A Reconstructionist Jew has strong commitments both to tradition and to the search for contemporary meaning. Reconstructionists encourage all Jews to enhance their own lives by reclaiming our shared heritage and becoming active participants in the building of the Jewish future.
In this short talk, Rabbi Lester Bronstein brings 18th and 19th-century Hasidic thought into dialogue with contemporary Reconstructionist theology.
What is tikkun olam? In this extended article, Rabbi Jeremy Schwartz digs deep into the sources, underpinnings, and implications of “world repair.”
Congregation B’nai Israel in Willimantic, Connecticut underwent a long communal Reconstructionist process to decide on congregational rules for Shabbat practice. This is the result.
This selection of midrashim on the crossing of the Red Sea provides a window into the tradition’s ethical concerns surrounding this well-known story.
In this hour-long conference call, Rabbi Jane Litman presents an overview of the revolutionary ideas that underlie the first century of Reconstructionist Judaism.
This text study, prepared by Rabbi Nina Mandel, contains pairs of passages examining biblical and contemporary notions of what “Promised Land” means, and how it has been interpreted by Jewish thinkers over the millennia.
In this text study, Rabbi James Greene examines diverse ideas of God throughout the evolution of Jewish civilization.
Yigdal, one of the most beloved of the medieval piyyutim (liturgical poems) summarizes the thirteen principles of the Jewish faith as formulated by Moses Maimonides (RaMBaM; late 12th century C.E.). Reconstructionists often proudly assert that when we pray with a Reconstructionist siddur, we feel that we can ‘say what we mean and mean what we say,’ because our liturgical language reflects Reconstructionist theology. How might a Reconstructionist interpret the words of Yigdal in this way?
Serving as central organization of the Reconstructionist movement
Training the next generation of groundbreaking rabbis
Modeling respectful conversations on pressing Jewish issues
Curating original, Jewish rituals, and convening Jewish creatives
