College News
Below, you’ll find a list of all news and blog posts on the site in reverse chronological order.
Recent News
“We are all accountable for the violence that happens at our borders,” Katz said. “Showing up for others is actually an action you can do in a world that feels powerless.”
Keynote speakers included Rabbi Rachel Weiss of Evanston’s Jewish Reconstructionist Congregation. Weiss was raised in Evanston and said she is the town’s first lesbian rabbi. “I came back after college and my wife and I got married here in Evanston at the synagogue where I am now rabbi,” Weiss said.
“I was very interested in Kaplan’s approach to Judaism as an evolving religious civilization, and the idea that it is a manifestation of Jews and what we believe and how we believe, not the other way around. It is not that we are Torah, and therefore we are Jews. It is more that we are Jews, and therefore there is Torah.”
A graduate of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College with a specialization in the congregational rabbinate, Sklover said she identifies with the strong sense of community and inclusion that the Or Hadash congregation cultivates.
“Parts of it feels radically different,” said Lily Solochek, a rabbinical student who began studying at the Conservative movement’s Jewish Theological Seminary and is now a student at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College.
The Philadelphia Inquirer reports on Never Again Action’s July 2019 demonstrations against refugee detainment camps, featuring rabbinical student Lizzie Horn.
This video recounts a pre-rabbinical school experience of Rabbi Ora Nitkin-Kaner, who graduated in 2016.
The first thing you should know about Rabbi Ariana Katz is that she’s a total badass. She’s a founding rabbi of Hinenu: The Baltimore Justice Shtiebel, a radical Jewish collective (check out their website). She’s worked at T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights and even as a chaplain at Planned Parenthood.
Rabbi Alex Weissman is the senior Jewish educator at Brown RISD Hillel, where he says he has the pleasure of drinking a lot of coffee and learning a lot of Torah with and from his students. He agreed to answer a few questions as part of Jewish Rhode Island’s ongoing effort to introduce community leaders.
Rabbi Nancy Fuchs Kreimer, Ph.D., a longtime faculty member of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College who founded the institution’s multifaith studies department, has published a new book, Strangers, Neighbors, Friends: Muslim-Christian-Jewish Reflections on Compassion and Peace.
Rabbi Sandra Lawson, ’18, who serves as associate chaplain for Jewish life and Jewish educator at Elon University in North Carolina, was recently featured in an in-depth video segment produced by Elon News Network, the university’s student-run organization.
Rabbi Amy Bernstein was installed on January 16, 2019 as the president of The Board of Rabbis of Southern California for a two-year term.
Rabbi Alex Lazarus-Klein, a 2004 graduate who serves Congregation Shir Shalom near Buffalo, has been named to the board of Hillel of Buffalo.
2018 Graduate Rabbi Sandra Lawson was recognized in JTA’s Twitter 50 list this year.
Rabbi Mychal Copeland, RRC ‘00, reflects on the security provided by deep connection.
Reconstructing Judaism and the Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association mourn the devastating losses that a white nationalist domestic terrorist inflicted upon the Jewish community this past Shabbat morning at Tree of Life - Or L’Simcha Congregation in Pittsburgh. Included among the dead and wounded are members of our affiliate, Congregation Dor Hadash, which meets there.
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.
Rabbi Mordecai Liebling joined with labor and faith leaders in support of immigrants in an August 15 rally in Philadelphia that drew thousands.
Congregation Kehilat Shalom, a Reconstructionist congregation in Belle Mead, has appointed Rabbi Jacob Best Adler, a graduate of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College. As a student, Adler co-wrote “The Hamilton Haggadah” with a classmate. The two rewrote Lin-Manuel Miranda’s famous songs to tell the story of Moses leading the Israelites out of Egypt. The project went viral the week before Passover in 2016, and received national media coverage.
In her position as the newly installed rabbi of West End Synagogue, a Reconstructionist congregation on the Upper West Side, Kennebrae aims to challenge notions of what a Jew looks like.
