Bryan Schwartzman

Person sitting outside on a sunny day, with text overlay about their student status at a rabbinical college.

Meeting the Unknown, Rabbinical Students Grow Spiritually, Help Others Through Clinical Pastoral Education

December 24, 2024

CPE is a formal, accredited method for training students of all faiths in the art of being a spiritual caregiver. These programs reflect the growing professionalization of the field and are usually offered in healthcare facilities. Chaplains, though, can serve in many settings, including retirement communities, hospices, campuses and prisons, as well in the military and with police and fire departments.

Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum, sporting short hair and glasses, is wearing a patterned blazer, smiling against a blue background.

BBC Highlights Sharon Kleinbaum, Pioneering Reconstructionist Rabbi

December 4, 2024

Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum, RRC ‘90, was named to the BBC’s list of the world’s 100 most influential women. The recently retired spiritual leader of New York’s LGBTQ-oriented synagogue, Congregation Beit Simchat Torah (CBST), was one of seven American women on the list.

Smiling person in a red shirt standing in front of green foliage.

RRC Faculty Member Teaching in Global Day of Jewish Learning

November 8, 2024

Amanda Beckenstein Mbuvi, Ph.D., will teach on “Reading Torah as Family Stories” as part of the Global Day of Jewish Learning.

Rabbi Steve Burnstein, wearing tallit and a kippa, strums his guitar. He appears to be in a classroom as children are looking on.

Reconstructionist Rabbi Serving Israeli Families During Wartime

September 26, 2024

Originally from Kansas, Rabbi Burnstein has lived in Israel since 1996, except for the years he spent in Philadelphia studying at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College. He’s a member of Kibbutz Gezer — halfway between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem — and since 2018 has been the spiritual leader of Kehilat Birkat Shalom. Affiliated with the Israel Movement for Reform and Progressive Judaism, Birkat Shalom is based on the kibbutz but serves families throughout central Israel.

Amanda Mbuvi, wearing a red shirt, poses in front of trees outside RRC's building.

RRC Establishes Fellowship on Race, Culture and Jewish Ethics

September 26, 2024

The Reconstructionist Rabbinical College created a new fellowship in race, culture and Jewish ethics as part of its ongoing efforts to cultivate dynamic scholarship, train the next generation of rabbis and dismantle systemic racism in Jewish communities.

A woman with gray hair and purple glasses smiles outdoors, wearing a pink cardigan and a necklace.

RRC’s New Interim Academic Dean is a Beloved Teacher of Jewish Texts and Ideas

August 20, 2024

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.

Two people standing and talking; one holds a phone and wears a name badge.

‘Dismantling Racism from the Inside Out’

May 31, 2024

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.

Charlton Heston as Moses, arms spread wide, holding his staff as the sky storms.

Reconstructionist Rabbi Featured in Netflix Moses Docudrama Series

April 4, 2024

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.

Participants in a grief retreat sit in a circle inside a yurt

The Auerbach Launch Grant: An Invitation to Experiment and Create

April 3, 2024

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

Power to Which People? American Jewish Philanthropy & Democracy

March 4, 2024

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.”