Sharon Ann Musher (Stockton University) Presents: Reconstructing Hadassah Kaplan: A Daughter’s Lessons in the Struggle for Jewish Survival

How did the family of Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan—founder of Reconstructionism—influence his thinking about women, Jewish law and ritual, and a Jewish homeland? The father of four rambunctious daughters growing up in the early twentieth century–as women’s rights were expanding–Rabbi Kaplan considered how Judaism might become a vehicle for women’s self-expression and creativity rather than a burden in the modern world. With his eldest daughter, Judith, Kaplan initiated the bat mitzvah, a coming of age for girls. His second daughter, Hadassah, joined a small but influential cohort of American Jewish women who studied, worked, and volunteered in British Mandate Palestine, bringing back what they learned to help shape Zionism in America. What role, then, did gender and family play as Rabbi Kaplan developed his concept of Judaism as a Civilization?

Bio: Sharon Ann Musher is Professor of History at Stockton University. She writes and teaches social, cultural, and oral history with a focus on the New Deal, Jewish women, and motherhood. She is the author of Promised Lands: Hadassah Kaplan and the Legacy of American Jewish Women in Early Twentieth Century Palestine (New York University Press, 2025) and Democratic Art: The New Deal’s Influence on American Culture (University of Chicago Press, 2015).

Cosponsors: Department of History, Jay Phillips Center for Interreligious Studies, University of St. Thomas