Mordecai Kaplan

Rabbi Mordecai Menahem Kaplan
Kaplan c. 1915
Personal
Born	Mottel Kaplan (1881-06-11)June 11, 1881 Sventiany, Russian Empire[a]
Died	November 8, 1983(1983-11-08) (aged 102) New York City, U.S.
Religion	Judaism
Spouse	Lena Rubin (1908–1958) Rivka Rieger (1959–1983)
Children	Judith Eisenstein, Hadassah Musher, Naomi Wenner, and Selma Jaffe-Goldman
Denomination	Orthodox Judaism Conservative Judaism Reconstructionist Judaism
Organization	Jewish Theological Seminary of America, Society for the Advancement of Judaism, Reconstructionist Rabbinical College
Buried	Glendale, New York, U.S.
Semikhah	Jewish Theological Seminary of America

Mordecai Menahem Kaplan (June 11, 1881 – November 8, 1983) was a Lithuanian-born American rabbi, writer, Jewish educator, professor, theologian, philosopher, activist, and religious leader who founded the Reconstructionist branch of Judaism along with his son-in-law Ira Eisenstein.^[1][2][3][4] He has been described as a "towering figure" in the recent history of Judaism for his influential work in adapting it to modern society, contending that Judaism should be a unifying and creative force by stressing the cultural and historical character of the religion as well as theological doctrine.^[3]

Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or {{efn}} templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} template or {{notelist}} template (see the help page).