Articles

Loyalty to Democracy Must Be Part of Our Modern Judaism

Those of us who believe that Judaism must continue to evolve are also convinced that what Judaism needs most of all today is to appropriate the democratic spirit as its own. We need to make notions of democracy and pluralism part of our living Jewish heritage. "As a consequence of historical experience," writes Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan, "man's intelligence has come to regard democracy as the most authentic method of human creative survival, since both the maturity of the individual and international peace call for a conception of human life in which the individual and society have to be conceived as means to and ends for each other. Consequently, the next stage in Judaism has to incorporate democracy into its set of values."

Here are a few of my favorite expressions of the democratic spirit:

Abraham Lincoln: "As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy."

E. M. Forster: "Two cheers for democracy: one because it admits diversity and two because it permits criticism."

Winston Churchill: "No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed, it has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time."

Norman Thomas: "He who would save liberty must put his trust in democracy."

Reinhold Niebuhr: "Man's capacity for justice makes democracy possible, but man's inclination to injustice makes democracy necessary."

Walt Whitman: "I speak the password primeval, I give the sign of democracy ... By God! I will accept nothing which all cannot have their counterpart of on the same terms."

Selections from Rabbi Goldsmith - "Kaplan's Contemporary Religious Relevance" (RT.April 2001)

I am a Reconstructionist Jew. I have been an ardent follower of Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan's teachings since I was first introduced to them by the Hillel director at CCNY, Rabbi Arthur Zuckerman, in the 1950s. Many people today view Reconstructionist Judaism primarily in institutional terms as an organization, a movement, a rabbinical school, a synagogue. To me it is primarily an idea a philosophy, a theology, a way of thinking and behaving.

Reconstructionism views Judaism as the product of the collective experience of the Jewish people, not as something that God handed down to us in finished form. God, it teaches, should be conceived of as the Creative Goodness in us and around us and not as a person in heaven. Some people are turned off by this idea because they want a God who is responsible for evil as well as good. Kaplan considered the exploration of where evil comes from to be a serious sin. We ought to be so involved in coping with evil and ridding the world of it that we have no time to worry about where it comes from! It certainly doesn't come from a God who deserves our love and worship.

Reconstructionist Judaism also teaches that Judaism is not just a religion, but a culture. Without languages, literature, history, music, dance and visual arts, no religion worthy of the name can survive. Culture plus religion equals civilization an evolving religious civilization. That is how Kaplan defines Judaism in his major book, first published in 1934: "Judaism as a Civilization". Kaplan's approach to Judaism is based on a passionate love for and commitment to the entirety of that civilization without attributing superiority or supernatural status ("chosenness") to it.

Finally, I am a Reconstructionist Jew because although I am a Zionist who considers the Jewish community in Israel central to Jewish life, I do not feel it necessary or desirable for all Jews to live in Israel. Although I support Israel in every way I can, Jewish history has taught me that the Jewish people has always lived in both the Land of Israel and the Diaspora. It was actually the Diaspora together with the Jewish community in Palestine that created Israel in modern times. We need to support Jewish life everywhere, and Jewish life means community, culture and religion. We need to approach all three with open minds and hearts so that the Jewish people may contribute once again to making the world a better place for all of God's children of every nation, color and creed, everywhere in the world.