Rabbi's Column
Snapshots from Rabbinic Confab
April 2005

Lucky me. On a March Sunday afternoon, when I would otherwise have been shlepping my suitcase down from an airplane’s overhead compartment, I hopped into the car and drove the twenty-five miles from my house to the Pearlstone Retreat Center in Reisterstown, site of this year’s Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association convention.

Conventions are always stimulating. I return filled with ideas and energy, as well as tremendous appreciation for the work Reconstructionist rabbis are collectively doing in the world – collectively, that is, with our congregations and communities, with colleagues in other movements, and with people and organizations around the globe.

The convention began Sunday evening with the tremendous forcefulness and vitality of our keynote speaker, Ron Suskind, speaking on Religion in the Public Square. A Pulitzer prize-winning journalist who is a member of our sister congregation Adat Shalom in Bethesda, he authored the widely-discussed article "Faith, Certainty and the Presidency of George W. Bush" that appeared in the New York Times Magazine last October. And while his dramatic cadences echoed those of a Baptist preacher, his message had a secular component – pay attention to those in power, and remember that absolute power cannot prevail over moral authority.

Monday morning began with an excellent limud (study) session taught by Rabbi Nina Beth Cardin, Director of Jewish Life at Baltimore’s JCCs. We wrestled with the tension between law (torah) and land (sinai/Yisrael), through both a fast-paced and stimulating text study, and a creative brain-storming about new liturgies.

Three blocks of workshops dotted the schedule, with topics focusing on the practical aspects of our work. While most of the presenters (including myself) were RRA members, a few, like Carl Sheingold, the Executive Vice-President of the Jewish Reconstructionist Federation (JRF) were our most welcome guests and teachers.

Another one of those guest workshop presenters offered Monday evening’s fascinating talk. Ruth Calderon is the founder of several programs in Israel geared to sacred text study for secular Israelis. Ms. Calderon, now also finishing her doctorate in Talmud, described herself, and her youthful relationship to Judaism and yext study, in ways that many Diaspora Jews would find familiar. I was also tickled to learn that her first Talmud teacher, Ari Elon, was also my first Talmud teacher at RRC!

Many more sessions and activities filled the schedule of the three-day convention: Tefilla(prayer), small group discussions, the annual business meeting, the installation of our new association president, the presentation of the annual Ira Eisenstein service award (to Rabbi Sid Schwarz, founder of Adat Shalom and the service organization Panim), and more.

Just prior to the Mourner’s Kaddish at one of our daily services, Rabbi Yael Ridberg of the West End Synagogue in Manhattan paused to speak briefly about, and offer a memorial prayer for, Bill Mehlman z”l, a dedicated founder of the Reconstructionist movement. I was privileged to know Bill, and to benefit from his generosity – both of spirit and of means – as a supported of the college and a contributor to each and every initiative that is now represented by the movements three “branches,” the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College (RRC), the Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association (RRA), and the Jewish Reconstructionist Federation (JRF).

Bill was 94. It is truly breathtaking to contemplate how much we have grown since his efforts began, and how much so few of us (just over 200 rabbis and 100 affiliates!) are contributing to Jewish life, and lives.

I do hope that you are enjoying, and benefiting from, your connection to this vital enterprise. If you have not been receiving Reconstructionism Today, sent to every member household of a JRF affiliate, please let us know. Consider subscribing to The Reconstructionist: A Journal of Contemporary Jewish Thought and Practice, founded in 1935 by Kaplan. Be a regular visitor to the JRF web site, www.jrf.org, for stimulating ideas, weekly torah teachings, and access to many more resources.

As a member of a Reconstructionist congregation, you are part of a big web of people, ideas, thought and creativity. It is a true privilege to be able to bring those ideas into, and out of, our little shul.

Rabbi Elizabeth Bolton