This is the Forward’s coverage of Reconstructionist Judaism, a progressive Jewish denomination.
Reconstructionist
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Fast Forward 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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Fast Forward 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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Fast Forward Nina Mandel Named Head of Reconstructionist Rabbis Group
Rabbi Nina Mandel of Pennsylvania has been appointed the new president of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association. Mandel’s appointment was announced Monday. She joins two other women in leading the Reconstructionist movement: Rabbi Danielle Leshaw, the association’s interim executive director, and Rabbi Deborah Waxman, president of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College and Jewish Reconstructionist Communities. Mandel was…
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Fast Forward Reconstructionists May Lift Ban on Intermarried Rabbis
(JTA) — The Reconstructionist movement is on the cusp of making a historic decision about whether to drop its longstanding ban against intermarried rabbinical school students. If the policy change passes, as most expect, Reconstructionism would become the first of America’s four major Jewish religious denominations to ordain intermarried rabbis. Supporters of the change argue…
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Life A First in the Jewish World
Jordan Cassway Rabbi Deborah Waxman has been many firsts in her life. She was one of the first bat mitzvahs to be celebrated on a Saturday morning in her hometown of West Hartford, Connecticut in 1979 and now she is the first female rabbi, and the first lesbian, to lead a Jewish congregational institution. Waxman,…
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News Brant Rosen, Suburban Chicago Rabbi, Doubles as Firebrand Critic of Israel
It was on December 28, 2008, soon after Israel launched its punishing military campaign in Gaza, known as Operation Cast Lead, that Rabbi Brant Rosen hit the “send” key for a blog post that he believed could well pitch him out of his pulpit. “We good liberal Jews are ready to protest oppression and human-rights…
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News Trailblazing Reconstructionist Deborah Waxman Relishes Challenges of Judaism
Reconstructionist Judaism has a new leader. For the first time, she is a woman — and a lesbian. In fact, Rabbi Deborah Waxman, who will take the reins of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, the newly merged seminary and congregational apparatus of the Reconstructionist movement, is the first woman to ever head a Jewish congregational organization….
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