We are living in tremendously challenging times, where every day and every headline brings difficult news. At this moment of disruption and destruction, we offer a prayer for groundedness and grace.
In this moving reflection, Rabbi Deborah Waxman shares her transformative experience on a service-learning trip to Israel with Yahel and Repair the World. Amid the complexities of a region in conflict, she discovers how hands-on service work—from weeding at a therapeutic farm for veterans to packing food for Bedouin villages—opens pathways to hope, agency and renewal when mere words and meetings cannot.
I didn’t want to do CPE. I was afraid of it,” said Shira Singelenberg, a fifth-year student. “But I don’t know what my rabbinate would look like now if I hadn’t done it. I really loved my experience. It was probably the hardest thing I’ve ever done. It is one of the biggest pieces of my rabbinic formation.”
“Moving Through the Wilderness: Recommitting to Equity After 10/7” is a collection of brief essays originally published in the Forward. Rabbis Sandra Lawson and Deborah Waxman explain Reconstructing Judaism’s commitment to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.
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.
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.
When the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College changed our admissions policy to allow for the possibility that Jews partnered with non-Jews could become rabbis, we did so out of the understanding that in the 21st-century Jewish behavior and commitments–religious, cultural, secular–are more important than Jewish status. We acted to meet Jews in the realities of their complex lives—to engage with them, to raise up leaders from among them, and together to build the Jewish future. We have been inspired and moved by the powerful and passionate students who have enrolled at RRC since this policy change, some because of their non-Jewish partners and more in support of this principle.
Growing up in Tucson, Alanna “Lonnie” Kleinman did not know any female rabbis or any religious leaders who identified as LGTBQ. Now Kleinman is joining a much more diverse rabbinate, one that more fully reflects the fullness of Jewish communities.
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
