Open AccessMordecai M. Kaplan’s proposal of Judaism’s renewal. Reconstrution or deconstruction?
Author(s) -
Waldemar Szczerbiński
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
studia europaea gnesnensa/studia europaea gnesnensia
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2720-7145
pISSN - 2082-5951
DOI - 10.14746/seg.2014.10.4
Subject(s) - judaism , deconstruction (building) , philosophy , jewish american literature , haskalah , jewish studies , theology , engineering , waste management
Amidst all trends present nowadays, the latest and the most controversial appears to be the Jewish Reconstructionism, which has been conceived by Mordecai M. Kaplan. The starting point for Reconstructionist involves actual reconstruction of traditional Judaism, which takes place based on ideas taken from social and natural sciences. The performed analyses permit to state (but not to conclude decisively), that Jewish Reconstructionism is a specific Jewish theory, a way of living for a certain group of Jews, but it is not a Judaism. The Kaplan's system, which represents a result of an intentional reconstruction and revaluation of traditional Judaism, becomes in fact a deconstruction and a devaluation of Judaism.