Rabbi Ira Eisenstein; Leader in Jewish Reconstructionism
Rabbi Ira Eisenstein, 94, a major figure in the Reconstructionist movement of American Judaism, died Thursday in Silver Spring, Md.
As the closest assistant to his father-in-law, Rabbi Mordecai M. Kaplan, he helped define Reconstructionist belief as “the evolving religious civilization of the Jewish people.”
For the record:
12:00 a.m. July 6, 2001 FOR THE RECORD
Los Angeles Times Friday July 6, 2001 Home Edition Part A Part A Page 2 A2 Desk 1 inches; 28 words Type of Material: Correction
Richler obituary--Wednesday’s obituary of writer Mordecai Richler contained an incorrect title for one of his books. The correct title is “Oh, Canada! Oh Quebec! Requiem for a Divided Country.”
Their teachings emphasized change through the centuries in the Jewish experience, as well as in Jewish moral and cultural heritage.
Until the end of his life, Eisenstein prodded Reconstructionist communities (which do not accept the Hebrew Bible as literal) to rethink traditional Jewish liturgy in the perspective of contemporary secular thought. “We get to know what God is,” he once wrote, “by what God makes people do.”
Born in New York City, Eisenstein earned bachelor’s and doctoral degrees in philosophy from Columbia University, and graduated from the Jewish Theological Seminary in Manhattan. He taught at the seminary for more than half a century.
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