fbpx Navigating the Coronavirus: Jewish Values to Guide Institutions and Individuals Now | Reconstructing Judaism

Navigating the Coronavirus: Jewish Values to Guide Institutions and Individuals Now

News

By Rabbi Mira Beth Wasserman, Ph.D.

Originally published in eJewish Philanthropy on June 2, 2020.

Ethereal Star of David Aloft Between Two Up-Facing Palms

In recent weeks, North American Jews have entered a new phase in our collective confrontation with the novel coronavirus. Even as the illness continues to spread and the death toll rises, pressures are mounting to return to work and to open markets and communal spaces. Whether we are leading organizations or trying to keep our loved ones safe, we now weigh the emotional and economic costs of staying home against the threat of a virus whose spread is stealthy and whose lethality is not fully understood. In the midst of all this uncertainty, one thing is clear: Life will not return to normal any time soon. How can the wisdom of Jewish tradition guide us as we adjust to a world where the shadow of illness hovers over every decision we make?

At the Center for Jewish Ethics, we have created Jewish Values and the Coronavirus, a guide to help frame values-based decision making in this time of pandemic. This web-based resource collects and curates sources from the Torah and rabbinic texts alongside insights from leading ethical thinkers from across the Jewish world and beyond. Seven units introduce core Jewish values: human dignity, safeguarding life, respecting elders, cultivating community, distributive justice, environmental stewardship and workers’ rights. Each unit includes foundational texts from the Jewish ethical tradition accompanied by introductions, commentary and questions for reflection and discussion. Jewish Values and the Coronavirus can be used for individual study, as a curricular resource or to equip communal leaders to ground their decisions in the relevant texts and concepts from the Jewish ethical tradition. Over the coming weeks and months, the guide will expand as our collective experience in living out our values in these unprecedented times continues to grow.

In recent months, Jewish leaders and organizations have shown remarkable clarity and consensus in putting pikuakh nefesh, the Jewish imperative to safeguard life, at the center of decision making. With broken hearts, leaders whose lives have been dedicated to building and strengthening Jewish community united in shutting down schools, synagogues, and camps. Now, as we face the prospect of an extended period of risk from the novel coronavirus, our decisions grow more complicated. Whether we are making decisions for ourselves, our families, our workplaces, or our communal organizations, we face an array of choices about how to carry on in the midst of danger that is diminished but has by no means disappeared. As we adapt to new circumstances in this time of uncertainty – and as we begin to look beyond this crisis – other Jewish teachings take their place alongside pikuakh nefesh.

At the start of this crisis, at every meeting I attended, the questions were the same: Do we need to cancel? Is it time to close down? It wasn’t long until government leaders decided for us. Two months ago, I naively imagined that opening things back up would be much like closing them down – that it would happen quickly and decisively. But now I understand: Living through this pandemic – for those of us lucky enough to evade illness ourselves – will mean a wide array of complicated decisions in every realm of life.

The questions of when to close and what to open have now given way to considerations of multiple scenarios and myriad contingencies. Already, restrictions imposed by government have relaxed in many places and we face decisions that stay-at-home orders rendered moot. As individuals and communities, we navigate a world that is far from open but lacks the clarity of being altogether closed. What is fair and reasonable to expect of the people we work with? As bills pile up, when is it appropriate to turn to others for help? With daycare now available, can we trust that our kids won’t bring the virus home to our elderly parents? For how long will congregants support a synagogue if they are not allowed to gather and not allowed to sing?

In this time of loss and uncertainty, Jewish ethical teachings offer grounding and guidance, illuminating the contours of our ethical responsibilities.

As you face difficult choices, I hope you will find our guide to Jewish values helpful. And I hope you will consider contributing to this growing collection of Jewish teachings for our time. Please send your suggestions for more resources, texts and values to jewishethics@rrc.edu. Together, may we deepen the wells of Jewish ethical wisdom.

Rabbi Mira Beth Wasserman, Ph.D., directs the Center for Jewish Ethics at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College.

Related Resources

News and Blogs

Reconstructionists Featured at Society for Jewish Ethics Conference

The Reconstructionist movement is being well represented at the 2022 Annual Meeting of the Society of Jewish Ethics, taking place Jan. 6-9 over Zoom. In fact, in terms of the number of presenters —at least three — the movement will have a greater presence at this year’s virtual gathering than at any time since the first conference was held in 2003.

News
News and Blogs

National Endowment for the Humanities Funds the Center for Jewish Ethics for Groundbreaking, Project on Race, Racism and American Judaism

The Center for Jewish Ethics at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College has received a transformative grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) to fund cross-disciplinary research into race, racism and the American Jewish experience. The center’s aims have an impact far beyond the academy by developing educational materials and programs for youth, individual adult learners, and communities. 

The one-year, $199,850 grant will enable the Levin-Lieber Program in Jewish Ethics to establish and run a new initiative tentatively called “Race, Religion and American Judaism: Cross-Disciplinary Research, Public Scholarship and Curriculum Development.”

News

"Being Abba": A Civilization Text Study on Fatherhood

In this text study, Rabbi James Greene examines the evolution of Jewish ideas of fatherhood over time, with an eye toward contemporary responsibilities of Jewish fathering.

Document
News and Blogs

Responding to antisemitism by growing community, deepening commitments and building coalitions

On Sunday Oct. 28, 2018 — one day after the deadliest day in American Jewish history — I mourned with members of Congregation Dor Hadash. The Pittsburgh Reconstructionist congregation met in the Tree of Life building and had lost one of its own, Dr. Jerry Rabinowitz (z”l). Another member, Dan Leger, clung to life. Virtually every member of the congregation had gathered in solidarity. People were understandably raw, numb and devastated. Yet, in their commitment to mutual support, I was reminded of the awesome power of Jewish community to cultivate resilience in the face of pain and threat, including violent antisemitism.

In these polarized times, discourse over how best to confront antisemitism has often been visceral and sometimes taken on hyperbolic tones. At Reconstructing Judaism, we believe there are several steps toward a vigorous and constructive fight against rising antisemitism.

News

Reconstructing Judaism Over the Next Five Years

by Rabbi Deborah Waxman, Ph.D., and Seth Rosen

Article
News and Blogs

Whizin Prize Essay Explores the Place of Obligation in Modern Jewish Thought

The Center for Jewish Ethics, affiliated with the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, sponsors an annual essay contest to encourage innovative thinking on contemporary Jewish ethics. This year’s Whizin Prize has been awarded to an essay by Daniel Mackler, titled “Phenomenology of Hiyuv Out of the Sources of Ethics: Joseph Soloveitchik and Mara Benjamin.” The essay is a scholarly exploration of the religious experience of obligation, bringing together a traditional and a feminist perspective.  

News
News and Blogs

Reconstructionist Affiliates, Rabbis Push for More Just Immigration System

Rooted in the Jewish textual tradition and lived experience, Reconstructionist communities are aiding immigrants, refugees and asylum seekers through direct service, education and advocacy.

News

How Your Community Can Help Immigrants, Refugees and Asylum Seekers

Looking for ways your community can get involved in immigration issues, directly assist a family, or advocate for systematic change? This resource offer a number of concrete steps your community can take.

Article
News and Blogs

Jewish Values & The Ethical Now: Following in Rabbi David Teutsch’s Path

The Center for Jewish Ethics’ conference in March 2019  highlighted voices from across the Jewish world, yet the proceedings embodied the Reconstructionist approach to conversation. Presenters and attendees examined issues from many sides, exchanging perspectives with deep respect for one another and Jewish tradition.

News
News and Blogs

Facing Death, Rabbinical Student Teaches Others About Living Life

Emet Tauber, a rabbinical student facing terminal illness, devoted his last days to supporting causes and institutions that he values — including affordable and accessible rabbinic education. 

News
News and Blogs

Jewish Ethics, #MeToo, and Crowd-Sourced Responsa

In 5778, the hashtags #TimesUp #MeToo #GamAni sparked a broad communal conversation about abuses of power on the part of individuals and institutions, within and beyond the Jewish community. The year brought revelations of misconduct among celebrities and government officials, and in Jewish schools, organizations, and synagogues. Now, powerful people who abuse their power are being held accountable, and this is a development that is welcome and long overdue. That doesn’t mean it is easy.

News
News and Blogs

Evolve: Sowing the Seeds of Constructive Evolution

Reconstructing Judaism has just rolled out Evolve: Groundbreaking Jewish Conversations with the intention of hosting difficult, groundbreaking conversations that are nevertheless mutually respectful and supportive. We invite you to visit Evolve and to join the conversations!

News
News and Blogs

Gathering Together

As we continue to develop new ways to build community across time and distance, we must also continue to find ways to “be there” for one another.

News
News and Blogs

The Poor People’s Campaign, a National Call for Moral Revival

The RRA recently became a partner of the Poor People’s Campaign (PPC). In the last two weeks the PPC has coordinated rallies and acts of civil disobedience in over 30 state capitals, including the participation of over 15 RRA members. 

News
News and Blogs

Drawing Comfort from Community

Belonging connects us to something larger than our own individual experience. I belong to the Jewish people because claiming this connection enters me into a millennia-old conversation and joins me into community both vertical—all those who came before me and all those who follow—and horizontal—the Jews of today, in all our diversity.

News