“We accept the responsibility for changing and for changing this world. That is what people need to stay in hope. And without hope, there is no energy for no creative new solutions,” says Rabbi Amy Bernstein in this moving video, Tashlikh Reconstructed.
The Talmud tells us that God created repentance (teshuvah) before creating the physical world. As Billy Joel once sang, “we’re only human, we’re supposed to make mistakes.” It’s how we respond to mistakes, how we grow, that matters. This video explores the twin themes of teshuvah and gratitude (hakarat hatov.) Our tradition offers us practices that cultivate self-reflection and humility, relationship and repair. We hope these words offer some comfort and guidance as you undergo your own process of teshuvah and, in meaningful relationships with others, make Godliness present in the world.
Reconstructing Judaism and the Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association joined over 400 signatories to a letter to the UN Secretary General calling for a ban on fracking.
Both Israelis and Palestinians want and deserve to live in peace, with justice and dignity. Israelis deserve to live in a healthy and vibrant democracy. Palestinians deserve to live free from occupation.
More and faster describes my usual work habit. I’ve operated this way for decades. But daily, I’m learning to take a breath so my work is not solely about tasks; it is infused with soul.
Jonathan Markowitz recounts his narrow escape from the World Trade Center on 9/11, and reflects on God, Judaism and humanity in light of his experience.
Reconstructing Judaism’s support of entrepreneurship gives rabbinical students and recent graduates the funding, supervision and mentorship to turn ideas into reality. “For me, the big story is that Jews remain seekers of meaning and community. What our Auerbach grants do is create new portals for Jewish community and meaning,” said Cyd Weissman, Reconstructing Judaism’s vice president for Innovation and Impact.
We ask the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit to re-hear and reverse a ruling that found that staff at an Illinois prison did not violate the Constitution when they forced female inmates to engage in a deeply humiliating and dehumanizing strip search as part of a training exercise. The ruling “opens the door to other violation of prisoners’ First Amendement religious freedom rights and protections.”
Yesterday, we learned that the U.S. Justice Department will seek the death penalty against the suspected shooter in the 2018 mass shooting that devastated three congregations and rocked the entire North American Jewish community. Reconstructing Judaism is proud to share this moving statement from our Pittsburgh affiliate, Congregation Dor Hadash. And we note that Jewish tradition is weighted heavily against the use of the death penalty.
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
