The founder of the Jewish Reconstructionist movement called here today for a turn to “spiritual Zionism” rather than political Zionism as a force that can match and possibly cure the trauma suffered by the Jewish people as a result of the Nazi holocaust. Dr. Mordecai M. Kaplan, addressing the annual dinner of the Jewish Reconstructionist Foundation, said that the recent Six-Day war demonstrated that the Jewish people are still alive “but only with that kind of life that responds to the dangerous shock treatment of crisis.”
The Jewish people, Dr. Kaplan said, must develop self-disciplined, organic communities throughout the world, all of which will be spiritually related to Zion “as the spokes of a wheel to its hub.” Otherwise, he warned, the image of the Jews will be that of a disbanded people “which, like veterans of an army that once fought a common enemy, parade once or twice a year in sentimental recollection of bygone days.”
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
