From Ideology to Liturgy: Reconstructionist Worship and American Liberal Judaism

This study examines Reconstructionism's interpretation and adaptation of the traditional Jewish liturgy and creation of new prayer texts to convey and express its changing ideology. Liturgical creativity has been a hallmark of Reconstructionism since its founding by Mordecai Kaplan (1881-1983) in the 1930s. All facets of the movement's liturgical materials are analyzed, including translations, supplementary readings, commentaries, rubrics, and layout. After an examination of Kaplan's life and thought, especially those facets that are most relevant to understanding his liturgical work, the author analyzes the first Reconstructionist liturgies, published between 1941 and 1963. He then summarizes institutional developments within Reconstructionism from the publication of Judaism as a Civilization (1934) until the founding of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College in 1968, and then from 1968 to the present. Caplan devotes an entire chapter to an examination of the rites that comprise the new series of Reconstructionist prayerbooks, Kol Haneshamah. They are compared to the contemporaneous liturgies of Reform, Conservative, and Renewal Judaism, which in turn are compared with their 194