דער קערפער פֿון השם"#JennaWeissmanJoselit was looking for a project that wasn’t so “heavily freighted” after her #book on the #American “embrace” of the #TenCommandments came out in 2017. “Out of the blue,” an editor at the #Jewish Lives #biography series, a #Yale #University Press and #LeonDBlack Foundation project, asked her to #write a book about #Rabbi #MordecaiKaplan, founder of #Reconstructionist #Judaism.
“Without missing a beat and without thinking what this entailed, I said, ‘Yes, yes. Of course, of course,’” the Charles E. Smith #professor of #Judaicstudies and of #history at #GeorgeWashingtonUniversity told JNS.
She didn’t question why she was chosen. “I’m not the obvious person. I’m not an intellectual #historian,” #WeissmanJoselit said. “I don’t swim in those high-minded #philosophical, #theological waters.”
The historian had known of #Kaplan and had explored a “smidgen” of his diaries, but not all 70 years of them..."
