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We care deeply about the Jewish people across geography and we stand in solidarity with Israelis. We also hold a longstanding opposition to Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and support for Palestinian self-determination.
And, in contrast to the approach taken by many — if not most — Jewish institutions, we do not impose a litmus test around our positions on Israel.
At our rabbinical school, the boundaries we draw are behavioral rather than political. What matters is our students’ capacity to center relationships and to build covenantal community across differences. By covenantal community, we mean intentional, abiding, values-driven communities that can hold together through in hard conversations and in times of struggle.
The questions we ask ourselves include: How do we treat one another? How do we foster a sense of community? What do we do when we inevitably fail?
This approach is certainly more complicated than it would be to simply throw out anyone who isn’t 100% aligned with our movement on all things. It means everyone is uncomfortable at least some of the time.
This was a new experience for some students, many of whom were used to Jewish institutions that shut down any voices that dissented from a specific Zionist perspective. Other students brought their backgrounds from activist contexts in which Zionist perspectives are shunned. All of them — no matter where they fall on the political spectrum, no matter their relationship to Israel, Palestine or Zionism — have benefited from being in conversation and community with each other.
All our rabbinical students are required to engage and grapple with Israel as a central component of our curriculum, which includes a summer of study in Israel. There, we focus on providing knowledge and experience of the land as well as exposure to and relationships with representatives of the wide range of people who live there. Students also undertake significant coursework around Israel and Zionism in several required classes.
The stance of the Reconstructionist movement from the time of its founder, Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan, to this day is that Israel has a right to exist and is a vital center for Jewish life and the Jewish people.
The cohort of Reconstructionist rabbis who were ordained this Sunday has been forged in the intensity of these last several years. Many of them enrolled during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic; studied when George Floyd was murdered and when the reckoning on systemic racism began and retreated; and learned while women, transgender and other queer Americans were vilified and stripped of rights.
