Kaplan, Kivie (Akiva "Kivie")
Dates
- Existence: 1904 - 1975
Biographical Statement
Akiva “Kivie” Kaplan was an industrialist, philanthropist, and an active civil rights advocate. At the time of his death, he was the National President of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and the Vice-President of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations (UAHC). Kaplan spoke out equally against anti-black sentiments among Jews and Black anti-Semitism.
Kaplan was born on April 1, 1904, in Boston, Massachusetts, to Benjamin J. and Celia Kaplan. Kivie was a graduate of English High School in Boston, and, in the summer of 1924, founded with his brothers, Joseph and Archie, the Colonial Tanning Co., a patent leather manufacturing firm that employed over 1,000 people in seven plants around the country. He married his wife, Emily Rogers, in 1925, and they had three children: Jean, Sylvia, and Edward.
He was elected to the National Commission on Social Action of Reform Judaism in 1958. In 1959, he contributed $100,000 to purchase a building in Washington, D.C., that established and housed the Center for Religious Action of the Reform Judaism UAHC, which opened in 1962. Kaplan was an involved philanthropist and upon his retirement in 1961 donated 60% of his income, plus a portion of capital, to Jewish causes and civil rights organizations including the NAACP, the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC).
Kaplan participated in the 1965 Selma to Montgomery march headed by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., where he was accompanied by his son, Edward, and his grandson, Louis Grossman. He joined the NAACP in 1933 and served in various capacities within the organization. He became Chairman of the organization’s Life Membership Division and served as the National President of the NAACP. In 1974, he received the Public Service Medallion of the Jewish Chautauqua Society for "a lifetime of dedication to the highest ethical ideals of Judaism." He was also a member of the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith. He received honorary degrees from Lincoln University, Saints Junior College, Wilberforce University, and Central State University. Kaplan died in 1975 in Flushing, Queens, New York.