Jewish Reconstructionist Federation

Grainy image of Mel Scult and Mordecai Kaplan meeting in 1972.The Kaplan Blog brings to the web a small portion of the material which will be used in the second volume of Communings of the Spirit: the Journals of Mordecai M. Kaplan edited and with introductory material by Dr. Mel Scult. Dr. Scult is providing us with a unique opportunity to look over his shoulder, so to speak, as he interacts and compiles the material for the next volume.

Image of Dr. Mel Scult and Rabbi Shai GluskinWe are presenting Dr. Kaplan's entries seamlessly integrated with the other materials presented on this web site as if they were just written. We hope this format will help readers to reflect on the relevance of Kaplan's comments for today. We encourage readers to comment on the entries by engaging with Kaplan in a "dialog." For each entry Dr. Scult will be the first to respond.

Mordecai M. Kaplan (1881-1983), founder of Reconstructionism, is perhaps the preeminent American Jewish thinker and rabbi of our times. Obsessed by the need to modernize Judaism in order to save the Jewish people, Kaplan confided his impressions, wrestled with his conscience, and recorded his experience in his journal with passionate intensity and uncommon candor. Kaplan's journals consist of some Some 10,000 pages and twenty-seven volumes.

Head shot of Dr. Mel ScultMel Scult is a professor of Judaic Studies at Brooklyn College and a professor of History at City University of New York, Graduate Center. He is the author of Communings of the Spirit: the Journals of Mordecai M. KaplanHe is the co-editor of Dynamic Judaism: The Essential Writings of Mordecai Kaplan and The American Judaism of Mordecai Kaplan, and author of Judaism Faces the Twentieth Century: A Biography of Mordecai Kaplan. He also wrote the introduction for Kaplan's The Meaning of God in Modern Jewish Religion.

Dr. Scult is a member of the West End Synagogue in New York. His Web site is www.melscult.org.