Mel Scult Keynote Talk at SAJ Symposium

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Dear Colleagues,
Mel Scult is the Kaplan Center's Vice President and Academic Advisor as well as our lead scholar on the life of Mordecai Kaplan.

We are among those who have used Mel's books about Kaplan for our own learning and teaching.

Mel just celebrated a significant birthday and though we are hoping he will remain at least as active as Kaplan was for another decade or more, we thought this was something of a special opportunity. Add to Mel's talk the list of other remarkable scholars and you will be treated to quite a day of Jewish learning and Kaplanian exploration.

Your Colleague,
Rabbi Jeffrey Schein, Executive Director of the Kaplan Center

Our Program Begins With A Keynote Talk from Renowned Scholar Dr. Mel Scult: SAJ as the Vision of Dr. Mordecai M. Kaplan

Dr. Mel Scult has devoted his life to the study of Rabbi Kaplan, perhaps the most significant American rabbi of the 20th century, and will honor our centennial celebration with a keynote lecture on SAJ as the legacy of Kaplan's life and thought.

Doors will open at 12:30. Keynote talk will begin promptly at 1 PM.

Learn More & Register Here

Mel Scult has a PhD in Judaic Studies from Brandeis, a Masters from Harvard and a Bachelor of Hebrew letters from the Jewish Theological Seminary and a BA in philosophy from NYU. He has spent some thirty years teaching at Brooklyn College trying to convince a primarily orthodox audience how a person could be non-orthodox and religious at the same time.

This year marks fifty years that he has been thinking and writing about Mordecai Kaplan. His other devotions about whom he has written include Solomon Schechter, Mathilde Schechter and Henrietta Szold.
Mel is vice president of the Kaplan Center for Jewish Peoplehood.

His books include a biography of Mordecai Kaplan: Judaism Faces the Twentieth Century-A Biography of Mordecai M. Kaplan, an analysis of his thought: The Radical American Judaism of Mordecai M. Kaplan, and three volumes of selections from Kaplan's twenty-seven volume diary. Mel's annotated selections are entitled The Communings of the Spirit and run from 1913-1951.

Panelists and Moderators Include:
Professor Jeffrey Gurock
Rabbi Steve Gutow
Rabbi Lauren Grabelle Herrmann
Professor David Kaufman
Judy Marlow
Ruth Messinger
Professor Deborah Dash Moore
Professor Noam Pianko
Hila Ratzabi
Ira Schachner
Rabbi Michael Strassfeld
Rabbi Deborah Waxman
Rabbi Simkha Weintraub
Dan Woods

Visit saj.nyc/100years for the latest centennial info!

Artwork by SAJ member Betsy Goldberg