Dana Evan Kaplan (born October 29, 1960) is a Reform rabbi known for his writings on Reform Judaism, in particular, and American Judaism, generally. He has also written on other subjects, including American Jewish history and Jews in various diaspora communities. Kaplan has been the rabbi of Temple Beth Shalom of the West Valley in Sun City, Arizona, since June 2019.
Since becoming a pulpit rabbi in the Phoenix suburb, Kaplan has worked closely with Cantor Baruch Koritan and educator Andre Ivory to build a multi-generational Reform congregation serving the West Valley. The area has grown in recent years, and Kaplan has sought to reach unaffiliated Jews in the region, as well as non-Jews interested in learning about Judaism.
Early life
Kaplan was born and grew up in Manhattan. As a child, his parents sent him to Ramaz School, a Jewish day school on the Upper East Side. Rabbi Edward Klein of the Stephen Wise Free Synagogue had officiated at the marriage of Kaplan's parents in 1958.
When his family moved farther uptown, they joined Rodeph Sholom on West 83rd Street. He studied at Friends Seminary until the age of fourteen (when his family moved again; this time to Waterbury, Connecticut).
Kaplan attended Chase Collegiate School, where his aunt, Ruth Moskowitz, encouraged his love of writing. He credits her with stimulating his interest during his high school years in many of the issues that would later drive his academic and spiritual pursuits.
Kaplan graduated magna cum laude from Yeshiva University; received rabbinical ordination from Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion (HUC-JIR) in Jerusalem in 1994; and obtained a PhD in history from Tel Aviv University in 1997.
Rabbinic education All rabbinical students who attend HUC-JIR are required to study at its Jerusalem campus for one year; usually during their first year of schooling. Kaplan, however, was one of the few American students to complete their entire education at the Jerusalem campus through the Israel Rabbinical Program. This program is taught entirely in Hebrew and primarily caters to Israeli students from the local area.
As part of his rabbinical studies, Kaplan served as student rabbi in a number of Israeli Progressive congregations in the Tel Aviv suburbs. He officiated at Shabbat services and delivered sermons (all entirely in Hebrew). As a result of his experiences, Kaplan gained insight into the challenges Reform Judaism faces in Israel. He was inspired by Rabbi Mickey Boyden, who was rabbi at the synagogue in Ra'anana where Kaplan was a student rabbi in 1993. At that time, the congregation was struggling to get equal funding for a synagogue it hoped to construct. These difficulties were due in large part to the ‘status quo’, which did and does not treat Reform and Conservative Judaism as legitimate forms of Judaism from a political standpoint and adversely affects the groups' broader recognition, acceptance, and funding access. In 2007, Boyden was asked by the city of Hod Hasharon to recite the prayer for fallen soldiers and victims of terror during the annual memorial ceremony (Yom HaZikaron), in part because his son Jonathan was killed in battle in Lebanon almost 15 years earlier. When Orthodox Jews in the region threatened to disrupt the ceremony, the entire event was eventually cancelled.
During his time as a student, Kaplan also served as a rabbinic intern at the Israel Religious Action Center (IRAC) in Jerusalem. One of the goals of this organization is to work for equal status for Reform and Conservative congregations in terms of Israeli law. Kaplan focused on issues of religious pluralism in the State of Israel under the direct supervision of Rabbi Uri Regev, the director of the center at that time. Regev also taught a course at HUC-JIR on the history of Reform Judaism, which had a huge impact on Kaplan and was highly influential in the direction of his work.
It was his rabbinic education in Israel that helped Kaplan realize that at some point he wanted to work outside of Israel as well. In 1991, Kaplan was hired to a High Holy Day pulpit at Temple Jacob, in Hancock, Michigan. He was the resident student rabbi for about 12 days, covering the Jewish Holidays of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. At its peak in 1910, the congregation at Temple Jacob had about 100 Jewish families, due to the many jobs created by the copper boom in the area. Even before World War I, however, the demand for copper was declining and many people began to move away in search of employment. By the time Kaplan arrived, there were only about 30 Jewish families who were members at the temple. Many of the members were associated with Michigan Technological University, including the temple president Harley L. Sachs, who was a professor of technical writing and a published novelist.
The following year, Kaplan was offered a student pulpit at Temple Shalom in Brisbane, Australia, for a four-month period between June and October 1992. The rabbinic visit was deemed successful and efforts were undertaken to bring Kaplan back the following year, in conjunction with Temple Shalom in Surfers Paradise about an hour southeast of Brisbane (identical names notwithstanding, the temples were not affiliated). Under the supervision of Rabbi John Simon Levi of Melbourne, Kaplan spent the next year going back and forth between the two temples, alternating between serving one location for a week then traveling to the other temple for the next week.
Pulpits / rabbinate work
South Africa Immediately after graduating from HUC-JIR, Kaplan became rabbi at Temple Israel (Cape Town Progressive Jewish Congregation) in the Atlantic Seaboard suburb of Green Point in Cape Town in South Africa.The Rabbi and Nelson Mandela 26 June 2013 He interviewed for the position in January 1994 and took up his role in July of that same year, just three months after the democratic elections of April 26–29, which were the first in which South African citizens of all races were allowed to participate.
Against such a historic backdrop, Kaplan advocated for redefining Jewish doctrine and behavior in terms of modern thought so that Judaism could become a relevant mode of belief for South Africans in the post-apartheid era."'Yes, a modern renaissance of Judaism is needed for it to be relevant for the new South Africa'," The Sunday Independent, September 17, 1995. Kaplan argued that South African Jews need to grapple with the real social, economic, and political issues facing their country, and then develop a meaningful spiritual response to them. He wrote, “We are privileged to live in an extraordinary time, one in which we have lived to see a peaceful transition to a democratically-elected government.” Kaplan contended that the covenant between God and humankind should be an ongoing interaction in which emotions are at its core. Unfortunately, he wrote, much of organized religion emphasized a rigid formality that increased feelings of guilt rather than encouraging opportunity for personal transformation. “For South African Judaism to thrive we need to take a really hard look at our beliefs and practices with an eye on our commitment to personal freedom. We need to encourage diverse religious expression in response to an understanding of the complexities of our times. We need to accept that religiosity is a process, not a fossilized, codified monolith. We need to allow for interpretation, while rejecting rigid and lifeless legality.”
Kaplan reported that the South African Jewish community swung between feelings of jubilation that the transition to majority democratic rule had been achieved so peacefully and fear that the new society might not have a place for them. He noted that they were also concerned about the potential for a dramatic increase in crime and violence. Kaplan pressed for a much more extensive public endorsement of prophetic Judaism. “Only if Judaism can be presented as a religion with a strong theme of social justice can Jews retain their prominent role in society as critics and commentators.”“Judaism and the Jewish Community in the New South Africa,” Judaism: A Quarterly Journal of Jewish Life and Thought, Vol. 45, No. 3, Summer 1996, p. 358.
As rabbi, Kaplan invited a number of high-profile speakers to events that were hosted by the temple and open to the public. The most prominent of these individuals was Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who was about to begin his duties as co-chairman of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Tutu cited biblical sources to highlight the obligation to seek out justice and to fight against injustice. The Archbishop remarked that if he and his fellow Anglicans took the ethical message of scriptures seriously and applied it to the struggle against apartheid, the “real fault” lies with the Jews for having given such morally inspiring sentiments to the world.“Imagine if the World could live as One,” The Sunday Independent, 1997.
Kaplan wrote a number of articles during his time in South Africa in which he argued that the process of reconciliation and healing that the country was then undertaking could be greatly bolstered by the wisdom from Jewish teachings. In an article in The Reconstructionist, he described the exercise of healing emotional wounds using the story of Joseph and his estranged brothers. Kaplan compared the conciliatory attitude of Joseph towards his brothers with that of Nelson Mandela towards the leaders of the apartheid system. He quoted from Archbishop Tutu, who explained that “without forgiveness there is no future”. Kaplan wrote that “[t]he South African experience should fill every Jewish heart with the hope that people of all backgrounds can work together to overcome bigotry and political repression and to make a better tomorrow for all of the people of South Africa. If reconciliation and healing can be accomplished in one country, perhaps it can be accomplished all over the world.“Reconciliation and Healing - A South African Jewish Perspective,” The Reconstructionist, Vol. 63, No. 2, Spring 1999.
Georgia Kaplan came to Temple B’nai Israel in Albany, Georgia in 2001. The congregation was a historic community founded in 1854. Kaplan took over for Rabbi Elijah Palnick, who had come to Albany from a temple in Little Rock, Arkansas. The congregation had just moved into a new synagogue building on Gillionville Road, designed by architect and member David Maschke.
During his time in Albany, Kaplan was active in interfaith dialogue and was the originator of the Interfaith Forum. Kaplan told WALB news, “In the aftermath of 9/11, I think it's critical for all Americans of different religions of backgrounds and faiths and all different types of people to dialogue with one another." Speaking about an interfaith program forum hosted by the temple on the topic of Judaism for Christians, Living Hope Fellowship Pastor Jay Ridenhower said "This is a good opportunity for people who don't know a lot about the Christian faith or the Jewish faith."
In 2010, Kaplan became a spokesperson for Judaism in southwest Georgia. When explosive devices were sent to two synagogues in the Midwest, he appeared on television to condemn this attempted act of terrorism. "This is an attempt from very far outside Albany to strike fear in the hearts of all Jews because it's not just these two synagogues in Chicago. We are saddened by the attempt to intimidate and threaten us."
Jamaica