Reconstructionist Judaism Bodies To Merge
The two organizational arms of the Reconstructionist movement are set to merge.
Following a year-and-a-half of negotiations, the boards of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College and the Jewish Reconstructionist Federation have voted to form one body that will be responsible for Reconstructionist Judaism in North America.
Reconstructionist leaders say the merger will permit better use of limited resources and allow the movement to focus more effectively on its main concerns: education, movement services and social justice.
The federation represents the movement’s 105 congregations; the college is the Reconstructionist movement’s sole rabbinical seminary.
The Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association, which represents more than 300 member rabbis, endorsed the move and its rabbis will have a formal role in the newly merged entity.
The proposal will be voted on during an April 10 meeting in Philadelphia. If approved, the new organization will have one board, staff and chief executive.
It’s our birthday and we’re still celebrating!
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news.
This week we celebrate 129 years of the Forward. We’re proud of our origins as a Yiddish print publication serving Jewish immigrants. And we’re just as proud of what we’ve become today: A trusted source of Jewish news and opinion, available digitally to anyone in the world without paywalls or subscriptions.
We’ve helped five generations of American Jews make sense of the news and the world around them — and we aren’t slowing down any time soon.
As a nonprofit newsroom, reader donations make it possible for us to do this work. Support independent, agenda-free Jewish journalism and our board will match your gift in honor of our birthday!
