Sources: Mordecai Kaplan, Judaism as a Civilization (1934); The Reconstructionist (journal, founded 1935); Ira Eisenstein, Reconstructing Judaism; the Kol Haneshamah prayer book.

Reconstructionist Judaism (~1934) is the smallest of the four main Jewish denominations and the most theologically radical — the movement founded by Mordecai Kaplan (~1881–1983 AD) that reframed Judaism not as a revealed religion but as an evolving civilization. Kaplan’s key argument: Judaism is the total civilization of the Jewish people — including religion, culture, language, land, history, and social organization — not a set of supernatural beliefs. God is not a supernatural being who intervenes in history but the “Power that makes for salvation” — the creative force within nature and humanity that enables self-fulfillment and community flourishing. Reconstructionist theology therefore: (1) Rejects the chosen people concept (replaced by “vocation” or “distinctive destiny”); (2) Rejects supernatural theism; (3) Modifies traditional liturgy to remove passages incongruent with modern ethics; (4) Was the first movement to ordain women rabbis (1968, though Reform and Conservative followed). Kaplan’s influence exceeds the movement’s size: his framework of Judaism as civilization shaped the thinking of American Judaism broadly, and his insistence that Jewish communities must address modernity honestly rather than pretend the Enlightenment didn’t happen influenced every subsequent denomination.