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Co-published by Wayne State University Press
and The Reconstructionist Press.
Now
available in paperback!
Hardcover $34.95
($31.46) Paperback $19.95 ($17.96)
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.
Some 10,000 pages and twenty-seven
volumes long, this diary was previously available only to scholars.
Professor Mel Scult now brings us Volume 1:1913-1934, a
twenty-year span of journal writing which he has edited for clarity,
accessibility and ease of reference for the lay reader. According to
Deborah Dash Moore, Professor of History at Vassar College, "Mel
Scult’s introduction, notes, and titles deftly illuminate the
text...the diary is a gold mine of information and insight."
This very human document will be of
interest to all who wrestle with religious and philosophical questions.
Kaplan’s topics range from struggling to find a contemporary
conception of God to his views on assisted suicide; from Jewish survival
in America’s democratic society to questions of whether or not prayer
should be for children; from detailed personal descriptions of such
prominent Jewish leaders as Chaim Weizmann, Solomon Schechter and Louis
Brandeis to explaining to his daughter Judith how to meet men.
The candor, humor, intellect and
spiritual sensitivity displayed throughout this volume make it
"addictive. Once started [it] cannot be put down," says
Professor Henry L. Feingold of the City University of New York.
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