A Dream of Jewish Civilization
Document Type : pajoohesh
Author
Abstract
Morādkhāy Kāplān in his book Judaism as a Civilization intends to find out the identity and biological concerns in the future of Judaism in order
to show a way to save all the Jewish in the world. So, the Jewish civilization should be again discovered, interpreted, and built. In this book, he tries to define Judaism not as a religion but as a civilization. In the following article, the author has tried to provide a report of the framework and the main content of the book in order to clarify its provisions for Muslim scholars who have civilizational concerns and wants to keep Islamic identity with a civilizational approach in the modern secular condition. He states that Kaplan, first of all, talks about different challenges which Jewish face in various aspects of life such as politics and economy; and then has a look at Judaism capabilities and their practical sources to alleviate the crisis. The author puts across that Kaplan, in the first part of his book, categorizes
the causes of the crisis in two groups of collapsing factors including the modern political order, the modern economical order, and the modern ideology, and also the
factors regarding the protection of Jewish life covering both internal and environmental elements. Examining the second and the third part of the book, he states that Kaplan firstly explains about the Reforming Model, New-Orthodox Model, and Conservative Model; and points out their weak points to provide an opportunity for introducing his proposal model that is “Judaism
as a civilization”. Following this, the author discusses this new model and its different aspects from Kaplan’s point of view. According to the author, the fourth part of the book deals with the organization of the Jewish community in its relation with the rest of the world, in the face of challenges; and the fifth part speaks about the growth of Judaism. In the last part of the book, Torah and Judaism are introduced as a life method for the American Jewish.
to show a way to save all the Jewish in the world. So, the Jewish civilization should be again discovered, interpreted, and built. In this book, he tries to define Judaism not as a religion but as a civilization. In the following article, the author has tried to provide a report of the framework and the main content of the book in order to clarify its provisions for Muslim scholars who have civilizational concerns and wants to keep Islamic identity with a civilizational approach in the modern secular condition. He states that Kaplan, first of all, talks about different challenges which Jewish face in various aspects of life such as politics and economy; and then has a look at Judaism capabilities and their practical sources to alleviate the crisis. The author puts across that Kaplan, in the first part of his book, categorizes
the causes of the crisis in two groups of collapsing factors including the modern political order, the modern economical order, and the modern ideology, and also the
factors regarding the protection of Jewish life covering both internal and environmental elements. Examining the second and the third part of the book, he states that Kaplan firstly explains about the Reforming Model, New-Orthodox Model, and Conservative Model; and points out their weak points to provide an opportunity for introducing his proposal model that is “Judaism
as a civilization”. Following this, the author discusses this new model and its different aspects from Kaplan’s point of view. According to the author, the fourth part of the book deals with the organization of the Jewish community in its relation with the rest of the world, in the face of challenges; and the fifth part speaks about the growth of Judaism. In the last part of the book, Torah and Judaism are introduced as a life method for the American Jewish.
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