On the eve of Thanksgiving, we feel grateful for one of the most extraordinary things about the Reconstructionist movement -- the caliber of people who are attracted to it. We are lucky that so many of these extraordinary people step up into leadership, on our behalf and in the wider world. Over the last several months, we have lost several national leaders, and we write now to share some reflections on these folks who offered the best of themselves to us and on our behalf.
Life Cycle
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Before Ritualwell was a website containing more than 2,200 liturgy and rituals crowdsourced by Jews, it was an idea of where to put dozens of scraps of paper in the drawers of offices in the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College and Kolot: Center for Jewish Women’s and Gender Studies in Wyncote.
In 2001, RRC and Kolot, in partnership with Ma’yan, a Jewish feminist organization, uploaded the prayers scrawled on those papers to the newfangled Internet, creating an archive of Jewish writing that filled in the gaps of liturgies and practices that historically excluded women and LGBTQ+ Jews. Community members were invited to write and submit their own liturgies and rituals.
Almost two decades later, Ritualwell has not only become a library of prayers and poetry, but an online community center for Jews looking to hone their skills through writing workshops and classes.
In our third session with author Abigail Pogrebin, we talked about taking an "Elijah moment" at our Passover celebrations: enacting change in the world in an effective and fulfilling way.
In our followup to the 2016-17 Innovators Incubator, our new Rev Your Engines session focused on the development of a close-knit, supportive network of participants facing similar challenges in their start-up endeavors. From teen focused programming to a havurot for baby boomers, we looked into the support and development resources available to these community leaders.
Our first session of Reconstructing for Tomorrow, led by Rabbi Deborah Waxman, began the difficult and exciting task of grappling with the history of the Reconstructionist movement and the questions of Jewish peoplehood in the future.
