Making American Civilization Jewish: Mordecai Kaplan's Civil Religion

Mordecai M. Kaplan's concept of Jewish civilization has received more than its share of ink from American Jewish historians, and rightly so. Kaplan not only proposed the most original and far-reaching program for revitalizing Jewish life in America but also offered the most penetrating analysis of the challenges facing Jews in twentieth-century America. Yet, for all the attention paid to Kaplan's innovative notion of Jewish civilization, considerably less interest has been expressed about his description of American civilization. After all, the foundation of Kaplan's philosophy rested on the assumption that Jews lived in two civilizations, one Jewish and one American, and he insisted that Jews could and should be full participants in both. It is not surprising that Jewish historians have devoted the bulk of their scholarly attention to exploring Kaplan's concept of Jewish civilization, but a closer examination of the American portion of his program reveals Kaplan's great faith in the promise of American democracy as well as just how much he believed Jewish fate to be bound up with the security and continued improvement of the American democratic system. Kaplan's Jewish civilization ultimately rested on the foundation of a well-defined vision of American civil religion and the Jewish role in bringing it to a fuller realization.

If Kaplan's concept of Jewish civilization was novel and innovative, his definition of American civilization emerged as particularly bold, especially in the context of interwar America. Cognizant of the fact that American Jews lived in a time of persistent attacks on "hyphenated Americans," Kaplan addressed precisely those fears that he perceived might make Jews resist his vision for American Jewish life. In an era when many Jewish leaders forcefully denied charges of divided loyalty, Kaplan refused to concede the argument so easily. He frequently compared the status of Jews in America to that of Catholics and insisted, without apology, that both groups were indeed hyphenated Americans, loyal to two civilizations at the same time. Although he rejected the hierarchical authority structure of the Catholic Church, he remained enamored with the way that American Catholics managed to maintain a vibrant educational, social, and religious system of their own and to live successfully as what he called "cultural hyphenates."¹ "If it is legitimate for the Irish to parade on St. Patrick's day, in glorification of the patron saint of a non-American nation," Kaplan asked rhetorically, "why would it be less legitimate for Jews to carry the Sefer Torah in procession through the streets on Simchat Torah?"² Kaplan imagined a program for American religions and ethnicities that would embrace such group expressions, not only in private but also in public, in order "to have the cultural hyphenism of minority groups be accepted as legitimate" in American society.³ For Kaplan, being a hyphenated American did not mean that Jews would harbor any kind of divided allegiance to two civilizations, but rather a dual loyalty that allowed them to live simultaneously and fully within both Jewish and American civilizations. The Jew, he insisted, would not be "fifty percent Jew and fifty percent American, but one hundred percent of each."⁴ Directly confronting charges of divided loyalty and boldly challenging the prejudices of his day, he explained that, "For American citizens to live in two civilizations may not be compatible with American jingoism, but it is unquestionably compatible with the American dream."⁵ In fact, his philosophy rested on the foundation of this idealistic vision of America—a vision he consistently refused to abandon.

Kaplan clung tenaciously to an unwavering belief in the promise of America. Steadfast faith in the ideal of American democracy served as a cornerstone of his program for the Jewish future, the American future, and the relationship between the two. He repeatedly stressed that the fate of Jews was "bound up with that of genuine democracy."⁶ But the notion that Jewish survival rested on the security provided by American democracy represents only one (perhaps the most obvious) element of Kaplan's philosophy. Kaplan also posited a specific mission for...