On Giving Tuesday 2020, Reconstructing Judaism shared a live day of online learning. Here are videos of those sessions.
Videos
Video resources from across this site are collected together here.
Also, visit our video collections at Vimeo.com!
Related Resources
The Recon Connect Beit Midrash invites you to learn Torah from our notable rabbis at Reconstructing Judaism and the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College.
As part of our recent convention, B’yachad: Reconstructing Judaism Together, we shared this video of a new setting for Hinei Mah Tov by RRC student Solomon Hoffman. It features over 150 Reconstructionists representing 40 of our communities from across North America and beyond. The participants reflect the spectrum of our movement—lay leaders, Rabbis, Cantors, students, teachers, children, elders, musicians, singers, dancers, artists—all sharing in this collective project.
In this workshop, Rabbi Lawson addresses the question, "What do our Jewish texts and values say about welcoming others into our communities?"
Amanda Beckenstein Mbuvi, Ph.D., has been named the next vice president for academic affairs at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College (RRC) outside Philadelphia. Mbuvi (she/her), a scholar of Hebrew Bible, brings to this role a wealth of academic, administrative and nonprofit leadership experience.
We’d like to share this video message for Passover 2021 from Rabbi Deborah Waxman, Ph.D., the president of Reconstructing Judaism.
In her presentiation, Rooted and Relevant: 21st Century Jewish Life, Rabbi Deborah Waxman, Ph.D., explores how Reconstructionist Judaism can lead the way in the post-COVID world toward a religious revival that meets this century's new realities.
On January 24, 2021, Reconstructionists gathered for a virtual day of learning entitled "God?: A Reconstructionist Conversation". Videos of the learning sessions are available below.
On November 8, 2020, we participated in the Global Day of Jewish Learning sponsored by Limmud-NA. The day's theme was "Human Dignity". Rabbis Sarra Lev and Micah Weiss presented lectures -- videos are includedhere.
On the brink of Shavuot, Rabbi Vivie Mayer shares insights into the concept of multiple intelligences as it applies to receiving Torah.
In this enriching conversation, Rabbi Deborah Waxman, Ph.D. and Rabbi Shmuly Yanklowitz, Ph.D. focus on the things that traditional and Reconstructionist Jews have in common, the challenges that social distancing is posing to community, and ways that Jewish practice can bolster resilience.
Usually, on Passover, we ask "How is this night different from all other nights?". This year, many of us are asking, "How does this Passover resemble any we’ve ever experienced?" While social distancing has seemingly changed everything, Passover is still about telling the story of going from oppression to freedom.
Video of Chautauqua Institution talk on Jewish views of Divine Justice (July 19, 2019)
Reconstructionist Jews are creating beautiful music. In this video, watch and listen to some of the musical highlights from our 2018 Convention and learn about Kolot Zimrah, a new online community where Reconstructionist musicians share their latest creations with the world.
“We accept the responsibility for changing and for changing this world. That is what people need to stay in hope. And without hope, there is no energy for no creative new solutions,” says Rabbi Amy Bernstein in this moving video, Tashlikh Reconstructed.
The Talmud tells us that God created repentance (teshuvah) before creating the physical world. As Billy Joel once sang, “we’re only human, we’re supposed to make mistakes.” It’s how we respond to mistakes, how we grow, that matters. This video explores the twin themes of teshuvah and gratitude (hakarat hatov.) Our tradition offers us practices that cultivate self-reflection and humility, relationship and repair. We hope these words offer some comfort and guidance as you undergo your own process of teshuvah and, in meaningful relationships with others, make Godliness present in the world.
In a brief video, Seth Rosen talks about the role Reconstructing Judaism plays in supporting and connecting Reconstructionist communities, and amplifying our collective Reconstructionist voice. Seth Rosen is chair of the board of governors of Reconstructing Judaism.
Annual reports from Reconstructing Judaism and RRC
In this Rosh Hashanah video message, Rabbi Deborah Waxman, president of Reconstructing Judaism, explores the ways in which remembering the past is crucial to moving forward into a sweet New Year.
Rabbi Shelly Barnathan, the 2017 Launch Grant recipient, is busy creating a co-constructed network of baby boomers and empty nesters, a commonly-overlooked generation within the Jewish community. Her project, Or Zarua, features "holy conversations" over coffee and musical Shabbat dinners.
At Rosh Hashanah, as we turn to new beginnings, we seek to repent—to do teshuvah—for what we have done wrong. And we can also affirmatively foster ourselves toward resilience—toward a thriving, loving outlook in spite of whatever challenges we encounter in life. In this video, I explore themes of resilience embedded into Jewish practice.
Video of first Reconstructionist Birthright trip, December 2016
Video and transcript of conversation on journalistic ethics and Jewish values
A powerful Reconstructionist message responding to recent acts of anti-Semitism, as well as inspiring examples of the best of humanity.
D'VAR TORAH
Genesis 41:1-44:17
Rabbi Jacob Staub discusses Parashat Miketz with Shmuel Rosner of the Jewish Journal of Los Angeles.
See our dreams for the Jewish future
In this webinar, we discuss “newsworthy” stories and how you can actively pitch an interesting story about your congregation to the media.
"Love of the Creator, and love of that which G!d has created, are finally one and the same," wrote Martin Buber. Defending this divine creation in an era of climate change is a Jewish (and social, political, and moral) imperative.
In this video, Rabbi Deborah Waxman offers a High Holiday message of hope in spite of the problems confronting the world and the personal travails we all face.
Promotional Video for Camp JRF (2016)
D'VAR TORAH
Exodus 19:1-20:23
Rabbi Jeffrey Schein has created this suite of educational resources on Jewish peoplehood, under the auspices of the Kaplan Center for Jewish Peoplehood.
Reconstructionist prayerbooks use an altered version of the blessing before reading Torah. We affirm Torah as our unique and precious Jewish vehicle for connection with the divine, while avoiding implications of superiority over other peoples and religions.
With few transgender role models, Rabbi Jacob Lieberman, ’15, faced harassment and bullying almost entirely alone growing up. As an adult, he found acceptance within the Reconstructionist community and from himself. In this d’var torah, Rabbi Lieberman shares how Jewish resources can help comfort those who struggle to find acceptance and wholeness.
RRC's 2015 Annual Report, in video format.
In this talk from the 2015 Global Day of Jewish Learning, Professor Joel Hecker discusses the diverse meanings ascribed to kissing in Jewish mystical literature.
