What does it mean if our communities are not equitable — if the people who make and come into contact with our movements and congregations find unequal access to the sources of connection and meaning they seek?
“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.
This piece highlights many people who are affiliated with the Reconstructionist movement including Rabbi Michael Strassfeld, a 1991 graduate of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College and rabbi emeritus of SAJ: Judaism that Stands for All; Betsy Teutsch, an artist, member of a Reconstructionist affiliate, Minyan Dorshei Derekh, and wife of former RRC President, Rabbi David Teutsch; as well as former RRC faculty members Rabbi Arthur Waskow and Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi (z”l .)
The pilgrimage is part of Reconstructing Judaism’s intention to build community for Black Jews both within the organization and in the greater Jewish community. On Feb. 9, the Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History hosted “Deconstructing Racism to Reconstruct Judaism: The Story of a Pilgrimage Down South,” a panel outlining the event’s significance.
You could say that Jackie Land has been on the ground floor of change within the Reconstructionist movement of Judaism. For one, it’s in her blood — quite literally.
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.
Rabbi Jacob Staub, Ph..D., is director of the online platform Evolve: Groundbreaking Jewish Conversations and professor emeritus of Jewish philosophy and spirituality and director of the Jewish Spiritual Direction Program at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College in Wyncote, the path to embracing Judaism really was a reconstruction.
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
