News

Cyd Weissman: Finding Optimism in the Most Challenging of Times

June 17, 2024

Cyd, Weissman, Reconstructing Judaism’s vice president for engagement and innovation, was a featured panelist at a high-profile Shavuot program held at the Weitzman Musuem of American Jewish History in Philadelphia and sponsored by the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia.

The panel “Only in America: The Evolving Place of Jewish Life and Culture in the United States” kicked off a 12-hour, in-person tikkun-leil Shavuot. The Shavuot custom of staying up all night to study Torah dates back hundreds of years, related to the receiving of Torah at Mount Sinai.

Two people standing and talking; one holds a phone and wears a name badge.

‘Dismantling Racism from the Inside Out’

May 31, 2024

When it comes to combating systemic racism, everyone has something to learn.

That’s one reason why faculty members at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College are engaging in a year-long process — one rooted in the Jewish practice of Mussar — to confront anti-Black racism in themselves and the college environment.

A diverse group of people gathers in a synagogue, some holding a Torah scroll, in a brightly lit room.

I run the Reconstructionist movement. We believe in Israel’s right to exist but reject litmus tests on Zionism

May 23, 2024

Where does the Reconstructionist movement and its seminary, the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, stand on Israel and Zionism? Rabbi Deborah Waxman, Ph.D., powerfully makes clear the Reconstructionist approach in this piece in the Forward.

Framed painting of green plants with white flowers against a blue sky.

We remember and hold sacred: Yom HaShoah 2024 / 5784

May 6, 2024

We join Jewish communities around the world in mourning the dead and honoring the countless acts of heroism large and small on the part of all those, Jewish and not, who resisted the Nazis.

In response to Iran’s attack on Israel

April 14, 2024

Reconstructing Judaism and the Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association (RRA) are deeply alarmed by yesterday’s large-scale attack launched by Iran on Israel involving a barrage of hundreds of missiles and drones.

Two booklets titled Adding JOC Voices beside matzo and flowers on a wooden table.

A New Reconstructionist Haggadah Supplement

April 11, 2024

This year, expand the diversity of your Passover seder with our new Haggadah supplement, “Adding JOC Voices to Your Haggadah,” developed by the Tikkun Olam Commission of the Reconstructionist Movement. This free supplement brings you a collection of contemporary commentary on our Passover narrative written by Jews of Color.

Charlton Heston as Moses, wearing his read cloak spreading his arms as the sky thunders.

Reconstructionist Rabbi Featured in Netflix Moses Docudrama Series

April 4, 2024

When Rabbi Maurice Harris set out to write a book about Moses, he never could have imagined where that work would lead.

Now, more than a decade later, Harris is heavily featured in the new Netflix docudrama, Testament: The Story of Moses. The show, which dropped on March 27, is among the streaming platform’s first forays into religion programing. The three-part hybrid-documentary series explores Moses’ story from Jewish, Christian and Muslim perspectives. It intersperses dramatic scenes with actors and interviews with scholars, academics and theologians.

Rabbis Nicole Fix and Bronwen Mullion on stage, holding microphones, standing in front of a keyboard

The Auerbach Launch Grant: An Invitation to Experiment and Create

April 3, 2024

Rabbi Nicole Fix (RRC ’23) is using avant-garde musical theater to bring the Talmud to the stage — and sound a warning on the dangers of present-day extremism. Chloe Zelkha, a fourth-year RRC student, is building community for young adults grieving the loss of a parent, partner, sibling or close friend.

While the two projects might at first glance sound dissimilar, they share much in common. Both engage with young Jewish adults who may lack meaningful connections or are underserved by Jewish institutions. And both projects represent a conscious effort to Reconstruct an aspect of Jewish life so that it meets the needs of the moment.

A collage of seven people with a text overlay: Im a Reconstructionist Rabbi...

Want to know what makes Reconstructionist rabbis unique?

March 13, 2024

For starters, check out “I’m a Reconstructionist Rabbi…..” a short video that combines offhand humor with wisdom and has drawn chuckles as well as heartfelt comments and, so far, has been played more than 18,000 times on Instagram.

Cyd Weissman: Finding Optimism in the Most Challenging of Times

‘Dismantling Racism from the Inside Out’

I run the Reconstructionist movement. We believe in Israel’s right to exist but reject litmus tests on Zionism

We remember and hold sacred: Yom HaShoah 2024 / 5784

In response to Iran’s attack on Israel

A New Reconstructionist Haggadah Supplement

Reconstructionist Rabbi Featured in Netflix Moses Docudrama Series

The Auerbach Launch Grant: An Invitation to Experiment and Create

Want to know what makes Reconstructionist rabbis unique?

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