Little did these two rabbinical students imagine that within a decade they would bring together their Reconstructionist congregations — one located in Ann Arbor and one in Attleboro, Massachusetts — for joint worship services and holiday celebrations on a platform called Zoom.
Returning from a week of learning and conversation as part of the RRC Faculty Study Tour, Rabbi Alex Weissman reflects and processes his time in Israel and Palestine.
Our responsibility is to assert as legitimate the religious identity of those converting to Judaism and those who transition to a different gender identity. We can learn from our support of each of these groups about how to support the other.
They kept telling me that once we got through the terrible summer, the “summer of yuck” as we called it, that I would find light, happiness and health. They tried to reassure me, as we checked each week of chemo off the calendar, that I was one step closer to relief, to a happy ending, to life after cancer. They promised – everyone promised – that I’d feel better, that I’d resume work and parenting and everything in between, and that I’d be able to put cancer far behind me and move on.
