Welcome to the Forward’s coverage of Reconstructionist Judaism, a progressive Jewish denomination.
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Opinion Should Jewish Peoplehood Mean Anything in Our Post-Ethnic Moment?
For more than 75 years, the idea of Jewish peoplehood has served to unify Jews. Essentially, it means that Jews share binding ties that cut across practice and national boundaries. It points to a shared history and, we presume and hope, a shared and connected future. The decades have shown that the “peoplehood” term has…
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News 7 Reconstructionist Rabbis Quit as Synagogues Debate Intermarried Rabbis
Seven rabbis have quit the Reconstructionist movement and several synagogues are discussing possible responses since the stream announced a controversial new controversial policy allowing rabbis to marry outside the Jewish faith. Rabbi Reba Carmel, who works at a nondenominational synagogue in Warrington, Pennsylvania, has withdrawn from the movement, saying the new policy allowing intermarried rabbis…
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News Reconstructionist Synagogue Rebels Against Allowing Intermarried Rabbis
In September, the Reconstructionist movement adopted a policy that was as groundbreaking as it was controversial: Henceforth, the movement stated, it would ordain students in its rabbinical seminary who were in interfaith relationships. Now, the first signs of discontent are beginning to appear, as a Florida congregation prepares to vote on January 18 on dropping…
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Forward 50 2015 Deborah Waxman
In the long communal discussion over how to relate to Jews who marry non-Jews, those in the “be welcoming” camp won a major battle this year, thanks in large part to Rabbi Deborah Waxman. Waxman is president of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical Seminary, which, after more than a year of deliberation, decided in a September faculty…
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Opinion Why We Shouldn’t Accept Rabbis Who Marry Non-Jews
Does it make a difference to the larger Jewish community that the Reconstructionist movement has made the regrettable decision to admit and ordain intermarried rabbis? Its adherents are miniscule: Only about 1% of American Jews identify with the movement. Cross the continent and you’ll find slightly more than a hundred congregations. The Reconstructionist Rabbinical College…
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Breaking News Reconstructionist Rabbinical College Will Accept Students With Non-Jewish Partners
The rabbinical seminary of American Judaism’s smallest mainstream denomination will become the first major rabbinical school in the United States to admit and ordain rabbinical students who have non-Jewish spouses and partners. The Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, which made its announcement September 30, has been debating the issue for years. Some leaders of Reconstructionist congregations had…
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Breaking News Reconstructionists Set Yom Kippur Climate Change Service for Pope’s Visit
The Reconstructionist movement is organizing a Yom Kippur service at the Lincoln Memorial timed for Pope Francis’ visit to Washington and tailored to his climate change message. The Reconstructionist Rabbinical College and Jewish Reconstructionist communities are cosponsoring the event on the National Mall. Philadelphia’s Shalom Center is organizing the event. The services Tuesday night and…
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News Reconstructionists Shake Up Boring Annual Report With Web, Video — and Even a Christian!
The Reconstructionist Rabbinical College has released what may be the quirkiest annual report in the mundane history of Jewish annual reports. Instead of the standard-issue PDF, chock full of corny staged photos and tritely colored financial bar graphs, the RRC built its 2015 report into an interactive website that captures the democratic essence of the…
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