What is Reconstructionism Anyway?

An Elevator Answer by Rabbi Richard Hirsh

Imagine you get stuck in an elevator.

Once assured that assistance is on its way, you begin to shmooze with the other person with whom you are stuck.

Within minutes you discover you are both Jewish.

She asks, “What synagogue do you go to?”

And you say, “A Reconstructionist synagogue.”

And then it happens, the moment so many Reconstructionists dread:

“Oh! What IS Reconstructionism anyway?”

Don’t push the “emergency” button!

While not every Reconstructionist should be responsible for parsing the fine points of the philosophy and program of Mordecai Kaplan, we should all be able to offer a brief, fundamental explanation of our own movement. Here is what I have come to call my “elevator answer.”

• Reconstructionist Judaism, developed in the writings of Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan, began in the 1930s as the left wing of Conservative Judaism, and emerged as a separate fourth movement with the opening of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College in 1968.
   
• Reconstructionist Judaism differs from other approaches in seeing Jewish culture, religion and tradition as having been created by the Jewish people throughout history, rather than given by God at Mount Sinai; we see our tradition as having grown from the ground up, and not from the (mountain-) top down.
   
• Reconstructionist communities are characterized by a high degree of participation in communal decision making, by a spirit of inclusivity and informality, and by a balance between respect for tradition and responsiveness to contemporary needs.

Of course there is more to say
— but let's hope that by then the elevator is moving.

From the Winter 2004/2005 issue of Reconstructionism Today
Rabbi Richard Hirsh is Executive Director of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association and editor of The Reconstructionist.