The Reconstructionist Rabbinical College mourns with the families of the hostages murdered this week: Hersh Goldberg-Polin z”l, Carmel Gat z”l, Ori Danino z”l, Eden Yerushalmi z”l, Alex Lobanov z”l, and Almog Sarusi z”l.
Rabbi Mira Wasserman, Ph.D., has been appointed RRC’s interim vice president for academic affairs.
Wasserman has taught Talmud and rabbinic literature for a decade at RRC and loves everything about the seminary, especially her students and colleagues. In the role of interim vice president, Wasserman will lead the college — effectively, she’s the academic dean — and serve as a key member of Reconstructing Judaism’s leadership team. (RRC is part of Reconstructing Judaism.) The vice-presidential oversees the curriculum and student life, as well as supports faculty members in their teaching and research. Assisting students and enabling them to become the best rabbis they can be remains a driving focus, said Wasserman.
Returning from a week of learning and conversation as part of the RRC Faculty Study Tour, Rabbi Alex Weissman reflects and processes his time in Israel and Palestine.
Members of RRC’s faculty are taking part in a study tour as an expression of the college’s commitment to Israel education as a core component of the rabbinical school curriculum.
When it comes to combating systemic racism, everyone has something to learn.
That’s one reason why faculty members at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College are engaging in a year-long process — one rooted in the Jewish practice of Mussar — to confront anti-Black racism in themselves and the college environment.
When Rabbi Maurice Harris set out to write a book about Moses, he never could have imagined where that work would lead.
Now, more than a decade later, Harris is heavily featured in the new Netflix docudrama, Testament: The Story of Moses. The show, which dropped on March 27, is among the streaming platform’s first forays into religion programing. The three-part hybrid-documentary series explores Moses’ story from Jewish, Christian and Muslim perspectives. It intersperses dramatic scenes with actors and interviews with scholars, academics and theologians.
Rabbi Nicole Fix (RRC ’23) is using avant-garde musical theater to bring the Talmud to the stage — and sound a warning on the dangers of present-day extremism. Chloe Zelkha, a fourth-year RRC student, is building community for young adults grieving the loss of a parent, partner, sibling or close friend.
While the two projects might at first glance sound dissimilar, they share much in common. Both engage with young Jewish adults who may lack
The fellowship is meant to honor of the work of two retired faculty member: Rabbi Mordechai Liebling, RRC ‘85, who started RRC’s social justice organizing program, and Rabbi Nancy Fuchs Kreimer, Ph.D., RRC ‘82, who pioneered the college’s approach to multifaith studies.
As part of the fellowship, Plevan also will be taking part in a March 20 panel discussion, “Democracy and Judaism: Does One Need the Other to Thrive?”, organized by the Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association, the Kaplan Center for Jewish Peoplehood and A More Perfect Union: Jewish Partnership for Democracy (register here.) Democracy comes up in many of Plevan’s classes at RRC, particularly a course examining democracy and Jewish sources. He said to expect fall programming in advance of the 2024 elections.
Taken together, the fellowship will explore and champion how Reconstructionism teaches that participatory democracy is vital for religious flourishing.
“For many people, religious pluralism means keeping religion outside of the public realm,” said Plevan. “That wasn’t Kaplan’s view at all. He taught that what a thriving democracy needs is having different kinds of peoples and traditions and ideas contributing to public life.”
Several Reconstructionist Rabbinical College graduates and others affiliated with the movement are featured in “Rising Tides, Riding Voices: Songs for the Jewish Climate Movement.”
When Rabbi Alex Weissman applied to rabbinical school in 2011, he estimates that there were just a handful of rabbis working at social-justice organizations. Fast-forward a dozen years and that number now exceeds several dozen — too many for Weissman to name.
Why the dramatic shift? Many advocacy organizations now recognize the role that clergy can play in helping activists maintain spiritual and emotional health. (Burnout is all too common among people trying to fix a broken world.) Additionally, many progressive organizations have sought to reclaim the moral, prophetic voice, refusing to surrender the religious label to political and cultural conservatives, says Weissman.
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
