Why did Rabbi Deborah Waxman, Ph.D, president of Reconstructing Judaism, choose a career in the rabbinate? How did she arrive at her personal theology? How does that theology shape her response, and Reconstructing Judaism’s response, to the unprecedented health, economic and social crisis brought on by the coronavirus?
Rabbi Waxman discusses these and other topics in a wide-ranging, 20-minute interview with Rabbi Shmuly Yanklowitz, Ph.D., who hosts a podcast and Youtube interview series. Rabbi Yanklowitz, an Orthodox rabbi based in Phoenix, is committed to pluralism and social justice. He is president and dean of Valley Beit Midrash, founder and president of Uri L’Tzedek (the Orthodox Social Justice Movement), founder and CEO of Shamayim (Jewish animal advocacy), and founder and president of YATOM (Jewish foster and adoption network.)
In this enriching conversation, Waxman and Yanklowitz focus on the things that traditional and Reconstructionist Jews have in common, the challenges that social distancing is posing to community, and ways that Jewish practice can bolster resilience.
