born June 11, 1881, 0160; venc 0323; ionys, Lithu.
died Nov. 8, 1983, New York, N.Y., U.S.
Lithuanian-born U.S. theologian.
He came to the U.S. with his family in 1889. Ordained at the Jewish Theological Seminary, he later taught there for 50 years. In 1916 he organized the Jewish Center in New York as a secular community organization with a synagogue as its nucleus. In 1922 he founded the Society for the Advancement of Judaism, which became the core of Reconstructionism . Denying the literal accuracy of the Bible , he called for a new conception of God in an attempt to adapt Judaism to the modern world. He founded the journal The Reconstructionist in 1935; his books include Judaism as a Civilization (1934) and Judaism without Superstition (1958).