he accepts that accusation with pride. According to Kaplan, religion is a social phenomenon, and an understanding of Judaism must begin with an understanding of the Jewish people. He lays heavy stress on the definition of terms. Following John Dewey, he defines an idea or concept, or even an institution, by its function, by its affect and effect. The core of Kaplan's ideology is his definition of Judaism as a civilization whose standards of action are established by the Jewish people. This definition was a reaction to classical Reform Judaism, which had perceived Judaism as a set of beliefs about God and His relationship to the Jews; and to Orthodoxy, which defined Judaism by a set of laws and practices over which the living community exercised little control. To Kaplan, Judaism is a civilization that has evolved through different stages, whose common denominator is neither belief, nor tenet, nor 1 The material presented in this section draws on the voluminous writings of Kaplan, with less reliance on personal interviews. The most significant of his books are Judaism as a Civilization: Toward a Reconstruction of American Jew- ish Life (New York: Macmillan, 1934; republished by Schocken, 1967); The Meaning of God in Modern Jewish Religion (New York: Behrman, 1937; republished by the Reconstructionist Press, 1962); The Future of the American Jew (New York: Macmillan, 1948; republished by the Reconstructionist Press, 1967) and The Greater Judaism in the Making (New York: Reconstructionist Press, 1960). For special aspects of Kaplan's thought, A New Zionism (New York: Herzl Press, 1955) and Judaism Without Supernaturalism (New York: Recon- structionist Press, 1958) are also important. The latter is a collection of previously published essays, many of which are included in the books cited above. The most important sympathetic evaluation of Kaplan is Mordecai M. Kaplan: An Evaluation, edited by Ira Eisenstein and Eugene Kohn (New York: Jewish Reconstructionist Foundation, 1952), which contains an essay in intellectual auto- biographical style by Kaplan. Kaplan's life and thought are also reviewed in

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