ADVOT is a community where writers can express their artistic and spiritual selves in a Jewish context; an address they can join other Jewish writers who are composing from a liturgical, spiritual and ritual mindset.
From his childhood congregation to Camp Havaya and rabbinical school, Rabbi Asher Sofman found his spiritual home in the Reconstructionist movement. Now the 2023 Reconstructionist Rabbinical College (RRC) graduate has joined the Reconstructing Judaism team to help even more people find the same kind of life-affirming, spiritually nourishing community.
Back in 2017, Rabbi Shelley Barnathan met with 100 prospective members individually over coffee to ask some central questions about what they wanted in a new Reconstructionist synagogue in Philadelphia’s western suburbs.
She had just completed rabbinical school after leaving a 32-year career as a language arts teacher. A child of Holocaust survivors, she wanted to realize a childhood dream that wasn’t accessible in her Modern Orthodox community.
Congregation Kol Emet’s new outdoor contemplative space is not a big sanctuary with seating for hundreds. It’s a small patch of land with benches and enough seating for perhaps 100 people.
But leaders at this Reconstructionist synagogue in Yardley want to use the space for the biggest events in Jewish life, from High Holiday services to bar and bat mitzvahs. They also want to use it for regular activities on the Jewish calendar, like Shabbat services.
The synagogue emerged as an offshoot of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College. But in 1989, it separated itself from the college to show that the new denomination could survive.
More than 1,200 Jewish communal professionals gathered May 2-4 in Cleveland for “JPro22: Going Places Together.” One of the largest Jewish professional gatherings since the start of the pandemic, the conference represented a profound moment of reconnection and meaning making. JPro connects, educates, inspires and empowers professionals working in the
In an article for the New York Jewish Week, Gabrielle Kaplan-Meyer describes the challenges families face in planning for the future of children with cognitive disabilities.
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
