What Would Astonish a Time Traveler From 1975 About Your Denomination Today?

RECONSTRUCTIONIST

In 1975, the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College had existed for only seven years. Mordechai Kaplan, however, the movement’s founder and one of American Judaism’s great thinkers, had been inspiring and angering people for a long time. He challenged the conventional role of women in Judaism by having his daughter become the first Bat Mitzvah in 1922. He challenged conventional theology and the idea of chosenness, which he saw as undemocratic. He wrote a new prayer book—an action that resulted in his excommunication by the Orthodox rabbinic establishment in 1945. He was committed to both American diaspora Judaism and Zionism, while warning against ultra-nationalism in both America and Israel. The attainment of Zionism, he wrote, must mean “ethical attainment; we cannot build our hopes of salvation on injustice to others.”

The Reconstructionist Rabbinical College opened its doors in 1968 and ordained its first woman student in 1974. In 1984, RRC was the first rabbinical school to adopt a non-discrimination policy to proudly accept gay and lesbian students. It has continued to strongly support the leadership of women and LGBTQ students and rabbis.

At each stage there were contemporaries who were astonished (or appalled). I think, however, our seasoned time traveler would not be astonished that the Reconstructionist movement today continues to provide a home for committed Jews who are asking difficult questions as they forge a meaningful Judaism lived out with integrity. Nor that there is a vibrant, difficult and important dialogue around Israel in the movement, one of the few places in Jewish life nowadays where people of so many different opinions are welcome to talk to and learn from each other.

Nor that the dialogue includes rabbis and lay people who, with great love for our people, are heartbroken over the ongoing killing of Palestinian civilians and reject the policy of devastation of Gaza in response to the horrific murders of Israeli civilians on October 7.

Of course, we disagree often, but we have a legacy of asking hard questions. And we are a denomination that is committed to living and growing Jewishly, with creativity, community and courage.

Rabbi Caryn Broitman
Martha’s Vineyard Hebrew Center
Vineyard Haven, MA