This is the Forward’s coverage of Reconstructionist Judaism, a progressive Jewish denomination.
Reconstructionist
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Fast Forward Add Pineapple To Seder Plate? Reconstructionists Create Symbol Of Solidarity With Refugees
Attend a Reconstructionist Passover dinner this season, and there’s a good chance there will be a new addition to the Seder plate – pineapple, to represent support for refugees and immigrants. “In American colonial times, the pineapple was a symbol of welcome and prosperity. They were special gifts because of the great labor and expense…
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Life The Black Lesbian Vegan Who Wants To Change Everything You Ever Thought About Rabbis
(JTA) — Sandra Lawson didn’t expect to perform a public benediction at her local pub in Philadelphia’s Roxborough neighborhood. But when her friend Jay, who was entering firefighter training, asked her for a blessing earlier this year, she stood with him in the middle of the room and put her rabbinical school training into action….
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Fast Forward Reconstructionist Rebels Form Splinter Group Amid Schism Over Intermarried Rabbis
Nineteen Reconstructionist rabbis are forming their own group partly to protest the movement’s recent decision to allow intermarried rabbis. In a statement Thursday, the rabbis announced the formation of Beit Kaplan-the Rabbinic Partnership for Jewish Peoplehood, which they described as an “educational consortium and resource for rabbis, congregations, and lay people wishing to continue the…
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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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