https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66kUyaRbF5M Focusing intention on courage of all kinds, Rabbi Shelly Barnathan chants Mi Shebeirach, asking for all of us to experience the renewal of body
Members of Jewish Reconstructionist Congregation in Evanston, Ill. — one of the movement’s oldest congregations, and one where the conversation about Israel had long proved polarizing — have shown that such respectful engagement is possible, maybe even necessary.
Over the past two months, the congregation has leaned into Reconstructionist values by emphasizing the community’s voice over the rabbi’s and embracing complexity and nuance. Following a process that lasted for about three weeks, entailing thousands of emails, two board meetings and feedback from more than 200 members, the congregation adopted a statement steeped in Jewish values, that declared “All parties must stop the killing to create the conditions for lasting peace.”
Every week, Rabbi Alex Weissman, director of Mekhinah, and cultural and spiritual life at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, emails members of the college community with
We all need more light in our lives. So this year, as you kindle your Hanukkiah, hold the intention to bring light to your day and to our world.
Reconstructing Judaism and the Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association unequivocally condemn the shooting of three Palestinian students in an alleged hate crime in Vermont over Thanksgiving weekend.
Shira Singelenberg is a native of Bethesda, Md. She said she grew up in an environment that fostered curiosity and questioning and one in which Shabbat dinner was a revered and memorable time. She received her BA degree from the University of Maryland-Baltimore County, where she majored in history with a minor in medieval and early studies.
Rabbi Haviva Ner-David shares all of the pain she is holding in this difficult moment before reciting her new poem “My Own Thinking Heart” and offering a creative writing prompt. Taken from Ritualwell’s Nov. 17 virtual gathering, “Holding Each Other.”
In this excerpt from Ritualwell’s weekly “Holding Each Other” gathering, Rabbi Janet Madden chants the Oseh Shalom and Mi Shebeirach prayers. Madden lovingly and soulfully expresses what so many yearn for: peace and healing.
At Ritualwell’s weekly “Holding Each Other” virtual event, Rabbi Alex Lazurus-Klein read two poems, one written during the Second Intifada and the other composed in the harrowing days following October 7.
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
