Rabbi Andrew Jacobs

I just returned from the first gathering of Beit Kaplan: The Rabbinic Partnership for Jewish Peoplehood, a new and growing network of about 100 rabbis committed to Zionism, advancing the teachings of Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan, and sharing the true essence of Reconstructionist Judaism.

As RSBI celebrates its Jubilee Year—our 50th anniversary—it’s the perfect time to reflect on Kaplan’s lessons. Ramat Shalom was founded as a Reconstructionist congregation. Today, we are a blended, post-denominational community, embracing the strengths of both Reconstructionist and Conservative Judaism. Kaplan would have welcomed this. Though his theology led to the establishment of the Reconstructionist movement, he was ordained as a Conservative rabbi by the Jewish Theological Seminary (JTS) in 1902, where he taught for over fifty years and served as principal and dean of its Teachers’ Institute. His teachings transformed American Judaism, earning him a reputation as an insightful, innovative—and at times controversial—rabbi.

At the Beit Kaplan gathering, we reflected on how many of Kaplan’s lessons remain relevant today. Decades ago, he warned that “a cynical contempt for truth prevails among us”—a mindset that undermines any effort to cultivate “ethical personality and decent social relations” in society. In his 1934 classic, Judaism as a Civilization, he wrote:

Today, whether about Israel, Judaism, or so many other pressing issues, too many people lack the knowledge needed to form truly informed opinions. Many Jews do not engage deeply with our traditions, values, and teachings. They rely on secondhand narratives and draw flawed conclusions about critical matters affecting Judaism, our country, Israel, and the world. Kaplan would argue that this failure to learn and transmit truth is weakening the Jewish people – and I think many of us agree.

Kaplan was a passionate Zionist. He believed Judaism could only thrive with its own homeland—a source of inspiration for Jewish communities worldwide. Though he spent many years at JTS, Israel was also his home. His life and legacy offer guidance for confronting the anti-Zionism plaguing the Jewish world today.

Kaplan’s theological ideas often pushed boundaries. In 1945, he published his Sabbath Prayer Book. The theology it presented outraged many in the Orthodox world, and the Union of Orthodox Rabbis of the United States excommunicated him and burned his prayer book. Kaplan’s students defended him, saying the Union had the right to hold their own views—but condemning their distortion of facts and defamation of Kaplan. Kaplan himself called the excommunication “a symptom of a malignant cancer in the body of Jewish life…the tendency of the Orthodox rabbinate…to reinstate the use of force as a legitimate means of keeping the Jewish religion alive.”

This public excommunication “canceled” him in parts of the Jewish world. He argued that such actions divided Jews, undermined Judaism’s democratic spirit, and threatened the survival of the Jewish people.

So, how would Kaplan respond to anti-Zionists today?

While many might not like this, I believe that given his experience, Kaplan would not call for the cancellation or excommunication of anti-Zionists. That said, he would have zero tolerance for threats—whether against individual Jews or the Jewish collective—over their Zionism. He would forcefully condemn those who deny the Jewish people’s right to self-determination in our ancestral homeland. While he would support thoughtful critique of Israeli policies, rejecting Israel’s right to exist and/or endangering those who embrace Zionism would, for him, cross a clear red line.

And his solution?

Kaplan would tell us to rethink and strengthen “the process of transmission”—to improve how we teach the truth about Israel, Zionism, and the Jewish right to thrive in our own state, not only to Jews, but to the global community.

Beit Kaplan is committed to doing exactly this, and we know there is much vital work to be done. I look forward to sharing more from Beit Kaplan.