What was a Reconstructionist Jewish Identity to Rabbi Kaplan in the mid-twentieth century? The first two clips below take on the question of what does it mean for a person to live into being both Jewish and American? The third clip broadens how the identity of the individual determines the Jewish collective. In the fourth clip, Kaplan speaks about his idea of how God is part of the identity of a Reconstructionist Jew.

You see as a result of all that I've said so far, living as a Jew is quite a complex affair and has to take time and effort. So much so that people wonder, well, when will we have time to do our business and have our fun? You can have fun, and you can do business in the Jewish spirit, and have fun in terms of aesthetic culture of a Jewish character. But we are Americans, and we live as Americans to a greater extent, and we cannot do otherwise, to a greater extent than we can live as Jews because the majority population is non-Jewish. Therefore, we have to live in two civilizations, the American civilization and the Jewish civilization. You will say then, 'You see, that's exactly what I've told you. That's the trouble with being Jews. We have to be different from everybody else. Everybody can live just as [inaudible] civilization and [inaudible] with it, but because we're Jews, we are burdened with two civilizations.' Nothing of the kind, my friends.