Democratizing Judaism

Rabbi Dr. Jack J. Cohen has had a long distinguished career as an educator, author and public servant. Before settling in Israel in 1961, he served as the Educational Director of Park Synagogue in Cleveland, the Director of the Jewish Reconstructionist Foundation, and the Rabbi of the Society for the Advancement of Judaism. During the last six and a half years of his tenure in the States, he also taught courses in the philosophy of religion and education at the Jewish Theological Seminary. In Israel, Dr. Cohen served for 23 years as the Director of the Hillel Foundation at Hebrew University and taught an annual seminar for students of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College and a course in Jewish thought at the David Yellin College of Education. Dr. Cohen has been widely published in Jewish journals and is the author of a number of books, among them The Case for Religious Naturalism, Jewish Education in Democratic Society, The Reunion of Isaac and Ishmael, Guides for an Age of Confusion and Major Philosophers of Jewish Prayer in the 20th Century.

"When it comes to Mordecai Kaplan, Jack Cohen is the teacher of us all. There is much misunderstanding of Kaplan, with people usually identifying him solely with the basic concepts of his system. Jack Cohen, Kaplan’s most knowledgeable disciple, goes beyond the basics and in this new work gives us a sense of Kaplan’s depth and uniqueness. He offers us the full range of Kaplan’s thought while concentrating on his theology, his Zionism and the similarities between his system and that of the great mystic Abraham Isaac Kook. Few people understand the Kook-Kaplan connection the way Jack Cohen does. Kaplan’s attitude toward Eretz Yisrael is provocatively idiosyncratic and still extremely valuable for anyone who thinks about Israel in all its complexity. There is no one who knows Kaplan’s Zionism better than Jack Cohen. The most valuable aspect of this work is that Cohen knew Kaplan first hand over a long period of time and gives us a vivid sense of Kaplan the man. For long-time Kaplan supporters and for neophytes, this book offers a wonderful in-depth summation of Kaplan’s ideology."