Mel Scult, “The Radical American Judaism of Mordecai M. Kaplan” (Indiana UP, 2013)

In The Radical American Judaism of Mordecai M. Kaplan (Indiana University Press, 2013), Mel Scult, professor emeritus at Brooklyn College, explores the ways in which Mordecai Kaplan, the only rabbi to have been excommunicated by the Orthodox rabbinical establishment in America, was a radical. Using Kaplan’s 27-volume diary, Scult places Kaplan’s thought in conversation with other thinkers like Spinoza, Emerson, Ahad Ha-Am, John Dewey, and Abraham Joshua Heschel.

Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/jewish-studies