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Perhaps You Belong in a Reconstructionist Community
“To be a Jew means first belonging to the group…” - Mordecai Kaplan
Thriving within a Jewish framework
“I like belonging to a Reconstructionist synagogue, because it means I’m a member of a warm and supportive community. I felt comfortable getting involved right from the beginning. I know that what I say and do makes a difference.”
- Member, Congregation Beth Israel, Media, Pennsylvaniahttps://archive.reconstructingjudaism.org/article/perhaps-you-belong-reconstructionist-community
Posted on: 2017/03/29 - 6:07pm
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Judaism on the Cutting Edge
The only surprise about my decision to become a rabbi was my choice of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College. Everything about my activities and commitments throughout my life made this seem logical to the people who knew and loved me—except that I had been raised in another movement. For me, however, I was either going to RRC or choosing a different career.
https://archive.reconstructingjudaism.org/article/judaism-cutting-edge
Posted on: 2016/05/05 - 11:29am
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Shavuot Theology
This article is excerpted from The Guide to Jewish Practice, Volume 1. The full Guide may be ordered from the Reconstructionist Press.
https://archive.reconstructingjudaism.org/article/shavuot-theology
Posted on: 2016/11/15 - 4:42pm
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How to Build Just and Holy Congregations
Although to every individual the achievement of personal salvation is his supreme quest and responsibility, it is unattainable without devotion to the task of social salvation.–Mordecai M. Kaplan, The Meaning of God in Modern Jewish Religion
Smashing the Imperialist Napkinholder
https://archive.reconstructingjudaism.org/article/how-build-just-and-holy-congregations
Posted on: 2016/05/12 - 1:34pm
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"Straight-Welcoming?!" – Creating an Inclusive Community
Jewish communities of all stripes are grappling with the challenge of creating more inclusive communities. In particular, there is an unprecedented focus on welcoming LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) Jews. At Congregation Bet Haverim (CBH) in Atlanta, our commitment to inclusivity emerged organically. Founded by gay and lesbian Jews, we became straight-welcoming; today, straight members constitute the majority. We had to decide whether our values were queer specific or queer universal.
https://archive.reconstructingjudaism.org/article/straight-welcoming-creating-inclusive-community
Posted on: 2016/05/13 - 11:25am
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A Zionism Worth Reconstructing
The attachment of younger North American Jews to Israel is not what it used to be.
As recently as 30 years ago, the State of Israel was central to Jewish identity in North America. After the Holocaust, Jews took pride in Israelis’ self-defense. Israel was viewed as a shining example of the dogged commitment to democracy and human rights in the face of the unremitting hostility of its neighbors. It held the promise of Jewish revival in a new, modern idiom. Visits to the Land had the emotional intensity of pilgrimages, of returning home after two millennia.
https://archive.reconstructingjudaism.org/article/zionism-worth-reconstructing
Posted on: 2016/05/13 - 11:37am
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Reconstructionism, Chosenness, and the Abrahamic Dialogue
The first time I encountered the idea that Jews were a “chosen people,” I learned that this was a mistaken and even pernicious belief that was held by other Jews. The rejection of chosenness made sense to me then as a 12 year old preparing for her bat mitzvah in a Reconstructionist congregation. It has continued to make sense to me over the years, for all the reasons that Rabbi Deborah Waxman so eloquently lays out in her article, “Rejecting Chosenness in Favor of Distinctiveness.”
Posted on: 2016/05/13 - 11:44am
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Rejecting Chosenness in Favor of Distinctiveness
In what sense and to what extent do Jews still believe ourselves to be “chosen”?
https://archive.reconstructingjudaism.org/article/rejecting-chosenness-favor-distinctiveness
Posted on: 2016/05/13 - 11:48am
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Building an Ark: On the Search for an Authentic Jewish Relationship to the Arts
I’m a workin’ on a building
I’m a workin’ on a building
I’m a workin’ on a building
For my Lord, for my LordTraditional
Posted on: 2016/05/13 - 12:10pm
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Judaism as a Generation
Readers of Mordecai Kaplan, and those familiar with Reconstructionist thinking, will recognize the playfulness of this essay’s title. Kaplan’s pioneering work, Judaism as a Civilization, challenged American Jews to think creatively and courageously about Jewish life; he wrote about a people bound together not just by shared ritual observance, but by music, art, intellectual engagement, and a joyful sense of purpose. Kaplan’s central argument was that Jewish civilization has never been static, but has always been dynamic.
Posted on: 2016/05/13 - 12:26pm