SAJ was founded by Mordecai Kaplan in order to put into practice his conception of
Judaism as an evolving civilization. At the dedication of SAJ's new building in 1926, Kaplan explained the goals of the Reconstructionist Movement in general and the SAJ in particular in the form of the "Thirteen Wants" The first American
Bat Mitzvah was held at the Society for the Advancement of Judaism on Saturday morning, March 18, 1922, for
Judith Kaplan, daughter of Rabbi
Mordecai Kaplan. In 1927, the board of SAJ voted to replace the
Kol Nidre prayer with
Psalm 150 in the liturgy for the
Yom Kippur service. Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan justified the change, arguing that the actual text of Kol Nidre was overly legalistic and not in keeping with the spirit of the Yom Kippur holiday. Lack of satisfaction from congregants later pushed Rabbi Kaplan to restore the recitation of Kol Nidre. However, despite reintroducing Kol Nidre, Rabbi Kaplan added a line to the prayer that specified that only vows that "estrange ourselves from those who have offended us, or to give pain to those who have angered us" should be annulled by the recitation. In 1945, Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan, along with Rabbis Ira Eisenstein and Eugene Kohn published the
Sabbath Prayer Book. The publication of this
siddur led the
Union of Orthodox Rabbis to issue a
herem against Rabbi Kaplan. In the wake of this controversy, Rabbi Kaplan gave a lecture at SAJ entitled "Excommunication vs. Freedom of Worship" and advertised it in the New York Times. The herem also caused controversy for the synagogue including causing one of its secretaries to resign. == Notable clergy and members ==